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Interior Painting Cost in Ontario (2026): Walls, Ceilings, Trim and Doors as Separate Numbers, New Drywall vs Repaint, With Three Real Houses Priced
Drywall, Taping & Painting
What Interior Painting Costs in Ontario, and Why the $19,000 Quote and the $9,000 Quote Were Both for Your House
A Toronto homeowner posted a $19,000-plus-HST painting quote this year and asked whether it was reasonable. Nobody could say, because the quote did not say whether the ceilings were in, whether the trim was in, how many doors, how many coats, or what paint. That is the state of painting quotes: one number for the house and a handshake. Painters who know their business price four things separately, walls, ceilings, trim and doors, by the square foot, the square foot, the running foot and the slab. Here are those rates for Ontario in 2026, the prep that changes them, and three real houses.
The numbers
$2.50new walls, primer and two coats, per sq ft
$2.75repaint, good walls, two coats
$1.85ceilings, flat white
$110a door, both sides, brushed
| Surface | Rate | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| New drywall walls | $2.50 per sq ft of wall | Drywall primer and two finish coats, rolled, cut in by hand. The primer is not optional. |
| New drywall ceilings | $1.85 per sq ft of ceiling | Primer and two coats of flat ceiling white. Cheaper than walls because there is almost nothing to cut around. |
| Repaint, walls in good shape | $2.75 per sq ft | Nail holes filled, a light sand, two coats, similar colour. |
| Repaint, rough walls | $3.35 per sq ft | Patches, cracks, sanding, spot priming. The prep is half the hours. |
| Colour change, dark to light or light to dark | +$0.40 per sq ft | A tinted primer and a third coat. Red and navy are the worst. |
| Repaint ceilings | $2.05 per sq ft | Stains blocked, two coats. |
| Baseboard | $2.25 per running ft | Filled, caulked, two coats of trim enamel. Trim and doors. |
| Casing | $45 per opening | Door both sides, or a window. |
| Interior door, both sides | $110 brushed, $140 sprayed | Slab and edges. Sprayed off the hinges looks factory. |
| Paint grade | -$0.25 to +$0.35 per sq ft | Contractor flat to premium washable. What the money buys. |
| Occupied house | +10% to 18% | Furniture moved, covered, moved back; working around a family. |
| Stairwell or two-storey foyer | $450 to $900 | Staging over the stairs. Priced as a lump because the setup is the cost. |
| Minimum | $650 | One room with one colour is a day and two trips. |
Three real houses
| Job | Area | Scope | Before HST | With HST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New 2,000 sq ft two-storey, empty | 4,700 sq ft walls, 1,900 ceilings, 560 ft base, 50 openings | Primer and two coats, mid-grade, ceilings white, trim and casing painted, doors prefinished, one stairwell | $19,300 | $21,800 |
| Occupied 1,600 sq ft bungalow, repaint | 3,900 sq ft walls, 1,550 ceilings | Walls and ceilings, good condition, two colours, 14 doors brushed, trim repainted, +10% occupied | $18,300 | $20,700 |
| One 14 x 16 living room, dark navy to light grey, occupied | 480 sq ft walls, 224 ceiling | Tinted primer, three coats, ceiling, baseboard, 2 openings | $2,500 | $2,850 |
The $19,000 Toronto quote for “selected areas” starts to make sense when you see that a whole lived-in bungalow with trim and doors is $18,000 outside the city, and the GTA runs 8% higher. It also starts to look high if it was walls only. That is why you ask for the four numbers.
What moves the price
- Scope. Walls only vs walls, ceilings, trim and doors is a factor of two on the same house. Make every painter price the same list. The grid.
- Prep. New drywall needs a primer coat and nothing else. A lived-in house needs holes filled, cracks cut, stains blocked, glossy trim sanded. Half the hours on a repaint are before the first roller.
- Colour. One colour throughout is fastest. Every colour change is a cut-in and a cleanup. Dark colours are three coats.
- Height. Anything the painter cannot reach from a step ladder is scaffold, and scaffold is time.
- Who lives there. An empty house is painted in a straight line. An occupied one is painted around a family, a dog and a dining table, in sections, with the furniture moved twice.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to paint a 2,000 sq ft house interior in Ontario?
$16,000 to $22,000 before HST in 2026 for walls, ceilings, trim and casing in a new house with primer and two coats of mid-grade paint. Walls only in the same house is about $11,750. Add $110 a door if the doors are painted on site.
How much do painters charge per square foot in Ontario?
$2.25 to $3.00 per square foot of wall for new drywall, $2.50 to $3.75 for repaints depending on prep, $1.65 to $2.15 for ceilings. Per square foot of wall, not floor; a painter quoting per square foot of floor is using a shortcut that is right for one house and wrong for the next.
How much does it cost to paint one room?
$650 to $1,000 for a bedroom, walls and ceiling, two coats, in a lived-in house, before HST. A dark-to-light colour change or trim and doors push it to $1,500 or more. The minimum charge is the day and the two trips, whatever the room size.
Does the painter supply the paint?
Usually, at a trade price, and the quote should name the product and line. Supplying your own paint saves little and removes the painter’s responsibility for coverage.
Get your own number
The interior painting calculator prices your rooms with walls, ceilings, trim and doors as separate lines and writes the scope for three quotes. For a new house or a basement with the drywall in the same number, the complete interior finishing calculator.
Sources and further reading
- Benjamin Moore Canada: product data sheets for the primers and paints named on these pages: coverage per gallon, recoat times and the right primer for new drywall.
- Sherwin-Williams Canada: the other paint line most Ontario painters use; the data sheets say the same things in different words.
- Your rights when starting home renovations or repairs: Ontario government. The 10-day cooling-off period, the written contract rule over $50, and what to do about a contractor who walks.
