Meagan,
My husband and I chose to paint the whole house ourselves when we built a house in California. It was a total saving of $6000. The builder did paint everything white, but custom colors we're a $6000 upgrade. (this was a cokkie cutter home through Centex)
The house we built in Oklahoma (custom build) we decided to paint 3 beds and 1 bath ourselves. This only saved us about $700, since the painter charged $100 for each change in paint color.

We enjoyed doing it ourselves. Hubby and I are very much DIY'ers, and we love having "projects". There aren't a whole lot of projects when you have a custom built home, so painting was one small thing we could have fun with.

Our builder is only charging $100 for any colors over 3, so it wasn't worth it to paint rooms ourselves. However, we are over budget at this point too, and are considering painting all of our built ins (2 8'x10' bookcases, 2 large double door cabinets, and a smaller bookcase) ourselves. Our painting allowance does not include all of these built ins, and they are very labor intensive to paint, so we very well may do these ourselves for a considerable savings (builder has thrown around a figure of $600-$800 or so for painter to do).

I recently sold a house in CA and in preparation for the listing...I got estimates on painting the house to make it more appealing...(different reason than yours, but same concept) My estimates were from $1,500 to $2,500 (pretty reasonable for San Diego) to paint an 1100 sq ft. 3 bedroom home with custom colors)

I did it myself and it took my mom and I about 3 days to do the entire house, trim and all.

So if you have the time, it is definitely going to be worth the savings.

Another thought is that if you dont have 3 dedicated days, use available weekends and spread it out to make it more reasonable with your schedule...MANY, MANY PEOPLE move into a "builders white" home and take a year to get the right colors they want....it's all a matter of your tollerance level and need for it to be "move in ready"

I painted our 3000 sq ft house inside and out. Not quite done but each item was 7000 and I was able to use many different colors. It takes a TON of time to do it right.

I wouldn't even consider doing this unless you just really like to paint. It's probably a savings of less than $1500, and it is so time and labor intensive! Using the professionals is just so much easier, and if they mess up...you can make them do it again! I don't know how tight your budget is, but I just don't think this is the area that will stop the bleeding if you're that far over...

I'm glad you posted this as I've been thinking the same thing. We're not overbudget(yet!) but painting is something I've wondered if we could do ourselves to help save costs.

I don't mind painting a room or two but I'd never be able to paint our whole house. Luckily DH has a friend who is a painter by trade (he painted our house now), who will paint interior and exterior. He doesn't charge more for color changes. He tells us how many gallons per room and we buy the paint. Best of all, DH barters with him so it's no cash out of pocket for us.

I wouldn't attempt to paint our home ourselves since it's too big, there are too many mouldings and there are too many vaulted ceilings. Plus we are not that handy. That being said I think it's a great way to save money if you are up to it. I know my friend just received a $25,000 quote to paint the interior of her new home which is 3600 sq. ft.

C

I think a lot of the cost in a painters estimate is getting the paint/supplies together and setting everything up day after day. You might find that you will save next to nothing by eliminating 2 rooms and a bath from the original painting plan.

Get estimates with and without the rooms to make sure it's really worth it.

Carolineb, $25000 to paint just the interior of a 3600 SF home sounds really high to me!

We had our painters paint everything except our kids bedrooms since we'll want to do something special in them when the kids decide what they want. I am *so* glad that we had the painters paint all the other rooms! Painting isn't really hard, but we can never get the cutting in right and then it looks bad. Plus this way we don't have to worry about getting paint on our new floors, or having to cover all the furniture, etc. For the number of rooms you're talking, I doubt that you would save very much, but it is worth asking the painter. Good luck!

Ask your builder what the savings will be, as you can by the previous posts that it will vary. As for the person who said it was 'only $100 for colors over 3', that was likely just an addiitional fee to change colors (changing brushes, etc.) In other words it would have been $x,000 to paint 3 colors but $x,000 + $200 to paint 5 colors). Remember there are also possible compromises. We hired all the trim and ceiling paint, and did all the walls ourselves. We also parntered up on the cabinets by hiring the basic staining and doing the fancy glazing ourselves.

You just need to discuss with the builder and make a decision.

Also remember that there is "painting" and there are "finishes", painting is just that, finishes (at least in our area, YMMV) comprises much more including filling nailholes, caulking, staining floors and painting walls, ceilings, baseboard, windows and trim.

We are doing all the finish work in our house, including painting walls, windows and trim, sanding and filling nailholes, caulking around trim and staining the hardwood floors. We always knew we would do this to save money and to have control over color and finishes (I am the type who paints a wall with 4 different shades and takes a few days to decide which one I like best). We never bid out the job for our 2100sf, one-off home (with 10' or vaulted ceilings in all rooms), but our general told me we saved ourselves at least $18k by doing it all ourselves.

sandyponder

"Carolineb, $25000 to paint just the interior of a 3600 SF home sounds really high to me!"

That is what I thought, but my friend called a couple of other companies and it seemed to be the going rate. This is in Central NJ. It includes the painting of walls, windows, trim and doors. And sanding and filling nail holes.

C

Wow! Maybe it's the regional differences? Ours was half that price and included ceilings, walls, trim and doors plus caulking, nail holes, etc., as well as staining the entry door and stairway.

One thing I just thought of: we didn't need windows painted, and our floors were pre-finished. If they had stained flooring as well as needing the windows painted, maybe that would account for much of the difference.

we are doing all the painting of our home to save over $25,000 on a 2600 sq ft home. It is a LOT of work. new drywall requires sealing then 2 costs of paint. I wouldn't do it to save only a little. Painting costs vary greatly by region. Here they are outrageous. I just saw a 700 sq foot condo that was painted for almost $18,000. So for us it was worth it. good luck!

Our painters wanted 4000 dollars for a 4300 square foot house-225 dollars just to paint the inside rim of the trey ceiling in an 8 x 10 sitting area in the master!

Wow, a lot of responses. I wasn't wanting to paint just to be able to paint a couple of colors to save a few bucks. I'm thinking about painting so my painter won't do those rooms at all and save me some $$. We have a 2-story greatroom and foyer area that I don't dare to paint. And 12' master, master bath, closet and study that I don't plan to paint. Just the upstairs areas and maybe the dining room wall downstairs. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if it is worth it or not. I'd rather not paint the trim though, just the walls.

You can do it! I called my dh the first day in tears begging him to let us hire it out. He encouraged me to get started on it and see how far I got. I painted this whole (2000 sq.ft.) house myself, top to bottom. Just jump in there, it only seems scary at first. Take it one room at a time. We saved a lot of money yes, but better than that is the pride in knowning I did it all myself.

Carolineb, $25000 to paint just the interior of a 3600 SF home sounds really high to me too! We got a quote of $3.25 psf to paint (VA) and that is roller not spraying.

Our paint line item is $12,400 for labor and materials for 3,186 sq ft with lots of molding.