Painting Cost Calculator
The paint is cheap. The labour is where the money goes.
Estimate what it costs to paint the inside of your home: how many litres of paint you need for the walls (and ceiling), and what the job comes to two ways — doing it yourself in materials, or hiring a painter at an all-in per-square-metre rate — with coats, coverage, primer, doors, windows and trims, all in metric at Australian 2026 rates.
Estimates from your room size and typical AU rates — painting prices vary, so confirm scope and price with itemised quotes.
How the painting cost is worked out
Paintable area → litres → DIY vs a painter
The calculator finds your paintable area — the walls (the room's perimeter times the ceiling height) less the doors and windows, plus the ceiling if you include it. It turns that into litres of paint: area × number of coats ÷ practical coverage. Then it prices the job two ways. DIY is the paint plus sundries — rollers, brushes, tape and drop sheets. Hiring a painter uses an all-in per-square-metre rate that already includes their paint, prep and labour, with the ceiling and any trims added on. The paint itself is cheap; the labour is where the money goes.
Worked example
A 4×4 m bedroom with 2.4 m ceilings has about 38 m² of wall; take off a door and a window and you're painting roughly 35 m². Two coats at a practical 12 m²/L is about 6 litres — around $175 in mid-range paint, or about $260 all-in once you add rollers, tape and drop sheets. A painter for that single room would be roughly $400–700 once a call-out minimum is counted — more if you add the ceiling and trims.
Paint, coverage, coats and primer
How far does a litre go? Tins advertise up to 16 m²/L, but that's a smooth, sealed, second-coat figure. In the real world — first coats over new plasterboard, patched or porous walls, or a big colour change — you get closer to 12 m²/L, which is what this calculator uses by default so you don't run short mid-wall.
- Coats — two top coats is standard. Add one primer or undercoat coat on new, bare or heavily patched surfaces, or a dramatic colour change. Primer covers about 14 m²/L.
- Budget / trade — ~$14/L (ceiling white and trade whites). Fine for ceilings and low-wear rooms.
- Mid — ~$30/L (quality wash-and-wear, cheaper by the 10–15 L tin). The everyday choice for living areas and bedrooms.
- Premium — ~$45/L and up (designer, ceramic, high-wash). Covers and washes better; worth it in high-traffic or wet areas.
Buying the bigger 10–15 L tins drops the per-litre price, so it pays to work out your total litres before you shop. And primer isn't always needed — a sound, similar-coloured repaint in a self-priming wash-and-wear usually does the job in its two coats. Save the separate primer coat for new plasterboard, bare timber or plaster, patched areas, or dark-to-light changes.
DIY vs a painter — and getting a real quote
Doing it yourself
The paint for a room is rarely more than a couple of hundred dollars, so DIY is almost always cheaper — labour is roughly half a professional job. Painting 100 m² of wall yourself is about 17 litres (say $300–600 in paint) plus sundries, against $1,800–6,000 for a painter — a saving of about $2,400–5,400. What you're really trading is your time, the prep (filling and sanding is most of the work) and a tidy cutting-in line.
What a painter charges
Interior painters commonly quote $18–60/m² all-in — paint, prep and two coats — often around $30/m², or roughly $45–90 an hour. Ceilings are about $20/m² and trims $80–150 an item. A whole 3-bedroom interior typically lands between $4,500 and $9,000. Note that per-m² rates assume a whole-house job: a single room carries a call-out minimum, so one room works out dearer per square metre than the headline rate suggests.
Getting an accurate quote
Get at least three itemised quotes for the same scope — the same rooms, coats, ceilings, trims and colour change — and check each says whether it includes the paint, prep, filling, two coats and cleaning up. A big spread between quotes usually means the painters have priced different scopes, not that one is a bargain.
❓ Frequently asked Frequently asked questions
How much paint do I need?
Work it out from the paintable area: the walls (the room's perimeter times the ceiling height, less doors and windows) plus the ceiling if you're painting it, then multiply by the number of coats and divide by the paint's practical coverage. Tins claim about 16 m²/L, but 12 m²/L is more realistic once you allow for first coats, porous plasterboard and cutting in. A 4×4 m bedroom has roughly 35 m² of wall, so two coats at 12 m²/L is about 6 litres.
How much does it cost to paint a room?
For a single bedroom, DIY materials are roughly $200–300 — about 6 litres of mid-range paint plus rollers, tape and drop sheets. A painter for one room is commonly $400–700 once a call-out minimum is counted, and more with the ceiling and trims. A whole 3-bedroom interior is about $1,000–1,300 in DIY materials or roughly $4,500–9,000 professionally. These are 2026 market ranges — always get quotes.
Is it cheaper to paint it myself?
Almost always, because labour is where the money goes — often around half a professional job. Painting 100 m² of wall yourself is about 17 litres of paint (roughly $300–600) plus sundries, against $1,800–6,000 for a painter, so DIY can save $2,400–5,400. The trade-off is your time, the prep and cutting in neatly, so weigh the saving against the size of the job.
How many coats and do I need primer?
Two top coats is standard over a sound, similar-coloured wall. Add a primer or undercoat on new plasterboard, bare timber or plaster, heavily patched areas, or a big colour change — it seals the surface and evens absorption. Primer covers about 14 m²/L. A self-priming wash-and-wear paint can skip a separate primer on a straightforward repaint.
What does a painter charge per m²?
Interior painters commonly quote $18–60/m² all-in (paint, prep and two coats), often around $30/m², or roughly $45–90 an hour. Ceilings run about $20/m² and trims — doors, skirting and architraves — $80–150 an item. Per-m² rates assume a whole-house job; a single room carries a call-out minimum, so it works out dearer per square metre.
Does it include ceilings and trims?
Yes, if you add them. Turn on "include the ceiling" and the calculator adds the room's floor area (a 4×4 m room adds 16 m²) at ceiling paint, and for a painter the ceiling rate. Trims are priced per item — set how many doors, skirting runs or architraves you're painting at $80–150 each. Leave them off for a walls-only estimate.
Where these figures come from
There's no single official price for painting a room — it depends on the surface, the paint, the number of coats and who does the work. The figures here are 2026 market-survey ranges drawn from typical Australian paint pricing and painting-trade rates; they are approximate and job-dependent, not a quote.
- Coverage & litres — a practical 12 m²/L per coat. Paint tins (Dulux, Taubmans and similar) quote up to about 16 m²/L for a sealed second coat, but real first coats over new or porous surfaces get less; primer about 14 m²/L. This mirrors the method behind manufacturer paint calculators such as Dulux's.
- Paint prices — budget/trade about $14/L, mid wash-and-wear about $30/L, premium $45/L and up, based on Bunnings and paint-shop retail pricing (cheaper again by the 10–15 L tin).
- Painter rates — $18–60/m² all-in (commonly ~$30/m²), ceilings ~$20/m², $45–90/hr, and trims $80–150 an item, from Australian painting trade guides and quote aggregators.
- Whole-house — a 3-bedroom interior typically $4,500–9,000 professionally, with labour about half the total.
Last checked: July 2026. All prices are indicative market ranges and vary by region, surface, paint and job size. This is a planning estimate — always get at least three itemised quotes for the same scope before you commit.
Select the question that matches where you are right now.
The headline number is the estimated cost of your paint job in the mode you chose: doing it yourself in materials, or hiring a painter all-in. The breakdown shows your paintable area, the litres of paint, and both totals side by side so you can see what the labour is worth.
Use it to set a budget and sanity-check the quotes you get. If a painter's quote lands well above the all-in figure here, ask what's included — extra prep, more coats, ceilings, trims or a colour change all move the price.
It's not a fixed quote or a colour plan. It doesn't judge how much prep your walls need, how many coats a dark-to-light change takes, or access on stairwells and high ceilings — those come from seeing the rooms.
The paint is the same either way; the gap between the two totals is almost all labour. That's why a room you can paint for a couple of hundred dollars in materials costs several times that to have done for you.
Four things move a paint job's cost the most: the area, the number of coats, the paint grade, and whether you or a painter does the work.
Bigger rooms, higher ceilings and the ceiling itself all add square metres. Doors and windows come off — a door is about 1.6 m², a window about 1.5 m² — so a room with lots of glazing needs less paint.
Two coats is standard; a primer coat on new or patched walls adds paint. A practical coverage of ~12 m²/L (not the tin's 16) is what decides how many litres you buy.
Paint runs $14–45+/L, but that's the cheap part. Whether you DIY or hire a painter at $18–60/m² all-in is the single biggest swing in the total.
A few habits keep the estimate honest and the quotes comparable.
Enter the real room dimensions, or measure the wall area directly at the Standard level. Set coats, primer, the ceiling and trims at the Detailed level for a realistic total.
Buy for ~12 m²/L, not 16, and round up to whole tins — running short mid-wall means a second trip and a visible join. Bigger tins are cheaper per litre.
Get three itemised quotes for the same rooms, coats, ceilings and trims. Check each says whether paint, prep and cleaning up are included before you compare the totals.
Painting is usually one line in a bigger renovation or moving budget. Model the rest of the job and the money side too.