How much does it cost to paint a room in the UK?

Across the 2026 UK guides below, a professionally painted bedroom mostly falls between about £250 and £600, and MyJobQuote puts the average 12m² room at about £400. Screwfix puts DIY materials for a 3m x 4m room at £65 to £140. Preparation, woodwork, colour changes and ceiling height decide where your room lands.

Typical UK prices for painting a room

Across the published UK guides below, most single bedrooms fall between about £250 and £600 for walls and ceiling. MyJobQuote’s guide (updated September 2026) says the average cost to paint a 12m² room is about £400, and Screwfix’s 2026 guide gives £250 to £600 for a 3m x 4m room. Which?’s survey of Trusted Traders shows wider ranges. Size, preparation and woodwork decide where your room lands.

These are national figures, useful for sense-checking a price but not a rate card. Each guide measures something slightly different, so read the notes under the table before comparing.

Note that the Which? hall, stairs and landing row covers walls only, unlike its other rows, so it is not a like-for-like comparison with the room prices above. MyJobQuote’s figures are labour, with paint listed separately. Screwfix’s cover walls and ceilings only, assume minor preparation and assume you move the furniture yourself. Which?’s prices come from nine Trusted Traders, include materials, exclude VAT and assume two coats of light emulsion on plaster in good condition. A quote that includes doors, skirtings and filling will often sit above the Screwfix range without anyone overcharging.

Decorator day rates and time per room

MyJobQuote and Screwfix both put painter and decorator day rates at £150 to £250. MyJobQuote gives that range for outside London and £250 to £350 a day in London, while Screwfix gives it as a typical UK rate and says rates in London are normally higher. Screwfix estimates labour at about 80% of the total cost of a professional job, so the days a decorator plans matter more than the paint.

MyJobQuote estimates about a day for a small bedroom, 1 to 1.5 days for a large bedroom and 1.5 to 2 days for a large living room. That is why a lower day rate can still produce a higher total: what counts is how many days are planned and what gets done in them.

Location moves the figure too. Which? says prices are likely to be at the upper end of its ranges in London or the South East. Northampton is outside both, so the non-London figures are the fairer comparison.

What pushes the price of a room up?

Preparation is usually the biggest variable, followed by woodwork, colour change and access. Two rooms of the same size can be priced very differently once you count cracks to fill, old paper to strip, dark colours to cover and the number of doors and skirtings. The table shows what a decorator looks at when pricing.

Woodwork alone can be a sizeable extra. Which? puts repainting one room’s woodwork at £70 to £650 when the existing gloss is in good condition, and £90 to £1,200 when it is in poor condition. For whole houses, hallways and exteriors, see our guide to painter and decorator costs in Northampton.

How much paint does a room need, and what does it cost?

A 3m x 4m bedroom needs about 7 litres of emulsion for two coats on walls and ceiling, in line with MyJobQuote’s 7 to 8 litres for a small bedroom. Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt has a stated coverage of up to 17m² per litre, but MyJobQuote says most standard emulsions cover around 12m² per litre per coat, which is the safer figure to buy against.

Here is the sum for a 3m x 4m bedroom with a 2.4m ceiling height:

• Walls: the perimeter is 14m, times 2.4m high, is about 33.6m². Take off roughly 3.5m² for a door and window and you have about 30m².
• Ceiling: 3m x 4m is 12m².
• Two coats: 42m² x 2 is 84m² of painting.
• Paint: 84 divided by 17 is about 5 litres on the tin’s best case. At 12m² per litre, it is 7 litres.

For material cost, a 5-litre tin of Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt in Pure Brilliant White was listed at £46.59 including VAT at Toolstation when checked on 9 October 2026. MyJobQuote prices matt emulsion at £5 to £8 a litre, satin at £8 to £16 and gloss at £12 to £25. Woodwork paint costs more per litre, but you need far less of it.

Is it cheaper to paint a room yourself?

Yes, on cash alone. Screwfix puts DIY for a 3m x 4m room at £65 to £140 against £250 to £600 for a decorator, and says people can often save around 80% of the cost by doing the work themselves. The trade-off is your time, any tools you need to buy and how the finish looks in good light.

• Time. MyJobQuote allows a decorator about a day for a small bedroom. Someone new to cutting in along ceilings and skirtings can take a full weekend.
• Tools. Brushes, rollers, trays, dust sheets, filler, sandpaper, masking tape and decent steps add up. If you already own them, DIY gets cheaper still.
• Preparation. Many disappointing DIY finishes come from skipped filling and sanding rather than the painting itself. Lumps and old patches show through new emulsion, especially in raking light from a low window.
• Woodwork. Gloss or satin on doors and skirtings shows brush marks and runs far more than matt walls do, and that is where many homeowners decide to call someone in.

A sensible middle path is to do the walls yourself and pay for the woodwork, or the reverse if your walls need a lot of making good.

Are older Northampton homes more expensive to paint?

Often, yes. Victorian terraces in Northampton tend to have taller ceilings, picture rails, deep skirtings and layers of old paint, all of which add time. Old paint can also contain lead, which changes how it should be prepared. Newer houses often price lower, unless the plaster is new and needs sealing first.

Cambridge City Council’s guidance on lead paint says a home built before the 1960s that still has original coats of paint could have some lead in it, and that lead dust can be released if the paintwork is damaged or sanded. It says young children and pregnant women are most at risk, and advises against dry sandpaper. The HSE lists stripping of old lead paint from doors and windows among work that creates lead dust or fume. If old woodwork is sound, overpainting is the usual approach. If it is flaking and needs stripping, that is slower, controlled work, and it belongs in the quote.

The 1970s Development Corporation estates around the town often have simpler, flatter rooms. New builds at Upton and Grange Park may need a mist coat on fresh or patched plaster, and small shrinkage cracks are common as a new house dries out, so filling is part of the job. If you live on the west side of town, our decorating in Duston page covers that area.

What should a decorating quote include?

A good quote is written, fixed and specific. It should list every surface being painted, the preparation, the number of coats, the paint brand and finish, who supplies the paint, and whether VAT is included. Homebuilding & Renovating explains that with a quote you should expect to pay exactly that sum, while an estimate is only a general assessment of the likely cost.

When you compare two prices, check these points side by side:

• Surfaces: walls only, or walls, ceiling, doors, frames, skirtings and window boards?
• Preparation: does it mention filling, sanding, sealing stains or stripping paper?
• Coats: two coats of emulsion is the usual basis, as in the Which? figures; woodwork usually needs an undercoat and a topcoat.
• Paint: trade or retail range, and is it included in the price?
• VAT: a business with taxable turnover over £90,000 in the last 12 months must register for VAT, and the standard rate is 20%. Check whether the figure includes it.
• Extras: how anything unexpected, like blown plaster behind old paper, will be priced and agreed before it’s done.

A low quote can simply be one with less preparation in it. A written quote after a visit is the only real figure for your room, because nobody can price filling and woodwork they haven’t seen.

When to do it yourself, and when to call a decorator

DIY makes sense for a small room with sound walls, a similar colour and simple woodwork, when you have a free weekend. It’s worth getting a decorator for stairwells and high ceilings, rooms with lots of woodwork, strong colour changes, new plaster, old paint that may contain lead, or when the room needs to be finished quickly and neatly.

If you’re in or around Northampton and want a figure for your own room, Dean has over 30 years in the trade and will come and look before giving a free written quote. You can read more about our interior painting service in Northampton, or call Dean on 07539 779 036.

Header photo: Blue Bird on Pexels. Photos of our own work appear further down the page.

Last updated 9 October 2026 by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.