Interior painting cost in Toronto and the GTA
Updated · Our figures come straight from our own quoting engine · Dylan, owner
Painting a bedroom in Toronto and the GTA costs $400–$800 for the walls, going by the prices painters publish; our online quote prices a typical bedroom's walls and baseboards at $350. For a whole three-bedroom house (walls, baseboards and interior doors throughout), ours comes to $3,933.92, where published whole-interior figures run $4,000–$13,000.
Walls are the biggest single part of an interior quote, but not the whole of it: baseboards and doors are priced on their own and add a good deal on top. Get the wall rate right and you have the largest number on the estimate, which is why the per-square-foot basis, below, is worth two minutes of anybody's time.
What each surface costs
These are the rates the work is built from. Walls carry most of a quote because there is simply more of them than anything else; the rest are what push one room past another. Note that a ceiling is priced on its own area and trim on the length of the run, so a long narrow room and a square one of the same floor area do not cost the same.
| What it covers | Published GTA range | Our quote |
|---|---|---|
| Walls, per square foot of wallper square foot of wall surface, walls only, two coats | Published GTA range$1.80–$4 | Our quote$0.67 / sq ft |
| Ceilings, per square footper square foot of ceiling | Published GTA range$1–$2.50 | Our quote$1 / sq ft |
| Baseboards, per linear footper linear foot of baseboard or casing | Published GTA range$2–$4 | Our quote$2.10 / ln ft |
| Crown moulding, per linear footper linear foot of crown moulding | Published GTA range$2–$4 | Our quote$2.55 / ln ft |
| Interior doors, eachper interior door, including the frame | Published GTA range$100–$200 | Our quote$85 / door |
A door is counted once for the whole home, and its price covers both sides and the frame and trim around it. The door between a hallway and a bedroom belongs to both rooms and gets painted once. Count it twice and you are paying twice, which is the commonest way an interior quote quietly inflates.
What a room costs
Priced at the sizes we treat as typical for each room type, with the walls and baseboards a repaint normally covers.
| What it covers | Published GTA range | Our quote |
|---|---|---|
| A bedroom, walls and baseboardsa bedroom, walls only | Published GTA range$400–$800 | Our quote$350 |
| A bedroom, with the ceiling as wella bedroom, walls, ceiling and trim | Published GTA range$700–$1,300 | Our quote$475.16 |
| A living or dining rooma living or dining room, walls | Published GTA range$700–$1,500 | Our quote$492.36 |
| A kitchen: walls, not cabinetsa kitchen, walls (cabinets are a separate job everywhere) | Published GTA range$500–$1,000 | Our quote$373 |
| A bathrooma powder room through a full bathroom | Published GTA range$300–$800 | Our quote$350 |
| A powder rooma two-piece powder room, walls | Published GTA range$200–$500 | Our quote$350 |
| An ensuite bathrooman ensuite or primary bathroom | Published GTA range$425–$800 | Our quote$350 |
| A nursery or small bedrooma nursery or small bedroom, walls | Published GTA range$300–$700 | Our quote$350 |
| A family rooma family room, walls and baseboards | Published GTA range$550–$1,450 | Our quote$537.12 |
| A stairwell: the walls, not the stairsstairwell walls, one or two storeys, not the stairs themselves | Published GTA range$425–$1,600 | Our quote$558 |
A small room booked on its own is priced at our minimum booking, which is why a powder room, an ensuite and a nursery show the same figure. Add one to a bigger job and it costs a good deal less than that. A stairwell's walls run two storeys, so ours includes the ladders and planks that takes.
What a whole home costs
Published whole-home figures vary more than any other number in this guide, and mostly for one reason: some include ceilings, trim and doors and some are walls only. Where a source said which it meant, we used its like-for-like figure. Ours below is walls, baseboards and interior doors throughout, closet doors included, with each door priced for both sides and the trim around it.
| What it covers | Published GTA range | Our quote |
|---|---|---|
| A two-bedroom condoa two-bedroom condo, whole interior | Published GTA range$1,800–$4,000 | Our quote$2,300.40 |
| A three-bedroom housea three-bedroom house, whole interior | Published GTA range$4,000–$13,000 | Our quote$3,933.92 |
The smallest job worth booking
Nobody in the GTA publishes a minimum, which makes this the softest number in the guide: it is what the trade appears to work to rather than something anybody states. It matters more than it looks, because it is what decides whether a single room is worth having done professionally at all. Ours is published, and it is what a small one-room job actually bills at.
| What it covers | Published GTA range | Our quote |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest interior bookingthe smallest interior job most GTA painters will take | Published GTA range$800–$1,500 | Our quote$350 / booking |
Ask any painter what their minimum is before they visit. It is the one number that decides whether a small job is worth doing, and it is almost never on a website.
Stairs: priced on a call, not in the online quote
Most of the GTA trade will not put a number on a staircase from a form: six contractors say in writing that stairs need looking at, and the two largest Toronto painting firms publish no stair price at all. Our online quote does not price them either: it covers a stairwell's walls, not the treads, risers, spindles and handrail. Those are priced from the things that actually drive the labour (how many steps, how wide the treads are, how many spindles, whether the handrail is included, and what the old finish is doing), so call us with those five answers and we will give you a number. That is why there is no single per-staircase figure on this page to compare. Tell us too whether the treads are under carpet and whether anyone can safely stand where the work is, because both change the job.
Whoever prices your stairs, ask what happens when the spindle count is not what was assumed. That is the number that moves, and it is why we ask you for it rather than guessing.
Every figure on this page is before HST, ours and the published ranges alike, which is how almost every painter in Ontario quotes. Thirteen per cent goes on at invoice time.
Questions about what this costs
What actually drives an interior painting price up?
Wall area first, since it is the largest single part of almost every quote. After that it is the number of separate surfaces rather than their size: ceilings, baseboards, casings, doors and mouldings are each a different product, a different tool and a different masking line, so a room with everything painted can cost twice what the same room costs with walls alone, or more. Ceiling height matters because it is a straight multiplier on the wall area. What barely matters is anything decorative (colour choice, sheen, how many colours), with one exception below.
Does going from a dark colour to a light one cost extra?
Yes, and it is the one colour decision that changes a price. A big swing in either direction, a deep navy going white or a beige going to charcoal, needs a stain-blocking primer coat first or the old colour ghosts through the new one, and that is a whole extra pass over the walls. It is charged as its own line rather than hidden in the wall rate, so you can see exactly what it costs and decide.
Is it cheaper if the house is empty?
A little, and less than most people expect. An empty room saves the time spent moving and covering furniture, which is real but small next to the painting itself. What saves considerably more is deciding on fewer surfaces (walls only rather than walls, ceilings and trim), because each surface you add is a separate operation rather than a bit more of the same one.
Can I just get one room done?
Yes. A smaller room, such as a bedroom, a bathroom or an office, usually bills at our minimum booking of $350 rather than at what the room alone works out to, because a half-day visit costs the same to mount whether it is one room or three; a living room or a kitchen usually clears the minimum on its own. If you were thinking about a second small room, that is where the arithmetic works in your favour: part of the first room's price was the minimum, so adding the second costs less than booking it on its own.
Another painter quoted me per square foot. How do I compare it to this?
Find out which square feet they mean first: the floor area of your home, or the wall surface being painted. In an ordinary room the wall surface is close to three times the floor area, so the same job can be quoted as two very different-looking rates and both be honest. Once you know the basis, the reliable comparison is not the rate at all: it is the total for your actual rooms, with a written list of which surfaces are included.
For how the work itself is done (preparation, products and what happens on the day), see Home Refreshes.
We are a Richmond Hill crew and we work across York Region and North York. The ranges on this page cover the wider GTA, because painting costs do not stop at a municipal boundary. If you are outside where we work, though, we will tell you so rather than drive somewhere we cannot serve properly. Ask anyway if you are close; we answer honestly.
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