You don’t actually have to watch the paint dry
When drab walls get you down, give them a glow-up with a fresh coat of paint. Painting a room is a cost-effective DIY that increases aesthetics and updates the vibe of your home. It’s also a great way to cover up blemishes and imperfections. Before embarking on this project, many wonder just how long it takes to paint an entire room. That’s where we come in.
Painting a room takes anywhere from 2 to 8 hours, depending on several factors. This estimate accounts for preparation and applying multiple coats but doesn’t consider drying time, which can add 2 to 24 hours. Most professionals can do the job in half the time of an amateur DIYer, so contact a local interior painting pro for a chat if you want to speed up your project.
There’s a lot of wiggle room between two and eight hours, so here are the major factors that determine just how long it’ll take to paint a room.
The bigger the room, the longer it’ll take to paint. An average-sized bedroom of around 430 square feet takes 5 to 6 hours to paint. A big living room will lean toward 8 hours, and a small home office can take as little as 3 hours. Most bathrooms are small, so they don’t take long to paint. However, the high moisture in this area means much longer drying time.
You can’t just break out the brush or roller and start painting. You’ll have to move the furniture, lay down drop cloths, tape off areas, and arrange all required tools and supplies. Take your time with the prep work to ensure the best results. This step takes 30 minutes to an hour in most cases, even across similar projects, if you’re looking to compare stain vs. paint.
While you’re at it, don’t neglect clean-up, which is basically prep in reverse. Picking everything up and putting it away takes about 15 to 30 minutes, but washing off misplaced paint could add a few more hours.
Simple jobs like painting a single wall or just the trim take less time, and complex jobs require more patience. Expect to spend extra time on an oddly shaped room with plenty of nooks and crannies. The same goes if you have high walls, as any impediment to accessibility will tick up that project clock. Bathrooms, while small, might fall into this category if you have to carefully paint behind and around fixtures like the toilet and sink.
You’ll likely speed through the project if you’ve painted dozens of rooms in your life, and you’ll take longer than average if it's your first wall-painting rodeo. Experience is the main reason pros complete these jobs in around half the time as amateurs. Of course, hiring a pro to paint a room costs anywhere from $150 to $4,800. If you want similar results, wrangle some friends and family to help.
Some application methods take longer than others. The three main application methods are brushing, rolling, and spraying. That last one isn’t appropriate for indoor jobs unless you want to look at specks of paint on your furniture for the next 20 years. Most interior projects require a mix of brushes and rollers. Brushes take longer than rollers, so factor that in. The most efficient way to paint a room is to use brushes for the edges and trim and rollers to cover those large open surfaces in the middle.
Painter's tape will ensure crisp, clean lines, but only if you use it correctly. Wash and dry your surface before applying tape, then remove it as soon as the paint is dry to the touch.
Painting a room requires multiple coats, adding more time to the clock. The first coat takes the longest to apply, as you must be careful and ensure even coverage. Additional coats are quicker, sometimes twice as quick as the initial covering. Remember to wait for the first coat to dry before adding another one. Latex and acrylic paints dry faster than oil-based paints, so consider dry time when comparing enamel vs. acrylic paint for your project.
Once all the coats have dried, give the room a final inspection for imperfections and touch everything up. This is a quick step and should take no longer than 15 to 30 minutes. In some cases, you won’t have anything to touch up.
You just spent hours painting a room, so here are tips to keep those freshly painted walls clean for the long haul.
Dust regularly. Use a soft cloth or microfiber duster and work slowly and gently to stave off the accumulation of debris.
Vacuum carefully. Whenever you vacuum a recently painted room, exercise caution. Go slowly and use a soft brush attachment when working near the walls to avoid accidental damage.
Don’t neglect spot cleaning. If you notice a smudge on the wall or someone spilled a beverage nearby, spot-clean the area right away with mild soap and water.
Use the right cleaning products. For larger cleaning jobs, stick with specialty formulas for painted surfaces. When in doubt, test the product on an inconspicuous part of the wall.
