Interior Painting for NYC Apartments & Homes

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Careful preparation, clean even finishes, and painters who understand occupied apartments, board rules, service elevators and prewar plaster. Painting New York homes since 2007.

5.0 from 109 Google reviews · Painting NYC homes since 2007 · Licensed and insured, NYC HIC #1321983-DCA
EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm · Manhattan and northern Brooklyn · Estimates credited to your project

Interior painting for apartments, co-ops and brownstones

A good paint job starts with preparation and ends with a finish that looks clean, even and considered. Paint Works paints interiors for New York City homeowners and the designers they work with: single rooms, full apartment repaints, and the prewar detail that makes both harder than they look.

Most of our work is in homes people are living in. That shapes everything about how we work, from the order we paint rooms in to how the apartment looks at six o'clock each evening.

LET'S WORK TOGETHER

What we paint

From one room to a complete apartment, we handle projects of every size. Surfaces get prepared properly, and your furniture, floors and fixtures are protected before any work starts.

  • Walls, ceilings, doors and trim
  • Bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms and hallways
  • Baseboards, crown molding and architectural detail
  • Accent walls and colour changes
  • Built-ins, radiator enclosures and other painted millwork
  • Surface repair, sanding, caulking and priming
  • Complete apartment and brownstone repaints

Walls that need more than paint? See Plaster Wall Repair. Kitchen cabinets are their own craft — see Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing. For damaged baseboards, casings and crown molding, see Interior Trim Repair. Hanging paper instead of painting? See Wallpaper Installation.

Prewar entry hall with panelled walls painted in soft yellow

Interior painters who know NYC buildings

Painting in New York is as much about the building as the apartment. A job that takes three days in a house takes a week here, and most of the difference is logistics: what the building allows, when it allows it, and how much of your home has to keep working while we are in it.

Co-op and condo boards

Most buildings want a certificate of insurance naming the building, the managing agent and sometimes the board before a drop cloth comes through the lobby. Some want the scope in writing, and a few want an alteration agreement signed. We have been through this in buildings across Manhattan and northern Brooklyn, and we prepare the paperwork as part of the job rather than handing it back to you.

Building hours and elevators

Work usually has to happen inside set weekday hours, with the service elevator reserved in advance and padded before anything is carried up. We schedule around that and plan deliveries so the lobby is not full of materials at five o'clock.

Occupied apartments

We work room by room, seal off what we are working on, and clean at the end of each day so the apartment stays usable. Beds get slept in, kitchens get cooked in, and children and pets stay where they are.

Prewar plaster

Plaster is not drywall. It cracks along lath lines, separates from the substrate, and has often been patched badly two or three times before we see it. We repair it properly — cut back, refill, skim and sand — because paint over failing plaster fails with the plaster.

Lead-safe work in prewar buildings

Paint applied before 1978 may contain lead, and disturbing it is regulated rather than merely inadvisable. Paint Works is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm, certification number NAT-63579-4, which is what allows us to carry out renovation, repair and painting in pre-1978 homes. In practice that means containment, controlled removal and proper clean-up in exactly the prewar apartments most of our work is in.

A century of paint on the trim

Prewar trim can carry decades of layers, and the profile disappears underneath them. Where the detail matters, we strip it back rather than adding another coat on top.

Preparation makes the difference

Paint only looks as good as the surface underneath it. Before any colour goes on we deal with what is actually there: patching, sanding, scraping, caulking, spot priming and full priming where it is needed.

We protect floors, furniture, fixtures, countertops and cabinets first. Rooms get masked, not just covered. The result is a smoother surface, cleaner lines between wall and trim, and a finish that still looks right in five years.

It is also the part of the job most quotes leave vague. Ours says what preparation is included, so you can compare it against anyone else's.

  • Careful surface preparation before any colour goes on
  • Clean, precise lines between wall, ceiling and trim
  • Respect for your home and your building's common areas
  • Clear communication from the estimate to the final walkthrough
Freshly painted prewar door with a glass knob and brass escutcheon

What happens after you get in touch

Send photos

Share a few photos or a short video of the rooms and tell us what you want done. Most of what we would otherwise ask on the phone is answered by the pictures.

Book a time

We find a window that works around your building's hours and access rules. If a certificate of insurance is needed first, we send it ahead.

On-site estimate

We come and see the space. We measure, check the condition of the walls, ceilings and trim, and confirm exactly what the job involves.

Written quote

A detailed quote covering preparation, materials, protection, sequence and schedule. The number does not move unless the scope does.

REQUEST AN ESTIMATE
rown molding and door casing in white against a blue-grey wall

Questions we get asked

Ready to talk about your project?

Send a few photos of the space and we will come back with a time, within 24 hours. The on-site estimate costs $50 to $125 depending on the complexity of the project, and it is credited against your project when you book the work. Prefer to talk it through first? Call (212) 923 - 2600. We never share your information.

REQUEST AN ESTIMATE