Interior Walls
Gallons for a room by size and number of coats, with openings deducted properly.
The "400 square feet per gallon" on the tin is measured on smooth, primed drywall. That is the best case, and it is rarely the case.
Spread rate belongs to the surface, not the paint. Primed drywall takes about 375 ft² per gallon. New unprimed drywall drinks 320. A textured wall takes 275. Wood siding takes 300. Stucco can halve the label figure to around 175.
Choosing paint by the coverage claim on the label compares products on a number that describes a wall you do not have.
The second coat is cheaper than the first
Once the surface is sealed, paint spreads about 15% further. Two coats is not twice one coat — it is about 1.87 times.
Doubling the first-coat figure is the most common over-buy in painting, and the surplus sits in the garage until it separates.
New drywall needs primer for a reason that is not adhesion
Paper and joint compound absorb at different rates. Paint straight onto unprimed board dries at different sheens over the joints and the field, and every taped seam shows through the finish in the right light. A drywall primer costs less than the extra finish coat it replaces.
Going over dark is a coats problem, not a coverage problem
The paint spreads normally. It just takes three coats — or two over a primer tinted toward the new colour, which is almost always cheaper and faster.
Box the paint before you open a roller
Pour every tin into one bucket and stir. Tins of the same colour from different batches differ slightly, and a wall painted from two of them shows the change exactly where you stopped for lunch.
Trim does not scale with the room
Doors, trim and ceilings are linear-foot work and a completely separate calculation. A room that takes three gallons of wall paint usually takes under a quart of trim enamel — and about three times as long to cut in.
Paint for a room
11,232 calculations · browse all
- Paint for a 8 × 8 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 8 × 11 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 8 × 13 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 8 × 16 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 10 × 8 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 10 × 11 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 10 × 14 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 10 × 18 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 11 × 10 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 11 × 12 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 11 × 14 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 11 × 18 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 12 × 11 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 12 × 13 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 12 × 16 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 13 × 8 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 13 × 11 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 13 × 13 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 13 × 18 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 14 × 10 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 14 × 12 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 14 × 14 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 14 × 18 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 15 × 10 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 15 × 13 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 15 × 16 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 16 × 8 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 16 × 11 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 16 × 13 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 16 × 16 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 18 × 10 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 18 × 12 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 18 × 14 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 18 × 18 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 20 × 10 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 20 × 12 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 20 × 16 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 22 × 8 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 22 × 11 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 22 × 13 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 22 × 16 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 24 × 8 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 24 × 12 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 24 × 14 ft room with 8 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 24 × 18 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 26 × 10 ft room with 9 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats
- Paint for a 26 × 12 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on primed drywall, 1 coats
- Paint for a 26 × 14 ft room with 10 ft ceilings on wood siding, 1 coats