How Much Paint Do You Need for Your Home Decor Project?
By Pamela Cole Harris
The easiest way to Liven up an old room is paint. But have you ever had the experience of getting halfway through your project and discovering that you need a quart more paint than you bought? (And what was that paint color called? Pomegranate? Raspberry Surprise? Red Riot?) Or did you spend money on an extra gallon you just didn’t need? You could have bought another pillow with that money! Well, here is an easy formula to figure out exactly how much paint you need for your room project:
For ceiling paint -
1. Multiply the length of the ceiling by the width. This will give you to total area of the ceiling. For example: 14 feet wide times 20 feet long = 280 square foot ceiling
2. Divide the area (the number you just calculated) by 350. Why 350? Because that is the normal number of square feet covered by one gallon of paint. 280 divided by 350 equals 8. So you will need slightly less than one gallon for one coat of paint. If you need a second coat, double this number.
For room paint -
1. Add the length of each wall in the room together. For instance: 14 +20 +14 +20 = 68 feet. Then multiply this number by the height of the walls. Why? Because this will give you the total area of the walls in your room. For instance: 68 x 8 = 544 square feet.
2. Next the most complicated part: For each door in your room, subtract 20 square feet. Then subtract 15 square feet for each window. If you have two doors (20 x 2 – 40) and two windows (15 x 2 = 30). So we will subtract 40 + 30 from our 544 square foot area. Our number is now 474 square feet.
3. Divide this number by 350 square feet (remember this number from the ceiling?) and the result? 474 divided by 350 = 1.4. Again, double this amount if you need two coats.
Follow this formula and you should always buy the right amount of paint from now on. Now what are you going to do with all of those old paint cans in your garage? How about making a coffee table? Headboard? Storage unit? A trip to the recycling center?