Doesnt sound right to me.

Good grief I'll do it for $1500! :) Just kidding. Get a second and third bid!

Diann
IA Z5a

You can do it yourself for the cost of a couple of gallons of paint if you are using different colors. Even good quality paint only costs 25-ish a gallon. A gallon of paint covers way more than 300 sq feet. Sounds like the company does not want the job and has made the price way high to discourage you from hiring them. And yes, this job will be a pain in the rear. If the rooms are very small then there will be a lot of woodwork/doors/windows in relationship to wall space which means alot of taping. That alone will take more time and energy than the actual painting.
Get a neighborhood college kid or high school senior to do the job on the weekend. Or do it yourself. Oh what the heck, I'll do it for $1200, lol!!

Before I jump in and state that the cost sounds way out of line (it does) even with some furniture moving... some parts of your post were confusing.

Are you sure about the measurement of 285 square feet?

That's only about a 20 foot by 14 foot area.

East Coast labor is lots, lots, lots higher than in Texas! In the metro-D.C. area, $800 to $2000 would be right for a LR of about 20x15; $500 to $800 for kitchen of 9x15; baths run $300 and up. Price includes prepping (washing and rinsing lightly soiled walls and *minor* hole repairs) and painter's supplies of carpet covers, tarps, ladders, and brushes; and does *NOT* include cost of paint ($25 to $70 per gallon) nor moving furniture out the way. There is an extra charge if the window frames and/or floor molding are a different color (it takes time to cut in correctly).

I have a friend who does professional room-painting every winter, so I know the prices are correct for this area. Now, it really depends on whether you are paying for a "professional" (i.e. properly prepared and properly done) job or whether you are paying to have someone just slap some paint on the walls. Correct preparation takes time and that is what you are actually paying for.

Last winter, my DH (who worked as a painter for a few years after retiring from his first job) painted our LR (27x16) walls and ceiling in low-gloss; floor molding and window/door trim [3 large windows, 2 doors] in enamel. It took about 6 hours to wash and double-rinse; about an hour to touch up holes left from hanging pictures and spackle a tiny crack near a door; about 2 hours to mask the windows; 2 hours to move the furniture which included 2 large bookcases (otherwise it probably would have taken less than 20 minutes!). The actual painting took a day and a half for the low-gloss on the walls and a day for ceiling, and another 2 days for the high gloss due to having many small panes in the windows. You can see that this took most of a week for just one room which was basically in very good shape and very easy to do.

Don't hire any painter unless you have a very detailed contract specifying exactly what he/they are going to do!

Room size to paint - charged by the sq.ft. say a 10x15 room = 150 sq.ft. @ a $1.50 per sq.ft. comes to $225.00 -Now what about the ceiling? is that included? or do you charge it the same way the walls were figured out.
Thanks much
Bill