A cosmetic room redesign runs roughly €1,200 – €4,500 for an average 15 – 20 m² room. The spread is almost entirely furniture and labour; the finishes that change how a room feels are the cheapest part of the budget.
What sits in each band
€400 – €1,200 — paint and light. Repainting walls and ceiling, replacing light fittings, adding lamps, changing switch plates and handles. No trades beyond an electrician for a few hours. This band produces the largest visible change per euro spent.
€1,200 – €4,500 — cosmetic redesign. The above plus soft furnishings, one or two significant furniture pieces, window treatments, and rugs. Still no structural work.
€4,500 – €12,000 — heavy cosmetic. Adds flooring, built-in storage, full furniture replacement, and possibly moving a light circuit or a radiator.
€12,000+ — structural. Moving walls, windows, plumbing or the ceiling line. At this point you are renovating, not redesigning, and you need drawings and probably permission. Budget it with the home renovation budget method rather than this page.
Line by line
| Item | Typical range | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Paint (15 – 20 m² room, DIY) | €180 – €400 | Coats needed; dark→light needs more |
| Paint (with decorator) | €600 – €1,200 | Ceiling height, prep work, coving |
| Ceiling fitting + dimmer | €90 – €400 | Whether a new circuit is needed |
| Floor and table lamps (×2) | €120 – €500 | Brand more than function |
| Sofa | €600 – €2,500 | Frame construction and fabric, not size |
| Bed frame | €300 – €1,400 | Solid timber vs upholstered vs flatpack |
| Rug (200 × 300 cm) | €200 – €900 | Wool vs synthetic |
| Curtains + track, per window | €150 – €600 | Lined vs unlined; made-to-measure |
| Engineered wood floor, supplied + laid | €55 – €110 / m² | Board width, underlay, subfloor condition |
| LVT / vinyl, supplied + laid | €30 – €60 / m² | Subfloor levelling |
| Built-in storage, per linear metre | €600 – €1,600 | Carpentry vs modular carcass |
Paint is the line most people underestimate — what it actually costs to paint a room breaks the DIY and decorator numbers down by room size.
The three variables that actually decide the total
- Whether you replace the seating. A sofa is usually the single largest line and the easiest to defer. Reupholstering a good frame costs €400 – €900 against €600 – €2,500 to replace.
- Whether you touch the floor. Flooring turns a two-day job into a two-week one and adds skirting, thresholds and often a repaint.
- Whether anything needs a trade. Every circuit moved, radiator relocated or wall chased brings a day rate and a return visit. DIY versus hiring a contractor sorts which of those you can avoid.
Where people overspend
- Buying furniture before settling the layout, then buying again. Across more than one room, how much it costs to furnish an apartment sets realistic per-room totals.
- Replacing a floor that only needed cleaning or a refinish (€25 – €45 / m² to sand and seal real timber, against €55 – €110 / m² to replace).
- Made-to-measure curtains on a window that a €90 blind solves.
Two cheaper routes worth reading before you commit: a real room makeover on a small budget, and how to plan a furniture budget so the sofa line doesn’t eat everything else.
Getting a number for your room
Homie’s Cost Estimate gives a ballpark for the specific redesign it generated from your photo, broken into the same categories as the table above. It is a starting figure to brief trades against, not a quote — but it stops you from discovering the flooring line halfway through.
