Painting is one of the last trades where two honest, qualified companies can look at the same house and hand you quotes that differ by 60%. That is not because one of them is cheating you. It is because "paint my house" describes about nine different amounts of work, and most quotes never spell out which one you are buying.
Here is what work actually costs around Puget Sound, and how to read a bid so you know what you are comparing.
What painting costs around Puget Sound
Labor rates here run above the national average — Seattle, Bellevue and Kirkland especially. A national "average cost to paint a house" article will lowball you by 20–30% for this market. These are realistic local ranges:
| Project | Typical range | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Interior — walls only | $2.35 – $4.10 / sq ft of floor space | Patch, caulk, two coats on walls |
| Interior — walls, ceilings, trim, doors | $3.80 – $6.40 / sq ft | The full package, everything coated |
| Single room refresh | $450 – $1,100 | One bedroom or office, walls + ceiling |
| Exterior repaint | $2.90 – $5.60 / sq ft of floor space | Wash, scrape, prime, caulk, two coats |
| Kitchen cabinets | $95 – $165 per door / drawer front | Degrease, sand, prime, sprayed enamel |
| Deck or fence staining | $2.60 – $4.80 / sq ft | Wash, brighten, two coats of stain |
A 2,000 sq ft home interior with walls, ceilings and trim generally lands between $7,600 and $12,800 here. Walls only, on the same house, is closer to $4,700 to $8,200. If someone quotes you $3,200 for the full package on that house, they are either skipping the second coat, skipping prep, or they are not carrying insurance.
Interior painting cost
Interiors are priced from floor square footage because it is the one number every homeowner knows. Painters then adjust for the things that actually drive labor:
- Ceiling height. Nine-foot ceilings add roughly 12% over eight-foot. Vaulted entries and open stairwells need staging or ladder jacks and can add several hundred dollars on their own.
- Trim package. Baseboards, casing, crown, doors and window sashes are slow, detailed brush work. Adding trim and doors to a walls-only job typically adds 45–70%.
- Color change severity. Going light-to-light is two coats. Going from a deep red or navy to white is realistically primer plus two coats, sometimes three.
- Wall condition. Nail pops and dents are included in any decent bid. Widespread cracking, old wallpaper glue, or a texture that needs matching is separate work.
Exterior painting cost
Exterior pricing in this climate is dominated by preparation, not paint. Two houses of identical size can be $4,000 apart because one has sound paint and one has ten years of failing edges to scrape.
- Substrate. Vinyl and fiber cement are fast. Cedar shingles, T1-11 and old lap siding are slow. Stucco eats paint — expect higher material volume.
- Stories. A second story adds ladder and staging time. A third story or a steep lot adds more.
- Failure percentage. Ask any bidder what percentage of the surface they expect to scrape. If they have not looked closely enough to answer, they have not really bid your house.
- Rot repair. Almost every Western Washington exterior over 15 years old has some soft trim, usually at window sills and the bottom of corner boards. Good bids call it out as a line item with an allowance instead of discovering it mid-job.
Cabinet refinishing cost
Cabinets are priced per opening — one door or one drawer front counts as one. A standard kitchen has 28–40 of them. At $95–$165 each, most kitchens land $3,000 to $6,200, versus $25,000–$45,000 for replacement.
Things that raise cabinet pricing legitimately: open-grain oak that needs grain filling, a color change from dark to white, glass mullion doors, an island in a second color, and boxes that need interior painting. Things that should not raise it: "premium paint" as a vague upsell with no product name attached.
What actually changes your price
Five variables account for nearly all quote variation:
- Number of coats. One coat over an existing similar color can look fine on day one and burnish unevenly within a year. Two coats is the standard. Confirm it in writing.
- Product line. "Sherwin-Williams paint" ranges from about $35 a gallon to over $95. A quote that names the exact line — Emerald, Duration, Regal Select, Aura — is a quote you can actually compare.
- Prep depth. Caulking every trim seam adds a day to a whole-house interior. It is also the difference between crisp lines and a job that looks amateur under afternoon light.
- Masking and protection. Real floor protection and plastic containment takes hours. Some crews just throw down a couple of canvas drops and hope.
- Insurance and payroll. A company carrying liability coverage, L&I workers' comp and legally-paid employees costs more than a crew of day labor. That difference is real, and it lands on you if someone gets hurt in your house.
How to compare three bids fairly
Ask all three bidders these five questions and write the answers side by side. The cheapest bid usually stops being the cheapest once the answers are on paper.
- How many coats, and is primer included or extra?
- What exact product line, in what sheen, on walls versus trim?
- What is included in prep — patching, caulking, sanding, degreasing?
- Is this a flat-rate price or an estimate that can change?
- What is your written warranty, and what voids it?
A contractor who wants a large deposit in cash, will not give you a written scope, or cannot produce a Washington contractor registration number. Verify any registration number yourself through the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries contractor lookup before you sign anything or pay anyone.
Where you can save without regretting it
There are smart ways to cut a painting budget and dumb ways. The smart ones:
- Book interior work in winter. November through February is the slow season for every painter in this region. Scheduling is instant and pricing is softer.
- Skip closet interiors and the garage unless they genuinely bother you.
- Paint walls now, trim next year. Trim is the expensive half. Fresh walls against decent existing trim still transforms a room.
- Do your own furniture moving and take down your own art and curtains before the crew arrives.
- Choose one color for the whole house instead of a different color per room. Fewer color changes means less cut-in time and less wasted material.
The dumb ones: skipping the second coat, skipping primer over stains, skipping caulk, and hiring anyone who is not insured. Every one of those saves money this month and costs more within three years.