The one question we're asked on every project: how much does this cost?
We wanted to take some time to answer this question, and hopefully to demystify how we arrive at the cost of a mural. The real answer to this question is a very unsatisfying "it depends," but luckily the inputs that it depends on are pretty straightforward.
While there are always some other considerations that make the pricing of a project (whether that's signage, lettering, or a full mural) more complicated, once we have a design in place it relies primarily on two factors:
Size x Complexity
Simple as that, we use this metric to evaluate how much time a project will take with our artists on that wall. But let's break down what we mean by each side of the equation.
Size
This is pretty straightforward: it's how much square footage we'll need to touch on the surface that needs to be painted. It could be as small as a retail storefront, or as large as full building, but this gives us a starting point to measure how long it will take to paint.
Complexity
This metric is far more subjective, but we tend to group work into four categories to help us determine how complicated the work might be:
- Signage
- Flat Art
- Graphics
- Photo Realistic
As we move down the list, these present more challenges in what it takes to get these painted. Relatively straightforward signage can be done pretty quickly, so we can cover more square footage in a day, while more intensive graphics require far more steps to make sure that we're delivering exactly what you're looking for, thus a day might only allow us to cover 1/3 of what we could do with less complicated executions.
Dayrate
Using these two factors, we then price projects based on a dayrate of our artists and how long we can anticipate it taking. We only provide project quotes and not estimated time, so if something turns out to be more complicated than we anticipated that cost is never passed along, we just view it as a lesson (expensive or not) that helps us keep improving our planning process.
Some other mural artists and companies will price projects on a cost per square foot, but we find that we're able to more accurately think through the timing of a project by the number of days we need to spend on a wall painting with our approach.
Other Considerations (and Costs)
There are a handful of other considerations that go into the cost of a mural, though these generally have a smaller impact on how we estimate costs.
If you'd like us to create the designs for you, we're glad to go through a full collaborative concept phase to create a mural that you'll love, but we do normally charge for this. If the design and graphics are already made, we're happy to provide mock-ups to get sizing and placement right before we start.
The surface that we're trying to paint can impact time – a smooth wall that's been primed takes paint a lot easier than a stucco surface that's heavily pitted. Brush selection needs to be different, and fine line work takes much more attention and work.
The height of the mural itself and how we can reach it can add complexity. We try to keep our footprint as small as possible, but depending on the total height of the artwork we may need to bring in a scissor lift, boom lift, or even scaffolding.
Supplies tend to be a relatively minimal cost for most projects (in the range of a few hundred dollars) but depending on what we're executing may need to increase.
The major area where costs can increase pretty rapidly is travel. We're a Los Angeles based company, and we've got no problem moving ourselves pretty far, but if we need to fly or spend the night (or nights), those costs can add up.
Conclusion
While we've tried to lay out our process here, the best way to get an accurate quote is to get in touch and we can work together on an approach to your project that works for your budget. Any projects you have we'd love to work on together.
You can reach us at info@pullingpaintmurals.com or (310) 776-5567 to get started.
