When it comes to apartment painting, there are a few important things that landlords, property managers, owners, and tenants all need to consider.
Whether you are in New York City, Chicago, or Los Angeles, the same questions come up.
Is painting your apartment or condo interior worth it? How do you find a good professional apartment painting contractor? Should I DIY painting my apartment? What apartment colors are best for the interior walls of an apartment?
To help you decide we’ll cover everything you need to know about interior or exterior apartment and condo painting.
From hiring a painter and costs to choosing paint colors and interior design ideas, we explore it all in this 2023 guide to painting apartments.
Not to mention, we’ll give you some expert home improvement tips to make your apartment or condominium paint job a breeze.
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How much does painting an apartment cost?
Apartment painting costs between $2,461 and $3,983 on average in 2023.
For larger apartments with high ceilings or staircases, you can expect to pay between $3,842 – $6,797. On the other hand, smaller units or studio apartments generally cost less to paint.
As a rule of thumb, you can expect to pay between $2.60 and $3.90 per square foot to hire a professional apartment painting contractor.
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Indeed, the cost of painting your apartment or condo is a major consideration for property managers, owners, and tenants.
Given the price tag, hiring a professional painting company may not be worth it for renters on a one-year lease.
In either case, we’ve made calculating interior square footage easy in our new expert guide.
However, if you own a single apartment or are a landlord, repainting after your tenant moves out or before a move-in is often a great idea. For information on which shades are best for each room, check out this Zillow home paint color analysis.
Likewise, certain city or local ordinances may require rental units to be painted between tenants.
Not to mention, a freshly painted apartment or condo is highly desirable for renters with the onset of COVID-19.
Expert Painter Tip:
Use Low-VOC or No-VOC paint to reduce fumes after painting your apartment.
These eco-friendly interior paints can be found at most local hardware stores including Sherwin Williams, Home Depot, and Benjamin Moore.
Couple this with the return on investment you get when painting before listing an apartment for sale and it’s often a no-brainer.
By and large, a fresh interior paint coat or new wall colors can transform a drab apartment unit into a modern urban oasis.
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Commercial Apartment Painting Costs
This is also true for property managers looking to modernize the exterior of an apartment complex with a new coat of paint.
The cost of hiring a commercial painting company to do the job is often worth it. Especially when you consider the importance of curb appeal when selling or renting units in the apartment or condo building.
The same goes for commercial projects like painting common areas, hallways, or staircases in a condo or apartment complex.
Certainly, walls and baseboards get scuffed up and damaged when apartment dwellers move in and move out of their units.
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In addition, that old tan or yellow wall color chosen by the previous homeowners association years ago is likely outdated. In turn, dragging the listing price of rentals or condos for sale in the building.
Even adding an accent wall to your building’s entryway foyer color palette can do wonders in terms of real estate photos.
Undoubtedly, a fresh coat of paint can go a long way to increase property values.
Need a commercial painter to paint the interior or exterior of your apartment or condominium? Our professional paint crews specialize in commercial apartment interior painting services. Get a detailed and fast price quote online from Improovy painters today.
Popular Apartment Painting Projects We Provide:
- Commercial apartment exterior painting
- New apartment and condominium painting
- First-time move-in or move-out repaints or color matching
- Painting of trim, walls, ceilings, railings, and doors in common areas
- Drywall repairs and patching holes
The problem for HOAs or building managers lies in actually finding a quality commercial painting contractor that doesn’t disrupt the daily lives of tenants.
As one of the nation’s best professional apartment painting services, we’ve learned a few expert tricks to ensure things goes smoothly.
From cozy studio apartments to luxury lofts with 18-foot living room ceilings, here’s how to find a good local apartment or condo painter.
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Hiring Good Apartment Painters Near Me
Given that interior home painting can result in a 107% ROI on average, the choice to hire a good apartment painting contractor is an easy one.
But how do you find a local apartment painter near you that isn’t a nightmare to work with?
Let’s start with what red flags to avoid when hiring professional painters for an apartment or condo project.
Condo Or Apartment Painter Reviews
The first red flag can be found in an apartment painter’s reviews online.
No question, good online reviews are a plus. More specifically, you should search reviews for specific keywords that are important to your job.
For example, if your apartment needs painting within a specific time window, you should look for words like “responsive” or “communication” in the reviews.
If these words are missing from their reviews, you may be dealing with a flaky apartment painter. They might do good work but can tend to show up late or miss deadlines.
Secondly, you should consider that the actual site that you read the reviews on is important. When looking online for painters, movers, house cleaning companies, or any service really, we tend to trust reviews on Google first.
Next, we recommend checking out the local referrals on any neighborhood Facebook groups.
Lastly, you can hop on sites like Yelp, Angieslist, or HomeAdvisor. But keep in mind these are advertising websites that paint contractors can pay to show only the best reviews.
Need a professional painting service in Chicagoland that is trusted and highly rated? Visit our Chicago location to get a free interior or exterior painting quote.
Interior Paint Job Photos
The next red flag to look out for when searching for an apartment or interior painter is found in the job site photos they post online.
No question, a painter that’s willing to share in-progress painting project photos publicly is confident in their quality.
Look for companies with lots of photos on google maps and recent interior painting pictures on their website.
Also, avoid painting companies with a ton of stock photos on their website and social media profiles. Accordingly, this is a sign that the company might not be real or may just be a lead generation service.
Do I need to wash walls before I paint them?
In addition, take a look at the apartment-specific photos and the cleanliness of their job site.
Do they use drop cloths to protect floors and is furniture covered with plastic film? The difference between an amateur handyman and a professional painter can be spotted in how clean their worksites tend to be.
Similarly, are they plenty of photos showcasing their prep work process online? This includes taping, scraping peeling paint, patching holes, and sanding walls prior to priming.
Even looking for clean paintbrushes and organized equipment in photos can provide insight into how your job will go.
No matter what color you paint your apartment’s walls, proper preparation work can make or break how the job looks in the end.
Next, let’s dive into the best apartment paint colors and some interior design ideas.
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Colors and Apartment Painting Ideas
Whether you’re going from a dark to light color to make a small apartment look bigger or adding an accent wall to a condo bedroom, the colors you choose matter.
When it comes to finding the best apartment wall paint colors, we recommend staying neutral. Indeed, neutral colors are best when it comes to apartment resale values.
Since COVID-19, online photos on sites like Redfin, Realtor.com, and Zillow are more important than ever.
In real estate, first impressions count. Neutral paint colors put your property in the best light possible for both in-person showings and online photos.
Also, avoid dark colors or vibrant accent walls when painting your apartment as these may turn off some potential buyers.
The key with neutral apartment paint colors is to avoid a shade that’s too white or too saturated with beige or grey.
We recommend balanced interior colors like Pure White from Sherwin Williams or Classic Gray by Benjamin Moore.
For more ideas and inspiration, view our full list of the best neutral interior colors.
More Rental Apartment Color Tips
Another useful tip for landlords, renters, or apartment owners is to use a flat paint sheen on walls when you want future touchups to be less visible.
Keep in mind that flat paint on walls is easier to scuff versus eggshell or satin sheens.
However, glossier sheens like an eggshell are nearly impossible to touch up seamlessly.
What this means that the touched-up areas will look different than the surrounding wall.
For common areas in condos or apartments like main entryways, stairwells, and garage walls, we recommend a higher gloss sheen like satin.
Higher gloss paint cleans up much easier in high traffic areas like hallways that get scuffed up daily.
Whether or not you use the exact same paint can or color doesn’t matter.
Since any interior paint weathers and fades over time, any new paint that’s been tightly sealed in a can will look slightly off.
Matching Your Apartment’s Wall Colors
Oftentimes, renters try to match a wall color in an apartment after performing repairs or patching holes so they don’t lose their deposit. In general, matching paint colors these days is easy.
But what’s hardest for tenants is blending their small touchup area to match the old wall color before they move out.
The best tip we can give you when it comes to touching up apartment or condo walls is to paint the entire wall at once.
Paint the single wall from corner to corner and make sure that the color in the can matches the rest of the room. That way, even a slightly fresher coat of paint will blend in with the rest of your apartment’s walls.
We hope that this condo and apartment painting guide was helpful to you. For more expert tips read our interior price guide to see how much your next apartment paint job will cost.
In case you need a quality apartment painter, get your free quote online from the expert team at Improovy by clicking above.
Learn more about Improovy, the tech-enabled painting service that’s transforming the industry by making the lives of contractors and homeowners easier.
