I've done a few murals and honestly hourly rate is a trap for this kind of work. You'll always undersell yourself because the prep, sketching, color studies, getting the wall ready, driving back and forth, eats so much time that nobody sees. Charge by the piece, not the hour. Figure out what you need to make per day to feel okay about it, multiply by how many days you realistically think it'll take, then add a day or two on top because it always takes longer than you think.
That said, I know some people who go like $25-40/hr for smaller indoor stuff and $50+ for bigger outdoor jobs where you're dealing with weather and scaffolding. But the murals I've actually made money on were quoted flat. The ones I charged hourly on I basically worked for scraps and hated by the end. 😅
What's the wall like? Size and height changes the calculation a lot.
The per-day thing is the part that lands for me. I work in paper, not murals, but it's the same math in miniature, the hours nobody sees are the ones that actually make the work. If you sell the piece, you charge for the thinking. If you sell the hour, you give the thinking away.
One thing I'd add: write the estimate down with the overage built in. I've learned the hard way that "it always takes longer" stops being true the moment you're standing next to it trying to finish. Stick to the number you wrote when you were calm.
I've done a few murals and honestly hourly rate is a trap for this kind of work. You'll always undersell yourself because the prep, sketching, color studies, getting the wall ready, driving back and forth, eats so much time that nobody sees. Charge by the piece, not the hour. Figure out what you need to make per day to feel okay about it, multiply by how many days you realistically think it'll take, then add a day or two on top because it always takes longer than you think.
That said, I know some people who go like $25-40/hr for smaller indoor stuff and $50+ for bigger outdoor jobs where you're dealing with weather and scaffolding. But the murals I've actually made money on were quoted flat. The ones I charged hourly on I basically worked for scraps and hated by the end. 😅
What's the wall like? Size and height changes the calculation a lot.
The per-day thing is the part that lands for me. I work in paper, not murals, but it's the same math in miniature, the hours nobody sees are the ones that actually make the work. If you sell the piece, you charge for the thinking. If you sell the hour, you give the thinking away.
One thing I'd add: write the estimate down with the overage built in. I've learned the hard way that "it always takes longer" stops being true the moment you're standing next to it trying to finish. Stick to the number you wrote when you were calm.