Interior painting cost calculator
Painting a 12×12 room costs about $640–$1,600 in 2026 for a full repaint — walls, baseboard, and a door — and $500–$1,115 (typical near $730) for walls alone at mid-grade rates of $1.30–$2.90 per sq ft of wall. Scope is the swing factor: ceilings, trim, and doors each carry their own published rate, and dropping to one coat saves about 35%, not half. Rates cross-reference BLS painter wages and 2026 cost guides.
Price one room or a whole home interior: walls, ceilings, trim, and doors, each at its own published rate. You get a low / typical / high range — and the line-by-line worksheet behind it, so you can challenge any assumption.
Last reviewed 2026-07-22 · pricing data as of 2026-07 · how we build these numbers
How this estimate is built
The calculator does exactly four things, in the open:
- Wall area. In single-room mode it's plain geometry: 2 × (length + width) × ceiling height, gross — we don't deduct door and window openings, which roughly offsets the extra cut-in labor they cause. In whole-home mode, paintable wall area is floor area × 2.5, scaled by ceiling height ÷ 8. That 2.5 factor is derived, not surveyed, and we show the derivation: a 12 × 12 × 8 room has 384 sq ft of gross wall over 144 sq ft of floor (factor 2.67); net of one door and one window it drops to about 2.42. We use 2.5 — a touch under the 2.545 midpoint of those two, so whole-home wall area is called slightly low rather than slightly high.
- Per-item rates. Walls carry a low / typical / high rate per square foot that shifts with paint grade ($1.30–$2.90 mid-grade). Ceilings price at $1.00–$2.75 per sq ft, trim and baseboards at $1.10–$3.40 per linear foot, and doors at $90–$320 each — labor and materials included, from the sources below.
- Coats. Every cited rate assumes two coats. Choosing one coat applies a 0.65 factor — a 35% saving, not 50%, because prep, masking, and setup don't scale with coats.
- Sum. The four line items are added, the coat factor applied, and each band rounded to whole dollars. Nothing else is added — no hidden "project minimums" or lead-generation padding.
Data sources
Labor basis: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, painters (occupation 47-2141) — national median $23.75/hr, series OEUN000000000000047214108. Installed rates cross-referenced against Homewyse calculators (May 2026), Angi and HomeGuide 2026 guides; retail paint shelf prices (Home Depot) retrieved 2026-07-04. Pricing data as of 2026-07. See methodology for the full trail.
Interior painting rates by item
These are the exact bands the calculator applies — installed cost, two coats, labor and paint included:
| Item | Unit | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walls — economy paint | per sq ft of wall | $1.00 | $1.50 | $2.20 |
| Walls — mid-grade paint | per sq ft of wall | $1.30 | $1.90 | $2.90 |
| Walls — premium paint | per sq ft of wall | $1.70 | $2.40 | $3.60 |
| Ceilings | per sq ft | $1.00 | $1.75 | $2.75 |
| Trim & baseboards | per linear ft | $1.10 | $2.00 | $3.40 |
| Doors (both sides, incl. casing) | each | $90 | $175 | $320 |
Paint grade only moves the wall rate; ceilings, trim, and doors price the same regardless of the wall paint you pick.
What a 12 × 12 room costs to paint
The benchmark bedroom — 12 × 12 with 8 ft ceilings — carries 384 sq ft of wall. At mid-grade rates that's roughly $500–$1,115 for walls alone, about $730 typical, which sits comfortably against the $400–$950 walls-only range Angi published for 2026 (their reported average is about $624). A more realistic full-room job adds the rest: 48 ft of baseboard runs $50–$165, the ceiling adds $145–$395, and each door with its casing adds $90–$320. Run the room in the calculator with the ceiling included — its default — and you'll typically land between $785 and $1,995; skip the ceiling and the same room runs about $640–$1,600. Either way the worksheet shows which line item is driving your number.
Painting a 1,500 sq ft home interior
Whole-home mode converts 1,500 sq ft of paintable floor area into about 3,750 sq ft of wall. At mid-grade rates the walls alone run $4,875–$10,875, about $7,125 typical. Check the ceilings box and the total climbs to roughly $6,375–$15,000 — an effective $4.25–$10.00 per floor square foot, which brackets the $2–$6 per square foot Angi quotes for wall-area-based pricing once you account for the wall-to-floor conversion. Two honest caveats: whole-home repaints in occupied houses run slower (furniture, floor protection) than the same footage empty, and the estimate assumes you're painting all of that floor area — if the basement and closets are staying as-is, reduce the input, not the output.
Painting cost by room and home size
The same wall math, worked for common sizes — walls only, mid-grade paint:
| Space | Wall area | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 × 10 room | 320 sq ft | $415 | $610 | $930 |
| 10 × 12 room | 352 sq ft | $460 | $670 | $1,020 |
| 12 × 12 room | 384 sq ft | $500 | $730 | $1,115 |
| 12 × 16 room | 448 sq ft | $580 | $850 | $1,300 |
| 15 × 20 room | 560 sq ft | $730 | $1,065 | $1,625 |
| 1,000 sq ft home interior | 2,500 sq ft | $3,250 | $4,750 | $7,250 |
| 1,500 sq ft home interior | 3,750 sq ft | $4,875 | $7,125 | $10,875 |
| 2,000 sq ft home interior | 5,000 sq ft | $6,500 | $9,500 | $14,500 |
Basis: mid-grade wall rates of $1.30–$2.90 per sq ft ($1.90 typical), two coats, 8 ft ceilings. Room rows use the calculator's single-room geometry — 2 × (length + width) × 8 ft of wall, rounded to the nearest $5; home rows use whole-home mode's floor area × 2.5 wall factor. Ceilings, trim, and doors add on at the rates in the table above.
Ceilings, trim, and doors price separately — and should
Painters don't price ceilings, baseboards, and doors by lumping them into a wall rate, and neither do we. Ceilings cost $1.00–$2.75 per sq ft because everything happens overhead: cutting in against walls, covering everything below, and dealing with texture. Trim and baseboards run $1.10–$3.40 per linear foot because brushwork on profiled surfaces is slow, and most trim is glossy — which means sanding and often a bonding primer when you switch sheens. Doors are the sleeper line item at $90–$320 each including the frame: a six-panel door has more edges and profiles than a whole wall. If a bid you receive shows one blended number for all of this, ask for the split — it's the only way to compare bids that scope the job differently.
What can move your real price outside this range
- Surface condition — drywall repairs, water stains, and smoke damage are priced as separate prep, not included in these rates beyond light filling and sanding.
- Color changes — going dark-to-light (or the reverse) can force a primer coat plus two finish coats; keep the two-coat setting and expect the high band.
- Regional labor — the national median painter wage is $23.75/hr, but state medians run from about $19.28 (Arkansas) to $32.80 (Hawaii) in the same BLS series; coastal metros commonly land 15–30% above the typical band.
- Height and access — stairwells, two-story foyers, and 10 ft ceilings add ladder and scaffold time beyond the simple area scaling we apply.
- Occupied rooms — moving and covering furniture adds hours; empty homes between owners price near the low band.
Before you sign anything, get at least three written bids and compare them line by line — our quote checklist was written for roofing, but the itemization rules apply to any trade. If your painting project is part of a bigger kitchen refresh, see whether painting your cabinets instead of replacing them changes the budget math. And if you're pricing several projects at once, the roof replacement calculator works the same way this one does: published rates, visible worksheet. Repainting the siding outside as well? The same worksheet approach covers exterior walls, starting from your home's footprint and siding type instead of room dimensions.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to paint a 12x12 room?
A 12x12 room with 8 ft ceilings has about 384 sq ft of wall. At mid-grade rates of $1.30–$2.90 per sq ft, the walls alone run roughly $500–$1,115, with about $730 typical — consistent with the $400–$950 walls-only range Angi published for 2026. Add roughly $50–$165 for 48 ft of baseboard and $90–$320 per door, and a full repaint lands near $640–$1,600.
What does ceiling painting cost per square foot?
Plan on $1.00–$2.75 per sq ft with $1.75 typical, based on Homewyse May 2026 data ($1.37–$2.95) and Angi/HomeGuide 2026 guides ($1–$2). A 12x12 ceiling adds about $145–$395. Smooth ceilings in empty rooms price near the low end; popcorn texture, water stains, or 10 ft heights push toward the high end.
What do painters charge for trim and baseboards per linear foot?
About $1.10–$3.40 per linear foot, with $2.00 typical. Angi and HomeGuide both publish $1–$4 for 2026, and Homewyse's May 2026 trim-molding figure is $1.60–$3.39. Measure the perimeter of each room, subtract door openings, and count crown molding as separate footage if you have it.
How do I estimate painting garage walls and a ceiling?
Use single-room mode with the garage's floor dimensions. A 20x20 two-car garage with 9 ft ceilings has 720 sq ft of wall plus a 400 sq ft ceiling — about $1,350–$3,200 at mid-grade rates, roughly $2,050 typical. If the drywall is bare, budget the high band: unprimed surfaces absorb more paint and usually need a primer coat first.
Does one coat really cut the price by a third?
Roughly, yes — our one-coat factor is 0.65. Prep, masking, cut-in, and setup do not scale with the number of coats, and labor is 65–75% of an interior job per Angi's 2026 data, so dropping a coat saves about 35%, not 50%. One coat only holds up for same-color refreshes on walls in good condition; any color change needs two.