How Much Does It Cost to Paint a Room in the UK?
Most UK rooms cost £300 to £600 to paint professionally. A small room like a bathroom can start from around £180, while a large or awkward living room can run to £1,200 or more. Paint is usually the smallest part of the bill - labour and wall prep make up most of the cost.
If you've ever asked three decorators for a quote on the same room, you've probably had three different numbers back - and all three were probably reasonable. There isn't one true answer, because "a room" covers everything from a box room you could touch both walls of, to a through-lounge with a four-metre ceiling and a staircase running through it. What follows is how the pricing actually breaks down, so you can work out roughly where your own room sits.
What you're actually paying for
Paint itself is the cheapest part of a room repaint. Standard trade emulsion runs somewhere around £5 to £8 a litre, and a typical room needs 7 to 14 litres across walls and ceiling - so you're looking at maybe £50 to £100 in paint for a standard room. Everything else in the quote is labour: masking up, filling and sanding, cutting in around edges, applying two coats, and cleaning down afterwards. A decorator isn't charging you for the paint going on the wall - they're charging you for the time it takes to get a clean, even finish.
Typical cost by room size
Pulling together current UK price guides from trade sources, here's roughly what to expect for a standard room in reasonable condition, professionally painted with trade-quality paint:
| Room type | Typical cost | Time on site |
|---|---|---|
| Small room (box room, bathroom) | £180 - £350 | Around 1 day |
| Standard bedroom | £300 - £500 | 1 - 2 days |
| Standard living room | £400 - £650 | 1 - 2 days |
| Large or open-plan room | £600 - £1,200+ | 2 - 4 days |
Those figures cover walls, ceiling and woodwork with standard trade paint, based on a room in reasonable condition. If you're in London or the South East, add roughly 20 to 30 percent on top - labour costs more where everything else does too.
What actually pushes the price up
Room size matters less than you'd think. The bigger factor is almost always the condition of the walls before anyone picks up a brush. Sound plaster that just needs two coats is a quick job. Walls with cracks, old wallpaper, flaking paint or damp staining need filling, sanding, stripping or a stain-blocking primer first - and that prep work can genuinely double the labour time on an otherwise identical room.
Paint choice is the other big variable. The price ranges above assume standard trade paint. If you've got your heart set on Farrow & Ball, Little Greene or another premium brand, budget for an extra £100 to £300 depending on room size - premium paint can run £25 to £40+ a litre against £5 to £8 for trade emulsion, and some premium finishes need an extra coat for even coverage.
A quick honest note on DIY
You can save a genuinely large amount doing it yourself - some estimates put the saving as high as 80 percent of the professional cost, since you're only paying for materials. If you've got a sound wall, a weekend, and reasonable patience, DIY is a completely fair option for a lot of rooms. Where hiring a professional earns its keep is prep-heavy jobs, tricky cutting-in around coving or stairwells, and anywhere a rushed edge would be visible every day for years afterward.
Getting a quote you can actually compare
The single most useful thing you can do before booking anyone is ask what's included. Two quotes that look similar on paper can cover very different amounts of prep, paint quality and surfaces - one might include the ceiling and skirting, another might not. Ask specifically whether paint is included or extra, whether VAT applies, and what prep work is covered before you compare numbers side by side. We always quote as a fixed price covering the whole job, agreed before we start, precisely so there's nothing to argue about halfway through - you can get a free quote from us if you'd like to see how that works in practice, or browse our full list of services if a single room is only part of what you need doing.
Prefer to talk it through before committing to anything in writing? Our contact page has our phone number, email and WhatsApp - happy to answer a quick question either way.
Sources
- Checkatrade, Painting and Decorating Cost Guide 2026 - room size pricing and day rate benchmarks
- MyBuilder, Cost to Paint a Room in 2026 - small vs large room cost breakdown