How Long Does It Take to Paint a Room? A Guide for Homeowners

Prepare to spend $2,500 to $8,000 to hire someone to complete your interior residential painting project. If your budget can’t support hiring a painter, then it’s time to step up and paint the walls of your home yourself. Once you choose the best interior colors, your next step is to plan your technique.

So, how long does it take to paint a room? Knowing how long it takes will help you plan your home improvement project effectively.

The safest approach is to plan for your painting project to take an entire day from start to finish. If you do not have experience or are painting by yourself, then plan for the project to take longer. The project will also take longer if you need to apply a primer or second coat of your chosen paint color.

Keep reading to learn more.

Prep Work

Before you can start painting, you need to prep the walls. This includes washing the walls with a damp cloth to remove dust, hair, and anything else that will degrade the finish. Next, patch any holes with spackle.

Tape off the edges around the entire room where you don’t want to get paint. This includes around the doors, windows, baseboards, crown molding, and electrical.

Depending on the size and condition of your room, it could take you an hour or an entire day to get a room ready for painting.

Room Size

Professional painters and experienced homeowners can paint a 400 square foot room in about 30 minutes. However, less experienced homeowners will take longer, anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour, for the same sized room.

You also need to consider cutting in time. Depending on the size of the room, this could easily take an hour. Cutting in is when you use a paintbrush to finish the edges and small spaces where you cannot use a roller.

Clean Up

You aren’t done once you paint the room. The final phase of your project is to clean everything up. Expect to spend 30-45 minutes washing brushes and putting your paint supplies away.

It’s best to wait 48 hours for the paint to dry before you put the room back together. Then it can take 30-45 minutes to move the furniture back into place.

How to Paint a Room Fast

The key to painting a room fast is knowing how to paint a house and having the right equipment. You may find that once you price out all of the necessary equipment, it is smart to hire a home painter like ultahome.com. Professional painters already have all of the equipment, so they can come in and paint quickly.