Apartment Painting Cost Calculator

Painting an 800 sq ft apartment costs $1,600–$4,000 professional (walls and ceilings, 2 coats) or $200–$400 DIY in materials. The wall area in an 800 sq ft apartment is approximately 2,000–2,400 sq ft after subtracting windows and doors. Professional painters typically offer apartment pricing by unit rather than square foot — a standard 1-bedroom runs $1,200–$2,500 and a 2-bedroom runs $1,800–$3,500. Tenant turnover painting (one neutral color throughout. Minimal prep) runs 20–30% less than a custom color job because the crew can spray entire units without masking for different colors in each room.

A professional crew of 2 painters completes a 1-bedroom apartment in 1–2 days (8–16 labor-hours). A single DIYer takes 3–5 days including overnight dry times between primer and topcoats. Empty apartments paint 40–50% faster than furnished units because no furniture moving or masking is needed. Tenant turnover jobs in apartment complexes are typically spray-applied in a single day. The crew sprays walls and ceilings in 3–4 hours, lets it dry, and rolls a second coat the same afternoon. Move-in ready within 12–18 hours by the following morning.

For a 12 × 14 ft room (roughly 400 sq ft of wall space): eggshell ($30–$45/gallon) on walls, semi-gloss ($35–$50/gallon) on trim and doors. Eggshell wipes clean and holds up 3 to 5 years under normal tenant wear. Flat? Skip it. It scrubs poorly and needs repainting within 12 to 18 months in a rental.

In most states, landlords pay for repainting between tenants as part of normal wear and tear maintenance. Paint typically has a 3–5 year useful life under landlord-tenant law. For a 200 sq ft area, Tenants are responsible for damage beyond normal wear — charged at $200–$500 per room. Large holes, crayon/marker, smoke staining, or unauthorized bold colors that require extra primer coats. California, New York, and several other states define paint as having a 2–3 year depreciable life. This means a landlord cannot deduct full repainting cost from a security deposit if the tenant lived there more than 3 years. Tenants who want to paint during their lease — roughly 15–20% of renters do.

The fastest turnover method is airless spray application with one universal color throughout all rooms. A 2-person crew sprays an empty 800 sq ft apartment in 3–5 hours including masking. Speed tips: use a single color (eliminates room-by-room masking and color changes), spray rather than roll (3–4× faster). Use self-priming paint to skip a separate primer coat on walls in decent condition. Pre-mask all fixtures, countertops, and flooring with plastic and tape before the crew arrives — masking is 30–40% of total labor time. Single-color spray turnover costs $800–$1,500 for a standard 2-bedroom versus $2,000–$3,500 for multi-color brush-and-roll.