Six decisions come up in every painting job, and the painter will usually make them for you unless you make them first. Here is each one with the trade-off laid out, and when each option is the right call.
Distemper or emulsion
Distemper is the cheap, matte, chalky finish: ₹60 to ₹100 per litre, ₹8 per sq ft to apply, two to three years before it chalks and marks. It is not washable in any real sense. Emulsion is the standard wall paint: ₹150 to ₹600 per litre by grade, ₹16 per sq ft to apply over a sound wall, five to ten years of life, wipeable or washable depending on grade.
Distemper is right for a landlord repainting between tenants, a store room, a servant's room, and ceilings in rooms where nobody looks up. Emulsion is right for every room you live in. The labour difference is small; the paint difference is about ₹2,000 to ₹4,000 on a 2 BHK, and the difference in how the flat looks in year three is large. The one trap: once a wall has distemper on it, moving to emulsion later needs a binding primer or a full putty, so a wall that will be emulsioned eventually should be emulsioned now.
Repaint or full putty
Repaint at ₹16 per sq ft is putty touch-up on holes and cracks, spot primer, two coats. Full putty at ₹24 is two full coats of putty sanded flat, a full coat of primer, two coats of paint. The difference on a 2 BHK is roughly ₹20,000 in labour and three days.
Full putty when: the plaster is bare, the old paint is flaking in sheets or chalking everywhere, the wall was distempered, or you want a silk finish that will show every wave. Repaint when: the old emulsion is sound, there are a few holes and hairline cracks, and the colour is the only thing wrong. A new flat gets full putty once and repaints for the next decade. A painter who proposes full putty for a sound five-year-old wall is selling days; one who proposes a repaint over flaking distemper is setting up next year's call.
Matte, satin or silk
Emulsion comes in sheen levels. Matte has no shine, hides small defects and roller marks, and is slightly harder to wipe. Satin or soft sheen has a low lustre, wipes easily, and shows defects a little. Silk or high sheen is glossy, washable, and shows every putty line, wave and roller edge in daylight.
Matte for bedrooms, halls and any wall that has not had full putty. Satin for kitchens, children's rooms and corridors, where hands and bags touch the wall. Silk only on a full-putty wall that is dead flat, and only if you like the look; in most Indian flats it is the finish that makes a decent paint job look amateur because the walls underneath were never flat. The labour rate is the same for all three; the sheen is a paint choice, not a painter's.
Plain colour, texture, or wallpaper
A plain emulsion wall is ₹16 per sq ft. A texture or stencil finish is ₹55 per sq ft, slow, and needs a skilled hand; a wallpaper is ₹22 per sq ft to hang plus the paper at ₹40 to ₹150 per sq ft. An accent wall in a strong colour is ₹1,500 on top of a plain repaint and is the cheapest of the three ways to make one wall different.
Wallpaper wins on pattern and on a flat, dry wall in a dry room: a bedroom headboard wall, a study. It loses on any wall that has ever shown damp, in a bathroom, in a kitchen, or on a wall the children can reach; the seams lift and it cannot be touched up. Texture wins where the wall is uneven and you want to hide it, and on a feature wall in a hall; it loses on cost and on the day you want to change it, because removing texture means a full putty. A painted accent wall at ₹1,500 can be changed for the same amount in a year.
Enamel or polish on wood
Doors, window frames and furniture take either enamel, an opaque oil-based paint in any colour, or polish, a transparent or tinted finish that shows the grain. Enamel on a door both sides is ₹800; furniture polish is ₹1,200 per piece.
Enamel when the wood is cheap, patched or already painted, when you want a colour, and on anything outside, where it protects better. Polish when the wood is good, teak or sheesham, and the grain is the point; melamine polish is the hard-wearing version for furniture, PU polish the expensive one for a showroom finish. Both need the old finish sanded back; a polish over old enamel does not exist, and an enamel over a waxy old polish peels. On a flat door of commercial ply, enamel every time.
Labour-only or all-in
Labour-only: the painter quotes ₹16 or ₹24 per sq ft and you buy the paint, putty and primer from a dealer. All-in: the painter quotes a single higher rate and brings the material.
Labour-only when you have the time to buy and want the grade you paid for; you get the dealer's bill and the sealed tins, and the painter cannot swap grades. All-in when you want one phone call; agree the brand, grade and quantity in writing, insist on sealed tins and the shop bill, and count the empties. A daily rate, ₹850 for the painter and ₹600 for the helper, is the third option and is right only for small odd jobs where the work cannot be measured: a few doors, a balcony wall, a gate at ₹2,500 is cheaper per piece.
The pattern behind all six
Every one of these choices is the same question: how long do you want it to last, and how flat is the wall underneath? The expensive option is right when the wall is good and you are staying; the cheap option is right when the wall is bad, the flat is rented, or the colour will change in two years. The painter's rate card prices the labour for each; the TheHire cost estimator lets you switch between them for your flat size and see the difference before anyone comes to measure.
The one choice not on this list is whether to paint a damp wall at all, and the answer is no, whatever the finish. The mason's guides cover the bathroom, the terrace and the plinth that have to be dealt with first.