How much does it cost to paint a standard bedroom?

Around £250–£450 with a professional decorator — walls, ceiling and woodwork, standard trade paint included, assuming the room is in reasonable condition. Some directories quote higher averages, and London and the South East run 20–35% above the national range.

What do painters and decorators charge per day?

Most decorators charge £150–£250 a day outside London and £250–£350 in London for labour, with paint on top. One major directory gives its national average as £300 in one place and £325 in another, so quotes genuinely vary — get two or three before committing.

How long does it take to paint a room?

A standard bedroom in good condition takes a professional about one to one-and-a-half days including preparation and clean-up. A box room or bathroom can be done in four to seven hours; heavy prep — stripping wallpaper, filling, priming fresh plaster — pushes any room to two or three days.

How much does it cost to paint a whole house interior?

The guides disagree widely: a 3-bed house interior runs anywhere from around £2,000–£3,000 at the budget end of the estimates to £3,400–£4,800 quoted by working decorators, and higher still on some directories. Expect five to seven days' work for one decorator, or one to two weeks with a bigger property. Painting several rooms in one visit always works out cheaper per room than booking them separately.

Should I pay a decorator a deposit?

For a one-or-two-day decorating job, little or no deposit is the norm — Citizens Advice says never agree to more than 25% on any home improvement work, and consumer guidance is that established traders rarely need money up front for small jobs. If materials are the reason given, offer to buy the paint yourself. Pay by card where you can, and get a written quote — a quote is a binding price, an estimate is not.

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How much does it cost to paint a room? Honest UK prices

13 August 2026 · Robert McLaggan

Having a room professionally painted in the UK typically costs £180–£300 for a box room or bathroom, £250–£450 for a standard bedroom, and £400–£700 for a living room — walls, ceiling and woodwork, with standard trade paint included. Decorators' day rates run £150–£250 outside London and £250–£350 in it, though one major directory gives its national average as £300 in one place and £325 in another, so expect quotes to vary. The price movers are preparation (40–60% of the labour on older walls), colour changes that need a third coat, premium paint brands (£100–£300 extra per room), and whether the room is cleared. A standard room takes a professional one to one-and-a-half days including prep.

Ask three decorators to price the same bedroom and you can get three genuinely different numbers — and the online guides are no more united. Here are the honest 2026 figures, why they vary, and the parts of the quote worth understanding before you compare anyone.

The going rates

For a professional job — walls, ceiling and woodwork, standard trade paint included, room in reasonable condition:

Box room or bathroom: £180–£300
Standard bedroom: £250–£450
Large bedroom: £350–£550
Living room: £400–£700, with large or open-plan spaces £600–£1,000
Kitchen: £250–£600 (less wall, more cutting-in)
Hall, stairs and landing: £875–£1,330 — the access makes it the priciest "room" in the house

Worth knowing: the big directories don't agree with each other. One puts a medium room at £450 and gives its national day rate as both £300 and £325 on the same page; another puts a standard bedroom at £260–£400 on a £150–£250 day rate. Neither is lying — they're averaging different decorators, different room definitions and different regions. London and the South East run 20–35% above all of these ranges. The practical answer is the boring one: get two or three quotes, for the same clearly-described scope.

What decorators charge per day

Outside London: £150–£250 a day is the going range
London: £250–£350, with the top of the market above £400

A rough benchmark when you're reading a quote: one price guide says most decorators cover about 40m² of wall a day. It gives no source and doesn't say whether that includes prep, so use it loosely. A standard bedroom is a day to a day and a half; a box room is an afternoon. If a quote implies much more time than that, ask what prep they've spotted that you haven't.

What actually moves the price

Preparation — the big one. On older properties prep is often the larger part of the job: washing down, filling cracks, sanding. One price guide puts it at 40–60% of the labour, though nobody has published a measurement. Add £50–£150 a room for meaningful filling and sanding, £100–£300 for stripping wallpaper, and £150–£200 per wall if plaster needs a proper skim. Cheap quotes usually mean skipped prep — which is exactly where paint jobs fail a year later.
Fresh plaster. New plaster has to be dry and properly primed before the finish goes on, typically £80–£150 a room. The familiar way is a mist coat — the first coat thinned per the manufacturer's instructions — but a specified drywall primer-sealer is an equally legitimate route, and the paint maker's own system is what decides which. What should worry you is a decorator going straight onto fresh plaster with neat finish paint and no priming step at all. If fine cracks show in new plaster later, what they mean depends on where they are.
Colour. Deep blues, greens and charcoals often need three coats whatever the tin promises, adding 15–25% to the labour. Going from dark to light does the same.
The paint itself. At list prices on 3 October 2026, white trade emulsion runs about £5–£8 a litre in big tins, and tinted or durable finishes £14–£20. Farrow & Ball's emulsions list at about £20–£26 a litre: £103 for a 5-litre tin, against £27 for white trade vinyl matt and about £70 for a tinted one. If you want a premium colour on a trade budget, most decorators can colour-match it in trade paint — ask.
Furniture. Decorators price for cleared rooms. Leaving the furniture in adds £20–£50 a room, and slows everything.
Ceiling height. Standard 2.4m ceilings are in every price above; 3m+ period ceilings take longer per coat and sometimes carry an access charge.

If you're doing it yourself, a standard bedroom costs about £65–£135 in paint and kit at trade-paint prices. With standard trade paint, paint is a small part of a professional job's price — one guide puts it at 10–15% — and what you're really buying is the prep and the edges.

How the money should work

For a one-or-two-day job, the norms are simple: little or no deposit, payment on completion, by card where possible. Citizens Advice's ceiling for any home-improvement deposit is 25% — and for a job this size, established decorators rarely ask for anything up front. If materials are the stated reason, offering to buy the paint yourself solves it.

Two pieces of paper matter more than the deposit conversation:

A written quote, not an estimate. A quote is a binding price; an estimate is a guess. For a defined scope — this room, these surfaces, this paint — there's no reason not to have a quote.
A proper invoice at the end. It records what was agreed and what you paid, which is the evidence you'd need if something goes wrong — but it isn't a warranty. A guarantee is a separate promise with its own scope and length, so if one is being offered, get it in writing alongside the invoice rather than assuming the invoice is it. Paying by card also gives you a route a cash-in-hand deal never will: chargeback, and on a credit card over £100 a section 75 claim against the lender. Both have grounds, evidence and deadlines attached — they're a route worth having, not an automatic refund.

The red flags are the classics: doorstep "we're in the area" approaches, cash-only pricing, a mobile number and no address, and pressure to decide today. A decorator with a diary worth having doesn't need any of them.

Common questions

How much does it cost to paint a standard bedroom?: Around £250–£450 with a professional decorator — walls, ceiling and woodwork, standard trade paint included, assuming the room is in reasonable condition. Some directories quote higher averages, and London and the South East run 20–35% above the national range.
What do painters and decorators charge per day?: Most decorators charge £150–£250 a day outside London and £250–£350 in London for labour, with paint on top. One major directory gives its national average as £300 in one place and £325 in another, so quotes genuinely vary — get two or three before committing.
How long does it take to paint a room?: A standard bedroom in good condition takes a professional about one to one-and-a-half days including preparation and clean-up. A box room or bathroom can be done in four to seven hours; heavy prep — stripping wallpaper, filling, priming fresh plaster — pushes any room to two or three days.
How much does it cost to paint a whole house interior?: The guides disagree widely: a 3-bed house interior runs anywhere from around £2,000–£3,000 at the budget end of the estimates to £3,400–£4,800 quoted by working decorators, and higher still on some directories. Expect five to seven days' work for one decorator, or one to two weeks with a bigger property. Painting several rooms in one visit always works out cheaper per room than booking them separately.
Should I pay a decorator a deposit?: For a one-or-two-day decorating job, little or no deposit is the norm — Citizens Advice says never agree to more than 25% on any home improvement work, and consumer guidance is that established traders rarely need money up front for small jobs. If materials are the reason given, offer to buy the paint yourself. Pay by card where you can, and get a written quote — a quote is a binding price, an estimate is not.

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