Paint Kitchen Costs

Painting a kitchen involves clearing the room and walls, prepping the surface and taping off the trim work, painting, and taking care of the finishing details. Plus, cleanup has special considerations because paint can’t just be thrown away. The average kitchen is about 120-150 square feet, which isn’t a lot of space to cover.

This can be a fairly minimal project in terms of expenses, depending on the type of paint job you have in mind. Premium paints and high-end products are going to increase the price of painting a kitchen. This job is usually calculated by square footage and includes hourly painting labor costs.

Kitchen painting: 150 square feet kitchen painted with a latex-based paint/primer combination product, labor, and all materials and supplies.

Other considerations and costs

• If you purchase primer separately from paint, you should only need a single gallon to cover the kitchen walls. Most professionals recommend an all-in-one product, however.
• If you need to move appliances or fixtures to finish the paint job, you may pay an additional labor charge to have items moved and replaced. Most painters will do it for you, but they will charge for it.
• If your kitchen design is complicated or your walls have a lot of unique details, the painting job is going to cost more because there is more time involved.
• Always use a semi-gloss paint in the kitchen so that it will repel grease, dirt, and food and help protect your walls from damage.

DIY considerations

• Painting a kitchen is a DIY project for anyone who knows how to paint. The materials are inexpensive and as long as there aren’t a lot of details to paint, the job should be fairly simple. If you want to cut costs, paint your own kitchen.
• You will have to factor in brushes, rollers, and drop cloths if you aren’t hiring a painter. They generally include these as their regular equipment, so there isn’t an additional cost.
• Before you start painting the kitchen, clean the walls to remove any excess grease, dirt, and debris.

References

• Craftsman Estimator Costbook, complete series year 2019.
• Latest prices found on Home Depot and other vendor Web sites.
• Literature review of DIY Web sites.