What painting costs in the Netherlands in 2026
Starting prices for interior walls and ceilings, window frames and exterior woodwork, the lines a quote adds for preparation, wood repair and scaffolding, the outside of a terraced house worked through, and which parts of the job carry 9 or 21 percent VAT.
Painting an interior wall with two coats starts from €15 per m² in 2026, according to one Dutch price guide, and a ceiling from €10 per m². Outside, an exterior window frame starts from €50 in that guide and from €120 in another, and exterior woodwork from €25 per m² in a third. A painter’s hourly rate starts at €35. Those figures cover the painting itself. Sanding, filling, wood rot repair, scaffolding and waste removal are priced on top, and on the terraced house worked through below they take a quote for six frames and two doors from €900 to about €1,550.
Starting prices in three guides
Three Dutch price guides, here called A, B and C, each publish their own figures: Guide A (pages updated in March 2026), Guide B (February to April 2026) and Guide C (updated October 2025 and published as its 2026 overview). Guides A and C say theirs include paint, materials and VAT. Guide B does not say whether VAT is in.
| Work | Guide A | Guide B | Guide C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interior wall, roller (sauswerk) | from €15 per m² | from €8 per m² | from €10 per m² |
| Ceiling, roller | from €10 per m² | from €10 per m² | not given per m² |
| Spray painting (spuitwerk) | from €5 per m² | from €8 per m² (ceiling) | from €6 per m² |
| Interior frame | from €35 per frame | from €75 per frame | not given |
| Exterior window frame | from €50 per frame | from €120 per frame | from €250 per frame |
| Exterior woodwork | from €35 per m² | not given per m² | from €25 per m² |
| Exterior wall | not given separately | from €25 per m², scaffolding excluded | from €15 per m² |
The gaps come from what each guide counts as the job: Guide B prices an exterior frame as sanding plus lacquer, Guide C’s €250 is a VAT-inclusive average. Guide A even disagrees with itself, starting a ceiling at €18 per m² in its overview and at €10 on its ceiling page. None of the three gives a rate per running metre of frame; if a quote uses one, ask how the metres were measured.
Walls and ceilings inside
Guide A prices two coats on a wall, a base coat and a finishing coat, at €15 to €30 per m² including the paint. Spraying is faster and often cheaper on a ceiling, Guide A says, and a ceiling once finished with whitewash (witkalk) needs a fixing coat first. Guide B notes that ceilings are harder to paint than walls, so the labour is often dearer.
Paint is only as good as the wall under it. A wall that will be painted needs a paint-ready (sausklaar) plaster finish, and Guide B calls primer, from €3 per m², necessary on new plaster; our plastering cost guide covers that step. For the living room worked through there, 46 m² of wall and a 24 m² ceiling, painting starts from €690 for the walls and €240 for the ceiling at Guide A’s rates, plus €210 for primer on the fresh plaster and €50 for masking at Guide B’s: from €1,190 in all.
Window frames, doors and exterior woodwork
Exterior woodwork carries most of the cost outside: frames take more detail work than walls and specific paints to keep wood rot out, Guide A notes. It puts an exterior frame at €50 to €100, and all exterior frames of an average terraced house, about 20 m², at €1,800 on average. Outside doors start from €90 in Guide B and €100 in Guide C.
For the whole outside of a house, the guides give these starting points:
| House type | Guide A | Guide C |
|---|---|---|
| Apartment | from €1,000 | from €1,000 |
| Terraced house (tussenwoning) | from €1,500 | from €1,500 |
| Corner or semi-detached house | from €2,500 | from €3,000 |
| Detached house | from €5,500 | from €6,000 |
What the per-m² or per-frame price leaves out
- Preparation, sanding and repairs: from €5 per m² (Guide B). On interior walls, filling holes and cracks starts from €5 per m² and sanding from €2.
- An extra coat: from €3 per m² for a dark colour or a colour change that the usual two coats do not cover (Guide B).
- Wood rot: one spot in a frame from €150, the bottom of a door from €200, a fascia board (boeideel) from €250. Replacing the bottom of a frame starts from €600 and a whole wooden frame from €1,200 (Guide B).
- Scaffolding: from €75 a day (Guide B); for a facade project Guide C puts scaffold hire at €400 to €1,000, depending on height and duration. Guide C names a scaffold or aerial work platform (hoogwerker) as one reason exterior painting costs more, but no guide prices a platform separately.
- Masking and protection: from €50 per room or job (Guide B).
- Waste removal: from €50 (Guide B).
- Reserve: Guide B advises 5 to 15 percent for the unexpected.
Hourly rates
A painter’s hourly rate starts at €35 for interior work and €40 for exterior work in Guides A and C; Guide B starts a skilled painter at €35 without splitting the two. Guide A says painters charge by the hour mostly for detailed work such as stairs, doors and frames, and per m² for walls, facades and ceilings. What the rate covers is less clear: Guide A’s page says in one place that it excludes VAT and paint, a few lines later that it includes VAT but not materials. Ask for it in writing. Guide A also notes that painters often quote sharper rates in the quieter winter months.
Worked example: the outside of a terraced house
A terraced house with six wooden window frames and two outside doors, last painted about seven years ago. Two small soft spots turn up in the frames, and the upper frames need a scaffold. Rates are Guide B’s.
- Exterior frames, sanded and lacquered: 6 × €120 = from €720
- Outside doors: 2 × €90 = from €180
- Wood rot, two small spots: 2 × €150 = from €300
- Scaffolding: 3 days × €75 = from €225
- Waste removal: from €50
Total: from €1,475. With Guide B’s lowest reserve of 5 percent, the budget starts at €1,548.75. The frames and doors alone come to €900, so repair, access and waste add nearly two thirds. Other guides price the same job far lower: Guide C puts the frames and doors of a terraced house at €300 to €600 with paint and sanding, but no scaffold or rot, and Guide A’s rate gives €300 for six frames. A sill rotten through adds from €600 for replacing the bottom of that frame, taxed at 21 percent.
How often exterior paint is due
Guide A puts window frames at every five to seven years, depending on the quality of the previous coat and the weather. Guide C gives the same five to seven years for outside walls.
Waiting costs more than it saves. Guide B notes that a rot spot of 5 cm can spread through half a sill within one to two years, which turns a repair from €150 into a new sill from €600. Guide C describes maintenance contracts, usually for ten years, with a yearly check, touch-ups and at least one full repaint, and prices one at €5,000 to €6,000.
VAT: 9 percent for painting, 21 percent for wood replacement
Painting a home older than two years carries 9 percent VAT. According to the Belastingdienst, the reduced rate covers the materials used, the preparation, pre-treatments, and lacquering, varnishing and staining, not only the labour. The two years run from the date the property was first used as a home, and sheds and extensions on the same plot count as part of it.
Work that stands too far from painting stays at 21 percent. The Belastingdienst’s own examples include fitting wooden inserts into frames, replacing wooden sills, replacing windows, doors and frames, sealant work on facades and glazing. So a quote for exterior paintwork with wood repair can carry two rates. The Belastingdienst does not mention epoxy filling by name, so ask which rate the quote applies to it.
The guides are looser. Guide A’s general page and Guide B’s wood rot guide speak of 9 percent on labour, while the Belastingdienst includes the paint. A decorative mural is a separate case: in a position published in February 2026, the Belastingdienst’s knowledge group ruled that an artistic mural is not painting a home, so the reduced rate does not apply to it. More in our article on the 9 percent rate.
Permits, monuments and the VvE
Painting frames, doors and facade panels does not count as building, IPLO notes, so the national building rules do not apply. On a monument, the Rijksoverheid says, ordinary maintenance needs no permit when colours, materials, details, shape and profile stay the same, such as repainting frames in the same colour without stripping the old layers. A change of colour or material can need a permit; see our guide to monument renovation.
In an apartment building, exterior frames and the facade are usually common property, so the outside paintwork belongs to the VvE; check its maintenance plan before ordering work, and see VvE approval for apartment renovation. Checking and applying are the homeowner’s responsibility.
LucKey Construction works from Zaandam in Amsterdam and the surrounding area, on interior and exterior painting, wallpapering and decorative finishes, with low-VOC paints available on request. The offer describes the materials and labour for each type of work and states what you buy yourself, after a visit to measure on site. The work carries a one-year warranty, LucKey is insured against damage, and the workplace is cleaned at the end of every working day. Frames that are past repair are a separate job; see window replacement. See painting and decorating services, or ask for a quote.
Disclaimer: every figure in this article is a starting point, not a price and not a ceiling. They are national market indications for 2026, drawn from published Dutch price guides and observation of the Amsterdam region, and they describe where work of this kind begins when nothing unusual is found. They are not a quotation, a price list or an offer, and no figure here can be relied on for any particular project. What painting actually costs depends on the property, the condition of the existing paintwork and woodwork, the surfaces and their height, access and scaffolding, the paint system chosen and the region, and it is fixed only in a written quotation after a property visit and a full calculation. That quotation is the only figure that binds anyone. The legal points are a general summary and not legal advice. Labour rates and material prices change, and the figures here reflect the position in October 2026. Rules on permits and VAT change: check anything here that affects a permit or a tax rate with the body responsible for it, which means your municipality and the Omgevingsloket for permits, your VvE for work on common property, and the Belastingdienst for VAT. Responsibility for permits, consents and applications rests with the homeowner, not with the contractor.
