How much does a painter and decorator cost in the UK?

Getting a fair price for painting and decorating work starts with understanding how the UK market actually prices the job — usually as a day rate, sometimes as a per-room or per-job quote — and how much both figures genuinely vary by region and by what's actually involved.

As a general benchmark, UK painter and decorator day rates in 2026 commonly sit somewhere around £200-£420 a day, with figures around £280-£340 often cited as a typical average outside the capital. Region makes a real difference here: London and the South East commonly run around 20-30% above these national figures, reflecting both higher living costs for tradespeople and stronger demand, while the North of England, Scotland and Wales commonly sit lower, often in the region of £150-£230 a day. Experience and specialism also matter — a decorator with strong references, specialist finishes, or high-end residential experience will typically command a rate toward the top of whatever range applies locally, while a less experienced or newly self-employed decorator may price more competitively to build a client base.

For a specific room rather than a day rate, costs are usually driven by size, condition and scope rather than a single flat figure. Painting a standard room averages around £450 in total UK-wide, though this varies with room size and how much preparation is needed. A typical bedroom commonly takes a competent decorator around 1.5-2.5 days to complete properly, including preparation, two coats of paint, and woodwork such as skirting boards and door frames — a job that looks straightforward on paper but genuinely does take that long to do well, since good preparation (filling, sanding, masking) is usually what separates a professional finish from a rushed one. For a larger project covering multiple rooms, such as a full interior repaint of a typical three-bedroom semi, per-room costs commonly land around £380-£650, generally reflecting some efficiency of scale compared with booking each room as a separate, smaller job.

Whether the decorator or the homeowner supplies the paint and materials is a genuinely significant factor in the final price, and it's worth clarifying upfront rather than assuming. If the decorator supplies the paint, this commonly adds a further 15-25% on top of the labour cost, covering both the materials themselves and the decorator's margin for sourcing and managing them; a homeowner who buys their own paint can potentially save this margin, though it does mean taking on responsibility for choosing the right product, sufficient quantity, and correct finish for each surface.

A few other factors reliably move the price beyond the basics of room size and materials. Ceiling height and awkward access — a stairwell, a high vaulted ceiling, or a room needing scaffold towers rather than a standard step ladder — add time and therefore cost. The condition of existing surfaces matters enormously too: a wall in good condition needing a straightforward repaint is far quicker than one with damaged plaster, old wallpaper to strip, or significant filling and sanding required before any paint goes on. And the number of coats specified affects both time and paint cost — most professional jobs use at least two coats for a proper, even finish, and a colour change from a dark existing colour to a much lighter one, or vice versa, can sometimes need an extra coat to cover properly.

Given how much these factors vary from one job to the next, the most reliable way to get a fair price for a specific project is describing the job clearly — room size, current condition, whether materials are supplied by the decorator, and any awkward access — to two or three local decorators and comparing genuinely like-for-like quotes, rather than anchoring on a single average figure found online. It's also worth asking directly whether a quoted price is a fixed price for the described scope, or an estimate that could change once work begins — the two aren't the same thing, and knowing which one you've been given avoids a surprise bill at the end of the job.

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