Interior Painting: Ceilings, Walls & Trim
Your ceiling, walls, and trim make up the majority of most interior painting projects. Below, you’ll find our pricing for a standard room, what’s included, and factors that can affect the final cost.
When estimating painting costs, you primarily measure wall square footage, not floor space. You’ll need to calculate the area of all the walls to be painted, including the height and width of each wall. While some trim and other details might be measured in linear feet, the main area calculation is based on wall square footage. The total square footage of the walls in a 12×12 room is 384 square feet. So when measuring a room you are painting 384 square feet on a single coat and 768 square feet on a full two coats.
Our Standard Room
We define a standard room as:
- 12 x 12 x 9 ft or smaller
- No more than two doors and two standard windows (bay windows are a bit extra)
- Walls painted in light/neutral colors
- Ceiling and trim already painted white
- Room is emptied of all furniture
ALL PRICES ARE BASED ON A COMPLETELY EMPTY ROOM. WE DO NOT MOVE FURNITURE. If items cannot be removed, additional charges may apply.
Base Pricing
- Walls: $225 (two coats, edged and rolled)
- Ceiling: $95 (one coat)
- Baseboards: $55 (one coat white)
When Prices Increase
Kitchens
Require more handwork around cabinets, appliances, and fixtures, plus surface cleaning. Typical range: $225–$300.
Bathrooms
Small hall baths: $225–$250. Larger master baths: up to $300. Factors include tight spaces, ‘toilet rooms’ and multiple fixtures.
High Ceilings & Two-Story Spaces
- Anything over 12 ft requires two painters (insurance requirement) and special equipment.
- Two-story great rooms, foyers, atriums and the such generally start at $1,400 (includes scaffolding, setup, teardown).
- Stairwells: $225–$400 depending on layout and flooring type.
These are typically the most expensive areas we do however there is always a very high risk involved in these projects due to the height, progress much slower than normal rules and require a lot of special tool and equipment use to complete these areas safely and with our own scaffolding do not have to deal with the high costs of per day and hourly rentals.
A Room Must Be Completely Empty
Clients must remove as many items as possible. Items left in place can increase labor time and cost and carry risk. For more info on why https://paintsaintlouis.com/emptyrooms/
Larger Rooms
Extra square footage adds time but may be balanced with smaller areas. Height over 10–12 ft is the main cost driver.
Closets
Closets are NOT included in your basic room price and can vary greatly in price due to size however a simple coat closet might run $10-20 for a single coat of white where a walk in type closet being painted two coats (needed for ALL colors) starts around $175. They are generally based on size, how much shelving, brackets and such are present and how many coats of paint are needed.
Other Price Factors
- Extra coats for dark/vibrant colors
- Textured walls/ceilings – this can include sand textures, plaster textures, orange peel, knockdown textures and similar
- Primer coats
- Stain or smoke damage
Stairwells
Start at a standard room price and increase for special prep (e.g., carpet meeting drywall) or extra height requiring special equipment.
Trim Work
- Baseboards: $55 (tile/hardwood), $55–$60 (carpet)
- Chair rails: from $55
- Crown molding: from $65
- Prices assume already-painted surfaces and one coat. Stained or oil-based surfaces require extra prep, similar to cabinet painting.
Special Work Hours Or Requirements
- As all work is based on a flat rate system and not by the hour we generally choose to work to a set goal each day and in occupied residential homes have found we can generally guarantee completion of a room each work day if began by 10 am can be done by 1-2 pm and fully back to service by 4 meaning the room can be put back to use the same day. This usually means 4-5 hours on site per day. In empty jobs we generally work longer hours as there is more space at once we can complete so no standing around watching the paint dry. In some cases however a customer may have specific requests per the time or hours worked per day which can change the aspects of how we calculate the prices. In those cases we may change to a per hour billing format at $50/hr for anything up to eight hours and $75 an hour for all work over eight hours. This may be needed if there is an urgent or set deadline for a project completion.
What’s Included
Labor and all standard tools/materials (except paint): tarps, plastic, tape, masking paper, brushes, rollers, buckets, screens, ladders, and one roll of painter’s tape per room.
Customer purchases paint separately through our Sherwin-Williams commercial account and receives our full discount on their entire product line, including primers and sealers.
Minor prep (small hole filling, light caulking) is included. Large repairs (nail pops, cracks, holes, tv mounts) are extra. We do NOT do substantial drywall repairs but can recommend a mud/tape contractor as well as one that can float walls.
Price Comparison
We reviewed our pricing using very popular home improvement site Homewyze using their calculator to price the range of costs associated with painting just the walls in a standard 12 x 12 room in our zip code and it’s crazy but these are current normal going rates for pro painting now. With paint a single coat walls only paint job runs $500 – $1000 now. With standard grade Sherwin products (they retail for about $75 a gal), all the labor and materials… we can do the same space for just a bit over 300 total and on average a full hour quicker!
Service Area & Travel
Prices apply within our standard service area (within 45 minutes of St. Louis Metro). This includes Jefferson County, eastern Franklin County, southern St. Charles, western St. Louis County (south of I-70), central St. Louis County, south St. Louis City, and parts of St. Clair and Monroe Counties. Outside areas may have a travel fee.
Pricing effective October 2025
