How Much Paint for a 10x12 Room?
Paint needed
1.75 gallons
A 10 by 12 room with eight foot walls, one door, two windows, two coats.
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How that number is worked out
These are the figures this page was built with and every line the calculator produces from them. Change anything above and all of it moves.
- Room perimeter, add all walls44 ft
- Wall height8 ft
- Doors1
- Windows2
- Coats2
- Coverage per gallon350 sq ft
Paint needed1.75 gallons
| Gross wall area | 352 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Less doors and windows | -51 sq ft |
| Net wall area | 301 sq ft |
| Area over 2 coats | 602 sq ft |
| Gallons, exact | 1.72 |
| Buy | 2 gallonsor 1 five gallon pail |
The material list this produces
| Paint, gallons | 2 |
|---|---|
| Primer, gallons (if bare or color change) | 1 |
| Painter's tape, rolls | 1 |
Coats compared
Coats is the input people get wrong, usually by hoping. Same room, one coat to three.
| Coats | Paint needed |
|---|---|
| 1 coat | 1 gallon |
| 2 coats | 1.75 gallons |
| 3 coats | 2.75 gallons |
What else matters here
One and three quarter gallons over two coats, which is as close to two gallons as a room gets without needing a third. There is no margin here for a mistake, a spill or a wall that drinks more than expected.
The wall that drinks more is usually a patched one. Joint compound and spackle are far more porous than painted drywall, and a repair that was not primed pulls the sheen out of the finish coat and shows as a dull patch in side light even when the color matches perfectly.
Spot prime every repair, however small. A quart of primer and ten minutes saves the third coat that a flashing patch would otherwise need across the whole wall.
What this calculator assumes
- A door is taken as 21 sq ft and a window as 15 sq ft. Deducting them matters on a small room and barely moves a big one.
- 350 sq ft per gallon is the usual figure on a smooth primed wall. Bare drywall, textured walls and deep color changes all drink more, so drop it to 300 if any of those apply.
- Ceilings and trim are not included. Run the ceiling as its own area.
Questions people ask
How much paint for a 10x12 room?
About 1.72 gallons for two coats on eight foot walls, so buy two gallons with very little spare.
Why do patched areas look different after painting?
Filler is more porous than the surrounding wall, so it absorbs more paint and dries duller. Spot priming the repair first prevents it.
Do I need to prime a whole wall after repairs?
Usually not. Priming the repairs themselves is enough, as long as every one of them gets covered rather than just the large ones.
The paint calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.