Room Details
Paint Required
How Paint Quantity is Calculated
Paint quantity comes down to paintable area, number of coats, and your paint's coverage rate.
Step 1: Wall area
Wall Area = 2 × (Length + Width) × Height
This is the total area of all four walls of a rectangular room. Tick "Include ceiling" to add the room's floor-plan area (Length × Width) as well, since a flat ceiling covers the same footprint as the floor.
Step 2: Deduct doors and windows
Multiply the number of doors and windows by their area each, and subtract from the wall area — these surfaces aren't painted with wall emulsion.
Step 3: Multiply by coats, divide by coverage
Litres = (Paintable Area × Coats) ÷ Coverage per Litre
Coverage rate is printed on the paint can and varies by product — this calculator defaults to 120 sq ft/litre, a reasonable mid-range figure for interior emulsion, but you should use your specific paint's stated rate for an accurate result.
| Surface | Typical area deducted |
|---|---|
| Standard interior door (~7ft x 3ft) | 21 sq ft |
| Standard window (~5ft x 3ft) | 15 sq ft |
What this calculator doesn't include
- Primer — calculate it separately using the same paintable area and your primer's own coverage rate.
- Rounding up to standard can sizes (1L, 4L, 10L, 20L) — the litres shown here is the theoretical minimum.
- Labour cost, which is usually charged per sq ft on top of material cost.
For example, a 12ft × 10ft room with 10ft-high walls, 1 door and 2 windows, painted with 2 coats at 120 sq ft/litre coverage, needs a wall area of 440 sq ft, minus 51 sq ft of openings = 389 sq ft paintable, roughly 6.5 litres for 2 coats. Enter these same figures into the calculator above to reproduce this result.