Cost to Paint a House Interior (and How to Estimate It)

What it typically costs to paint the inside of a house, per square foot and per room, and a step-by-step way to estimate your own home.

Painting the whole interior of a house is a bigger project than painting one room, and the price is driven mostly by labor. Knowing the paintable area lets you sanity-check any quote you get.

Here are typical ranges and a simple way to estimate your own house.

Typical costs (US, 2026)

• Per square foot of floor space: roughly $2–$6 for walls, more if ceilings, trim and doors are included.
• A 1,500 sq ft home: roughly $3,000–$9,000 professionally.
• A 2,500 sq ft home: roughly $5,000–$15,000 professionally.
• DIY: mostly paint and supplies, often $600–$2,000 for a whole house.

These are wide ballpark ranges. Regional labor rates, ceiling heights, prep work and finish choices move the price a lot.

How to estimate it room by room

1. List every room, with length, width and wall height.
2. Run each room through the paint calculator: walls, ceiling if needed, coats.
3. Add up the paintable area and paint needed.
4. Multiply the area by a local labor rate per square foot of wall, then add paint and supplies.

How to lower the cost

• Keep the same color in hallways and connected rooms. Fewer color changes means fewer coats.
• Do the prep yourself: move furniture, patch holes and take off outlet covers.
• Paint ceilings only where they actually need it.
• Buy paint in 5-gallon buckets for large areas. It's usually cheaper per gallon.

For painters, the Paint Calculator & Estimator app builds the whole house as one job with multiple rooms, adds labor and mark-up, and exports the quote as a PDF.