Free tool
Measure your room, choose coats and surfaces — including a full color drench — and get liters or gallons with a shopping list.
How it works
Wall area = perimeter × height, minus about 21 sq ft (1.9 m²) per door and 15 sq ft (1.4 m²) per window. Ceiling area = length × width. Trim adds roughly 10% of the wall area when you color-drench doors, frames and skirting.
Area × coats ÷ coverage = paint needed; we add 10% for cutting in, texture and touch-ups, then round up to whole cans. Dark or strong colors over a light base often need a primer or a third coat.
Planning a one-color room? Read our color drenching guide for sheen choices by surface.
FAQ
Two coats is standard for a color change. Use a primer (or a third coat) when going from dark to light, over new plaster, or with deep, saturated colors.
Most interior emulsions cover about 350–400 sq ft per US gallon per coat, or 10–12 m² per liter — but always check the manufacturer’s data sheet; textured or porous walls take more.
Yes — keep a small can for touch-ups, and buy the whole job from the same batch so the color stays consistent.
Keep reading
Color drenching means painting walls, trim, ceiling, doors and radiators in one hue so a room reads as a single calm volume. Here is how to choose the shade, vary three sheens by surface, light it with CRI 90+ lamps and avoid the mistakes that flatten it.
Read storyRather than one color of the year, 2027 brings five warm, grounded palettes — Earth & Clay, Cocoa Bar, Butter & Sage, Ink & Stone and Oxblood & Cream — each with five hex codes, the rooms it suits and its best materials.
Read storyThe small living room decorating ideas that work are measurements first: a protected 36 in (90 cm) walkway, an apartment sofa 68–80 in long and 32–36 in deep, a round coffee table, a rug of at least 5×8 ft, curtains hung high and wide and tone-on-tone color that blurs the edges.
Read storyThe Trend Letter
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