Painter and decorator day rates and prices per room in 2026
Day rates by region and experience, what a room costs to paint by size and type, whole-house and exterior prices, wallpapering, paint costs and VAT.
A painter and decorator charges £150 to £250 a day across most of the UK in 2026, and £275 to £350 in London. Paint and materials are billed on top in almost every case. We give day rates by region and experience, what a room costs by size and type, whole-house and exterior prices, wallpapering, paint costs, VAT, and when a fixed price beats a day rate.
Painter and decorator day rates in 2026
A qualified painter and decorator charges £150 to £250 a day across most of the UK in 2026. A day means about 8 hours on site, which works out at roughly £19 to £31 an hour.
The rate buys labour only. Paint, filler, primer and any access equipment go on the bill as well. Experience moves the rate as much as the postcode does.
| Decorator | Day rate |
|---|---|
| Apprentice or junior, working under supervision | £80 – £120 |
| Qualified decorator, regions outside the South East | £150 – £220 |
| Qualified decorator, South East | £200 – £280 |
| Qualified decorator, London | £275 – £350 |
| Specialist in wallpaper or decorative finishes | £220 – £350+ |
| Exterior or commercial painter | £200 – £300 |
An apprentice works under supervision, so on a two-person job you pay the apprentice's rate on top of the decorator's.
Decorator day rates by region
London and the South East sit 20 to 30% above the rest of the UK, and the North East and Wales sit lowest. These are rates for a qualified decorator.
| Region | Day rate |
|---|---|
| London | £275 – £350 |
| South East | £200 – £280 |
| East of England | £180 – £250 |
| South West | £160 – £230 |
| Midlands | £150 – £210 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | £145 – £200 |
| North West | £145 – £200 |
| North East | £140 – £190 |
| Scotland | £150 – £210 |
| Wales | £140 – £190 |
Decorators in London charge £275 to £350 a day, and in prime areas such as Chelsea, Kensington or the Surrey commuter belt the rate can pass £350. A decorator charging £220 a day in the Midlands would charge about £270 to £300 for the same work in outer London.
Scotland, at £150 to £210 a day, and Wales, at £140 to £190, sit alongside the Midlands and the North of England rather than the South.
Cost to paint a room by size
Painting a room costs £200 to £900 in 2026, and room size sets most of that spread. These prices are for walls and ceilings, assume only minor preparation, and expect you to move the furniture yourself.
| Room size | Example | Decorator | Doing it yourself |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small, 2.2 m × 2.2 m | Box room or storage room | £200 – £450 | £50 – £110 |
| Medium, 3 m × 4 m | Double bedroom | £250 – £600 | £65 – £140 |
| Large, 5 m × 4 m | Living room | £350 – £900 | £90 – £190 |
Labour makes up about 80% of a decorator's price. A typical small room comes to around £325 and a typical living room to around £625, with woodwork, wallpaper and heavy preparation all outside those figures.
Labour prices by room type
Priced by room type, labour for two to three coats of emulsion on the walls and ceiling, cutting-in included, runs as follows. Paint and woodwork come on top.
| Room | Labour | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|
| Small bedroom | £200 – £300 | Two coats; woodwork extra |
| Double bedroom | £300 – £500 | A third coat on bare plaster adds time |
| Living room | £400 – £600 | A chimney breast or feature wall adds cost |
| Kitchen | £300 – £500 | Slow cutting-in around units and appliances |
| Bathroom | £200 – £350 | Moisture-resistant paint and tight cuts |
| Hallway, ground floor | £200 – £350 | Stairs and height push it up steeply |
A hallway is dearer than its floor area suggests once the stairs and landing are included, because the walls over a stairwell have to be painted from height.
Day rate or fixed price
Most homeowners are better off with a fixed price for a room or a house. A fixed price leaves the risk of slow preparation with the decorator, and a day rate leaves it with you.
At £150 to £250 a day, the £300 to £500 labour price for a double bedroom buys 1 to 3 days of work, and preparation takes 40 to 60% of the time on a typical decorating job. Walls that need filling, sanding and priming are where a day-rate job runs long.
- A day rate suits a decorator you have used before, a list of small jobs, or work whose size is hard to judge until it starts.
- A fixed price suits a first job with a new decorator, a whole-house redecoration, and any room the decorator has seen and measured.
A decorator worth hiring will not fix a price without seeing the job, so expect a visit before a fixed quote.
Whole house and exterior painting costs
Decorating the whole interior of a house costs £2,500 to £7,000 in labour in 2026. A 3-bedroom semi in average condition sits at £2,500 to £4,500, and larger or older houses at £5,000 to £7,000.
| Job | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 3-bed semi, full interior | £2,500 – £4,500 | Labour only, average condition |
| Larger or older house, full interior | £5,000 – £7,000 | Labour only |
| Terraced house, front only | £400 – £1,200 | Front elevation, windows and doors |
| Semi-detached, full exterior | £800 – £3,000 | Labour and masonry paint; scaffold extra if needed |
| Detached, full exterior | £2,000 – £6,000 | Labour and masonry paint; more scaffold |
| Scaffold, two-storey semi | £500 – £1,200 a week | Extra to the painting price |
Exterior work costs 10 to 30% more a day than interior work, for the height and the scaffold. A large detached house can need £1,000 to £2,000 of scaffold, and in busy periods scaffold takes two to three weeks to arrange, so book it with the decorator.
Inside, decorating is one of the last lines in a whole-house renovation budget, because it starts only once every trade that makes dust or drills holes has gone. A room painted before the rewire gets chased, filled and painted again, and making good after a rewire adds £500 to £2,000 or more.
Wallpapering, coving and kitchen spraying prices
Wallpaper is priced per room and per task, and the paper itself is extra. Allow 10 to 15% more paper than the walls measure, for pattern matching and waste.
| Job | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Stripping old wallpaper | £100 – £200 per room | Several layers or woodchip sit at the top of the range |
| Lining paper before papering | £100 – £200 per room | Hung horizontally for a smoother finish |
| Pattern-matched paper, feature wall or full room | £200 – £600 | Alcoves and chimney breasts add time |
| Spraying kitchen cabinets | £800 – £2,500 per kitchen | About two full days |
| Painting plain coving | £3 – £5 per metre | Simple cove profile |
| Painting detailed cornice | £5 – £8 per metre | Gilded or multi-colour work costs more |
Specialist work carries its own premium. Complex pattern matching adds 25 to 40% to a decorator's rate, and faux or decorative finishes add 30 to 50%.
Paint and materials: what they add
Decorators charge materials on top of the day rate in almost every case, and add a markup: 10 to 15% is common, and standard trade paint can carry 25 to 35%.
Trade accounts buy paint 20 to 40% below retail, so ask for the paint on the quote by brand, finish and litres, and compare the line with the shelf price.
| Paint | Tin | Trade price | Covers about |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emulsion, walls and ceilings | 5 litres | £15 – £35 | 50 – 60 m² |
| Emulsion, walls and ceilings | 10 litres | £25 – £60 | 100 – 120 m² |
| Satinwood or eggshell, woodwork | 2.5 litres | £20 – £40 | 25 – 35 m² |
| Gloss, woodwork | 2.5 litres | £18 – £35 | 25 – 35 m² |
| Masonry paint, outside walls | 10 litres | £30 – £60 | 60 – 80 m² |
Designer paint changes the sums. A Farrow & Ball tin retails at £60 to £70 and covers around 35 m², so two coats in a double bedroom take 3 tins at £180 to £210, about the cost of a day of labour.
Painting new plaster
New plaster adds a trade and a wait. If the walls need a skim first, the plasterer is a separate bill: skimming an average bedroom costs £450 to £680 before any paint goes on.
A skimmed room then needs 3 to 4 days of drying before new plaster can be painted. Bare plaster takes a thinned mist coat first and often a third coat, which is why the double bedroom price climbs on new walls.
What pushes a decorating quote up
Two quotes for the same room can differ by hundreds of pounds. The gap usually comes from one of these:
- Preparation. Filling, sanding, priming, cleaning and masking take 40 to 60% of the job, and walls in poor condition take far more of it.
- Bare plaster. A mist coat and often a third coat add time to every wall.
- Height. Stairwells, landings and high ceilings are slow to reach and slow to paint.
- Fiddly rooms. Kitchens mean cutting in around units, bathrooms mean tight cuts and moisture-resistant paint, and a chimney breast adds corners.
- A deadline. A rush job with a quick turnaround can carry a 20 to 30% premium.
- A tenanted property. Working around tenants, or to a commercial standard, adds 15 to 25%.
What a decorator's quote should include
A written quote lists labour and materials separately, so every line can be set against the same line on the next quote.
Walk away from a one-coat quote, a quote with no preparation in it, a price given only by word of mouth, or a decorator who wants cash with no invoice.
VAT on decorating quotes
A decorator must register for VAT once taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over the £90,000 registration threshold, and a registered firm adds VAT at the standard rate of 20%.
A decorator working alone at £150 to £250 a day for 200 to 220 days a year turns over £30,000 to £55,000. That is below the threshold, so a sole trader need not charge VAT, though some register voluntarily. A larger firm with a team adds 20%, so check whether each quote you compare is before or after VAT.
Painting a room yourself
Painting a room yourself saves around 80% of a decorator's price, because labour is most of what you pay for. Paint and tools for a medium double bedroom cost £65 to £140, against £250 to £600 for a decorator.
Doing it yourself works best for:
- Rooms you can reach from a stepladder, with standard ceiling heights and no stairwell.
- Walls in decent condition that need a light fill and sand, not hours of preparation.
- Bedrooms and living rooms, where the cutting-in is simpler than around kitchen units.
- A repaint in a similar colour, where two coats of emulsion cover.
Hire a decorator for:
- Stairwells and landings, where the height is the hard part.
- Pattern-matched wallpaper, which is slow to match and wastes rolls when it goes wrong.
- Outside walls above the ground floor, where scaffold for a semi costs £500 to £1,200 a week before any paint goes on.
Common questions
How much do you pay a painter per day?
You pay a qualified painter and decorator £150 to £250 a day in most of the UK in 2026, and £275 to £350 in London. A day is about 8 hours on site. Paint and materials are charged on top, usually with a markup of 10 to 15%.
How much would a painter charge to paint a 12x12 room?
A painter charges about £250 to £600 to paint the walls and ceiling of a 12x12 room in 2026. A 12 by 12 foot room is about 3.7 m by 3.7 m, close in size to a 3 m by 4 m double bedroom. Woodwork, wallpaper and heavy preparation are priced on top.
How many m2 can a painter paint in a day?
A decorator rolls emulsion onto flat, prepared walls at about 30 to 40 m² an hour, per coat. Preparation takes 40 to 60% of the time on a typical job, so the area finished in a day is far below that rolling speed. Filling, sanding, cutting-in and the second coat fill the rest of the day.
How much do self-employed painters and decorators earn?
A self-employed decorator charging £150 to £250 a day over 200 to 220 working days turns over £30,000 to £55,000 a year. Tax, National Insurance, the van, tools and insurance come out of that. Taking home around £35,000 needs roughly £50,000 of turnover, or about £238 a day.
How much does it cost to paint a 3-bedroom house?
Painting the interior of a 3-bedroom semi in average condition costs £2,500 to £4,500 in labour in 2026, with paint on top. Larger or older houses run £5,000 to £7,000. Painting the outside of a semi costs another £800 to £3,000, plus scaffold where it is needed.
Do decorators charge for paint on top of the day rate?
Decorators charge for paint and materials on top of the day rate in almost every case. The usual markup is 10 to 15%, and standard trade paint can carry 25 to 35%. Ask for the brand, finish and litres on the quote so you can check the paint line against the shelf price.
Is it cheaper to pay a decorator by the day or for the job?
A fixed price for the job is the safer deal for most homeowners, because it leaves the risk of slow preparation with the decorator. A day rate works for small or open-ended jobs, as long as the expected number of days is written down. Preparation takes 40 to 60% of the time on a job, and that is where day-rate work runs long.
How much does a painter and decorator charge per hour?
A painter and decorator works out at about £19 to £31 an hour in 2026, based on a day rate of £150 to £250 for an 8-hour day. The same sum on London's £275 to £350 day rate gives about £34 to £44 an hour.
Is it cheaper to paint a room yourself?
Painting a room yourself is around 80% cheaper, because labour is most of a decorator's price. Paint and tools for a medium 3 m by 4 m room cost £65 to £140, against £250 to £600 for a decorator. Hiring still makes sense for stairwells, pattern-matched wallpaper and walls that need heavy preparation.
How much does it cost to paint the outside of a house?
Painting the outside of a semi-detached house costs £800 to £3,000 in 2026, and a detached house £2,000 to £6,000, for labour and masonry paint. Scaffold is extra where it is needed, at £500 to £1,200 a week for a two-storey semi. The front of a terraced house alone costs £400 to £1,200.