A second round of real commissions from across the GTA – every one invoiced, photographed and checked – on what people are actually paying to have painted this year.

Illustrated Toronto mural of Muay Thai fighters painted inside a gym
Studio Santai’s Muay Thai gym in Toronto, painted by Amani – one of twelve real GTA projects in this article.

 

The first time we went looking for real Toronto murals across the GTA’s recent commissions, we found bakeries, basements and a storefront security gate. This time the pool turned up something different: a virtual-reality arcade that needed its walls painted purely so headset trackers could read them, a specialist high-skills program that wanted its shop-class doors to look the part, and a home wine cellar dressed up as an Italian courtyard. Toronto keeps finding new reasons to put paint on a wall.

We went back through commissions booked through Book an Artist in Toronto and across the GTA – Burlington, Hamilton, Mississauga, Vaughan – to see what a second, independently verified batch of real projects says about the process, the pricing and the range of work actually going on. All twelve below have a paid invoice and a photographed, finished wall; none repeats a project from our first Toronto roundup. Figures are in Canadian dollars.

Toronto murals for business: an arcade, a gym and a bus

Commercial briefs make up half of this batch, and they range from a functional requirement to pure brand personality.

A VR venue that needed non-repeating shapes, not art

The most unusual brief in either Toronto post came from a free-roam virtual reality venue in Burlington, opening inside a new build. The client’s ask was specific: the walls needed high-contrast, non-recurring geometric shapes so VR headsets could build an accurate spatial map of the room – a plain repeating pattern would confuse the tracking system. Julia delivered an angular field of grey, blue and orange triangles and shards across the whole space, walls and corners included, for a job in the $6,000 – $8,000 range.

“Julia did an outstanding job on our custom paint project for the VR game space. From start to finish, she brought creativity, precision, and a true artistic touch that completely transformed the environment. The attention to detail in her work makes the space feel immersive, dynamic, and professional – exactly the kind of atmosphere we wanted for our guests.”
– Verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

Geometric high-contrast mural painted inside a virtual reality gaming venue near Toronto
Painted for the machines as much as the guests: shapes sized and spaced for VR headset tracking.

 

A Muay Thai gym’s “choose your fighter” wall

Studio Santai, a Muay Thai gym, wanted a retro arcade feel for its training floor – the club’s five fighting styles reimagined as a “choose your fighter” character select screen. Amani painted the gym’s name in gold script over a lineup of illustrated boxers and Muay Thai fighters in mid-strike, in the $2,000 – $3,500 range.

“Amazing Work and Finished it in record time!”
– Verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

A world map for a Toronto office, and a Groovy Gymbus

Two more commercial jobs show how far a simple brief can stretch. A Toronto company wanted its reception area to feel global: Sacha painted an oversized world map in soft white against teal, ringed with two graphic circles echoing the company’s own branding, for a project in the $2,500 – $4,000 range. And a mobile kids’ entertainment company had its retired school bus repainted end to end as “The Groovy Gymbus”, in bubble lettering surrounded by daisies in pink, blue and orange – a rolling billboard for a $1,000 – $1,800 job.

World map mural painted in teal and white in a Toronto office reception area
A world map, not a logo – Sacha’s reception-area mural for a Toronto office.

 

Colourful bubble lettering mural painted on the side of a kids entertainment school bus near Toronto
“The Groovy Gymbus”, painted end to end for a mobile kids’ entertainment company.

 

A restaurant wall and a dental office in bloom

Sunset Grill’s downtown Toronto location wanted its glass-fronted dining room to feel like a love letter to the city – a doodled skyline, a streetcar, a CN Tower silhouette and a menu’s worth of breakfast icons worked into one continuous illustrated band above the booths, for around $800 – $1,500. In Mississauga, a dental practice asked for something less clinical at its front door: Tetyana wrapped both street-facing corners of the building in bold red, pink and yellow blooms against the cream stucco, in the $3,000 – $5,000 range.

“Tetyana was absolutely fantastic throughout the entire process! She translated the vision that I had in my mind into a beautiful design and created and delivered a stunning result! I’m looking forward to using her incredible talent on future projects.”
– Verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

Corner exterior mural of red and pink flowers painted on a Mississauga dental office
Tetyana’s corner-to-corner floral wrap for a Mississauga dental office.

 

A school that wanted its shop-class doors to look the part

Not every commercial brief comes from a business. A Vaughan high school running Ontario’s Specialist High Skills Major program – a stream that leads into the skilled trades – wanted its exterior doors to advertise the program rather than just lead into it. Sacha painted a set of garage and single doors with gear-and-tool motifs, safety hazard striping and a construction-worker figure in the school’s blue and yellow, alongside the program’s own “SHSM” signage, for a job in the $1,500 – $2,500 range. It is the only public-sector project in either Toronto post, and a reminder that a mural brief for “promoting a program” can be just as literal as one for a business.

School exterior door painted with construction tools and safety stripes for a skilled trades program near Toronto
Gears, tools and hazard striping on a Vaughan school’s exterior doors.

 

Blue and yellow SHSM program mural painted on a school building exterior near Toronto
The school’s skilled-trades program, painted onto the building it runs from.

 

Toronto murals at home: ceilings, garages and a renter’s skyline

The residential half of this batch is where the budgets shrink and the personality goes up.

A ceiling instead of a wall

A Hamilton homeowner had a long, narrow barrel-vaulted ceiling running the length of her front hallway and wanted it treated as a mural surface rather than left plain. Nataliya painted a dark, neutral-toned scatter of leaves and foliage across the full curve, catching the recessed lighting rather than fighting it, for a project in the $2,000 – $3,500 range – proof that “wall” is the wrong word for where a mural can go.

Dark foliage mural painted across a barrel-vaulted hallway ceiling in a Hamilton home
A hallway ceiling, not a wall – leaves scattered across the full vault.

 

A garage door repainted as a lakeside forest

Another Hamilton project took the opposite approach: a plain, pale-yellow garage exterior became a green, misty pine forest running down to a pebble beach, painted directly over the existing block wall. Nataliya delivered the greenery mural for $1,500 – $2,500.

“Great job! Just what I envisioned.”
– Verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

Forest and lake mural painted over a garage exterior wall in Hamilton near Toronto
A garage exterior, repainted as a misty pine forest and pebble beach.

 

An Italian courtyard in the basement wine cellar

One Hamilton family asked for a wine festival scene – people dancing, glasses raised – for their basement. What they got instead, and loved, was a trompe-l’œil Tuscan loggia: stone archways framing a painted vineyard view, a small table set with wine and glasses, roses climbing the nearest column. Sacha’s finished piece, for $800 – $1,500, turns a windowless basement wall into a view of somewhere else entirely.

“Outstanding work! Excellent to deal with and a very impressive artist and person… Sacha made our day! Great work Sacha, you have a bright future.”
– Verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

Trompe l'oeil Tuscan vineyard mural painted in a home basement wine cellar near Toronto
A basement wine cellar, painted as a stone loggia overlooking a vineyard.

 

A skyline for a rental, painted on panels instead of the wall

Renters face a real constraint: you usually can’t paint directly on a wall you don’t own. One Toronto household solved it by commissioning the mural on modular panels instead. Tetyana painted a bold, graphic Yonge Street cityscape – the Sephora-anchored corner, a couple walking hand in hand, a cardinal in flight overhead – across mountable panels that read as one continuous mural once installed, but travel with the tenant when the lease ends. The finished piece came in at $2,500 – $4,000.

“Working with Tetyana was one of the best creative collaborations we have ever experienced. She listened carefully to our ideas and made us feel like partners in the process. Every step of the way, she showed patience, care, and a deep respect for our vision.”
– Verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

Graphic Toronto street scene mural painted on removable panels for a rental apartment
A Yonge Street scene painted on removable panels – a mural that moves with the tenant.

 

A deck wall in bloom

In Burlington, a homeowner wanted the hydrangeas from her own garden painted onto the brick beside her deck. Natasha spent two sessions, a week apart, building up a dense band of blue and pink hydrangea heads, tucking in a ladybug, a bee and a monarch butterfly among the leaves – a $1,200 – $2,000 project finished just in time for the real hydrangeas to bloom beside it.

“It was a real pleasure and honor to work with Natasha. She is the embodiment of a true artist: professionalism, talent and imagination. She pours her heart and takes pride in the work she does… She truly created a Dream(y) Garden for us.”
– Verified Book an Artist review, ★★★★★

Blue and pink hydrangea mural painted on a brick wall beside a backyard deck near Toronto
Hydrangeas painted beside the deck, finished just as the real ones came into bloom.

 

What does a mural cost in Toronto?

Based on these twelve real GTA commissions – a second, independent batch from our first Toronto roundup – here’s how budgets actually landed:

Project type Real examples Price range
Small residential accents Deck-side hydrangeas $1,200 – $2,000
Feature walls & ceilings at home Hallway ceiling, garage forest, wine cellar $800 – $3,500
Renter-friendly panel murals Yonge Street skyline on removable panels $2,500 – $4,000
Small commercial (signage, vehicles, restaurants) Sunset Grill dining room, Groovy Gymbus $800 – $1,800
School & institutional Vaughan SHSM exterior doors $1,500 – $2,500
Office & specialist venue murals World map reception wall, Muay Thai gym, VR arcade $2,000 – $8,000

A few patterns hold steady from our first Toronto batch. Most GTA muralists quote per project rather than per hour, and a deposit up front is standard before any paint goes on the wall. Several of the jobs above – the school doors, the office map – were still mid-payment schedule at the time of the review, paid in installments as the work progressed rather than in one lump sum.

How to hire a Toronto muralist

These twelve briefs ranged from a technical spec sheet (the VR venue) to a single photo of a homeowner’s own garden. Based on how they actually ran:

  1. Say what the wall needs to do, not just look like. The VR venue’s brief was about headset tracking, not aesthetics – the more functional detail you give upfront, the fewer revisions later.
  2. Measure the surface, whatever shape it is. A curved ceiling, a bus exterior and a set of doors all appear in this batch – irregular surfaces are common, and artists price around them.
  3. Ask about removable options if you rent. Panel-mounted murals are a real, commonly-quoted alternative to painting a wall you don’t own.
  4. Expect a deposit and a staged payment schedule. Several projects here were paid in two or three installments tied to design approval and completion.
  5. Compare local artists in one place. Every project in this article came through Book an Artist’s Toronto muralist and graffiti artist page, where you can browse portfolios, message artists directly and compare quotes for free.

Frequently asked questions

Can a mural be painted on removable panels instead of directly on a wall?
Yes – it’s a standard option for renters or anyone who can’t paint a wall directly. One project above was painted on modular panels that mount together to look like a continuous mural and can be taken down and moved when the tenant relocates.
Do Toronto muralists work on unusual surfaces like ceilings, vehicles or doors?
Routinely. This batch alone includes a barrel-vaulted hallway ceiling, a school bus and a set of exterior steel doors. Irregular or non-wall surfaces are priced the same way as a flat wall – by size, surface prep and design complexity.
How long does a typical commercial mural take from first message to finished wall?
It varies with size and complexity, but every commercial project in this article followed the same basic sequence: an initial brief, a design concept and revisions, a deposit, then painting. Larger or multi-room jobs are typically scheduled in phases rather than a single sitting.

Find your Toronto muralist

Whether it’s a ceiling, a school door, or a wall that needs to fool a VR headset, there’s a Toronto mural artist who has already painted something like it.

Browse Toronto mural artists

Explore all mural & graffiti artists