Interior Painting in Ontario: Costs, Primer, Paint Grades, Sheen, Doors and Trim, and How to Hire a Painter

Drywall, Taping & PaintingInterior Painting

Interior Painting: What It Costs by the Surface, Why the Primer Matters More Than the Paint, and How to Hire Someone Who Preps

Walls, ceilings, baseboard, casing and doors as separate prices, Ontario, October 2026. New drywall and repaints. The can is 15% of the job; the rest is on these pages.

Painting is the trade where the homeowner can see the result and still get fooled. The walls look fine the day the painter leaves. Then the sun comes around in March and every joint shows as a dull stripe, because new drywall went straight to paint-and-primer-in-one, which is a paint. Or the semi-gloss in the hall shows every ridge in a Level 4 wall that was perfectly good for eggshell. These pages are about the decisions that happen before the roller touches the wall: the primer, the sheen, the grade, the prep, and the painter.

Price my painting The cost guide How to hire a painter

The numbers

$2.50new walls, primer and two coats, per sq ft
$1.85new ceilings, flat white
$2.25baseboard, per running foot
$110an interior door, both sides

The guides

Interior painting cost in Ontario

Walls, ceilings, trim and doors as separate numbers, new vs repaint, and three real houses priced.

Walls, ceilings and trim

Why each is priced differently, what sheen goes where, and the order a good painter does them in.

Painting doors and trim

Per door, per foot of baseboard, brushed vs sprayed, and the prefinished option that skips all of it.

Priming new drywall

Why paint-and-primer-in-one is not a primer, PVA vs high-build, and what happens to Level 4 without it.

Builder vs premium paint

What $35 and $90 a gallon each buy, washability, coverage, VOCs, and where the cheap can is fine.

Paint sheen guide

Flat, matte, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss: which room, which surface, and what each one does to a Level 4 wall.

How to hire a painter

The walk-through, the written scope, products named, coats counted, WSIB, deposits, and the light at the end.

Flashing and roller marks

The dull patches over the joints and the stripes on the wall: what causes each and whose fault it is.

Four rules for painting a house

  1. New drywall gets a drywall primer. Always. PVA at the least, a high-build primer-surfacer if the taping is Level 4 and the paint has any sheen. Priming.
  2. Flat on ceilings, eggshell or matte on walls, semi-gloss on trim. Anything shinier than that on a wall is a Level 5 wall or a mistake. Sheen.
  3. Two coats means two full coats, with the product named. “Benjamin Moore” is a company; “Regal Select eggshell, two coats” is a specification. Comparing quotes.
  4. Walk it with a light before the last cheque. Holidays, drips, thin cut lines and roller marks are an afternoon on the day and a lawsuit a month later. What to look for.

Have quotes or plans in hand? Let a builder read them first

For $99, I put your drywall, taping or painting quotes on one grid, check the square footage against your rooms, name the finish level and the coats each one actually promised, and tell you what is missing and which one to sign. For a new build or a basement, $249 turns your plans into a room-by-room takeoff of board, finish levels, primer, paint and trim, with a budget by grade, that three contractors can price the same way.

Drywall and painting quote review, $99 Interior finishing takeoff, $249 Check the quotes yourself first