Interior Decorator Norwich
100+ Happy Customers
How much does it cost to paint a room in Norwich?
A single room, walls and ceiling, comes in between £150 and £400 and is usually a one-day job. What moves it inside that band is the size of the room, how much filling and making good the walls need, and whether the woodwork is included as well as the walls. Full house redecorations are quoted room by room rather than as a single lump.
- Single room
- £150 – £400
- Time per room
- Usually 1 day
- Coats
- Two as standard
- Furniture
- We move and cover it
The Preparation Is the Job
Anyone can put paint on a wall. What you are actually paying a decorator for is everything that happens before the first coat: the cracks raked out and filled, the gap between the skirting and the wall caulked, the old fixing holes made good, the whole lot sanded flat and dusted off.
Skip that and the room looks fine on the day and wrong within a week, because low evening light finds every dip and every filled hole that was never sanded back. It is also the honest explanation for why two quotes for the same room can be a hundred pounds apart.
When you compare prices, ask what preparation is in the number. It is the only question that really separates one quote from another.
What Decorating Costs in Norwich
These are the bands we quote in, published so you have something to measure a quote against. Where you are in Norwich does not change the price.
| Work | Typical price | On site |
|---|---|---|
| Single room, walls and ceiling | £150 to £400 | Usually 1 day |
| Full house redecoration | Priced per property | Quoted room by room |
What moves the price
The size of the room and the ceiling height
A box room and a through lounge are both one room and nothing like the same job. Tall Victorian ceilings mean access equipment as well as more paint.
How much making good there is
Filling, caulking and sanding is where the time goes on an older house. Walls that are already sound paint quickly; walls with cracked plaster, old fixings and blown patches do not.
Whether the woodwork is included
Walls and ceiling only is the cheapest version. Skirtings, architraves, doors, window boards and a staircase are each their own piece of work and are priced in separately.
The colour change
Like for like is two coats. Covering a dark red or a deep blue with something pale often needs three, or a coat of primer first, and that is a day on the price.
Access
Stairwells and galleried landings are the jobs people put off for years, because they need proper access rather than a ladder on a step. They cost more than a bedroom of the same wall area.
Who supplies the paint
We can supply it or work with what you have already bought. Trade prices on materials usually come out lower than retail, but it is your call either way.
Every job gets a fixed price once we have seen the rooms, and that price is what you pay. If we open up a crack and find something that genuinely changes the work, you hear about it before we carry on rather than on the invoice.
How the Job Actually Runs
What happens in your house, in order, from the quote to the furniture going back.
Quote and colour
20 to 30 minutesWe come and look at the actual rooms, because square metres on their own do not tell you what the walls need. Part of that visit is colour: a shade that looks right on a chart in a shop reads completely differently on a north-facing Norwich wall in February, and it is cheaper to say so before the paint is bought.
Clear, move and protect
First hourFurniture comes to the middle of the room and gets covered, floors are sheeted properly rather than with one sheet flapping about, and sockets, switches and floor edges are masked. All you need to do is take personal items and anything breakable out of the way.
Making good
Often the longest stageCracks raked out and filled, old fixing holes made good, gaps between skirting and wall caulked, then everything sanded flat and dusted off. This is the stage that decides whether a finished wall looks flat or looks patchy in low evening light, and it is also the stage that gets rushed when a price looks too good.
Primer and stain block where it is needed
As requiredBare filler, new plaster, water marks and old nicotine all need sealing first or they will read straight back through the finish coats. Not every room needs it, and we will tell you which of yours do.
Ceilings, then walls, then woodwork
1 to 2 days per roomIn that order, always, so that nothing already finished is being worked over. Two coats as standard, cut in by hand at the cornice, picture rail and skirting rather than run round with tape and hoped for.
Put back and clear out
Last hourMasking off, furniture back where it started, floors cleared and the room usable the same evening. Emulsion is touch dry in a couple of hours; leave a few days before you push furniture hard up against a freshly painted wall.
Norwich Rooms, by the Age of the House
Norwich housing falls into three broad groups and they are genuinely different jobs. Which one you live in decides how much preparation there is, whether there is detail to cut in by hand, and therefore what a room actually costs.
It also decides the paint. A period room with lime plaster and a damp north wall wants something different to a two-year-old plasterboard box room, and using the same tin on both is how you end up doing it again.
The Golden Triangle and the city terraces
Victorian and Edwardian rooms off Unthank Road and Newmarket Road still carrying their cornice, picture rails and deep skirtings. Lath and plaster walls that have moved for a century, so there is real filling to do, and detail that has to be cut in by hand. This is the work that separates a decorator from a painter.
Thorpe St Andrew, Sprowston, Hellesdon and Old Catton
Interwar and postwar semis with plasterboard or sound skimmed walls. These are the straightforward one-day rooms, and the reason a bedroom in Sprowston prices very differently to a bedroom the same size off Unthank Road.
Cringleford, Costessey, Trowse and the new estates
New builds come with a thin coat of builder's contract emulsion that marks if you look at it. The first proper redecoration usually wants the settlement cracks filled and two full coats of a paint that will actually wipe clean.
Rooms We Decorate
Living Rooms
Usually the room with the most detail still in it. Picture rails, cornice and skirtings cut in by hand rather than rushed through with a roller.
Bedrooms
Normally a one-day room. Furniture moved and covered, walls made good, and everything back where it started before we leave.
Hallways & Stairs
The job most people put off. A tall Norwich stairwell needs proper access rather than a ladder balanced on a step, which is exactly why it stays undone.
Bathrooms
Moisture-resistant systems, and the cause of any damp looked at rather than painted over. Solid walls and poor ventilation are a common pairing in the older city housing.
Feature Walls
Chimney breasts and alcoves are the obvious candidates in a period room, and they are almost never square, so the cutting-in is what makes or breaks it.
Home Offices
Spare rooms and garden rooms turned into somewhere you can actually work, usually needing a warmer and brighter finish than they came with.
What Is Included
Colour advice on the visit
Including how a shade will read on a north-facing Norwich wall.
Full surface preparation
Filling, caulking, sanding and priming, not a quick once-over.
Furniture moved and covered
You clear personal items; we deal with the rest.
Two coats as standard
Three where the colour change genuinely needs it.
Your paint or ours
Trade prices if we supply, or we use what you have bought.
Cleared the same day
Room usable that evening, floors left as we found them.
Rooms We Have Finished
Our own photographs of completed work — no stock photography and no showroom shots.
Mid-job. Furniture to the middle, covered, floors sheeted, walls cut in.
Vaulted stairwell — the sort of access job that gets left undone for years.
Panelled entrance hall, cornice and staircase, all cut in by hand.
Living room with fitted joinery and heavy cornice worked around.
Panelling and cornice on a landing, finished in two tones.
Loft conversion — sloped ceilings and a coffered detail, all one colour.
Common Questions
List the rooms, hallways and stairwell, then specify walls, ceilings and woodwork for each. Note wallpaper removal, repairs, strong colour changes and whether the property will be occupied. A whole-house price depends on that scope and the condition of each surface, rather than the number of bedrooms alone.
A single room, walls and ceiling, is £150 to £400 and usually a one-day job. Where it sits in that band comes down to the size of the room, how much filling and making good the walls need, and whether the woodwork is included as well.
Per room, quoted as a fixed price once we have seen it. A day rate rewards working slowly and leaves you carrying the risk if a room turns out to need more preparation than expected — a fixed price puts that risk on us, where it belongs.
Most rooms are a day. A large room, a stairwell, or one needing a lot of filling and three coats to cover a dark colour runs into a second day, and we will say so at the quote rather than halfway through.
No. We move furniture to the middle of the room and cover it, and sheet the floors. All you need to do is take personal items, ornaments and anything breakable out of the way beforehand.
Either way. We can supply it at trade prices, or work with paint you have already bought. If we are supplying, you still choose the brand and the colour.
Two as standard on walls and ceilings. Three where the colour change genuinely needs it — covering a deep red or a dark blue with something pale is the usual case, and that adds about a day.
Sometimes, if the paper is well stuck down and not textured or vinyl. More often it is a false economy: the paste softens, seams lift and edges show through, and you end up stripping it anyway with a coat of paint on top making it harder. We will tell you honestly which of the two you have.
Yes. Ceilings first, then walls, then woodwork, in that order so nothing already finished is worked over. Skirtings, architraves, doors and window boards are priced separately from the walls so you can decide what is in.
The room is usable the same evening and we put the furniture back before we leave. Emulsion is touch dry within a couple of hours, but leave it a few days before pushing furniture hard against a freshly painted wall.
Planning more work in Norwich?
Explore these services if your project includes more than one part of the property.
Wallpaper hanging in Norwich
Feature walls and full rooms, including stripping and preparation.
Kitchen respraying in Norwich
Refresh cabinet doors, drawer fronts and frames without replacing units.
Looking for this service elsewhere? See our interior painting and decorating across Norfolk or our interior painting and decorating in Great Yarmouth.
Explore all our painting and decorating services in Norwich.
Want a Fixed Price for Your Rooms?
We come out, look at the actual walls, and give you a number. No obligation.