How Much Paint for a 14x16 Room?
Paint needed
2.75 gallons
A 14 by 16 room with nine foot walls, one door, three 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 walls60 ft
- Wall height9 ft
- Doors1
- Windows3
- Coats2
- Coverage per gallon350 sq ft
Paint needed2.75 gallons
| Gross wall area | 540 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Less doors and windows | -66 sq ft |
| Net wall area | 474 sq ft |
| Area over 2 coats | 948 sq ft |
| Gallons, exact | 2.71 |
| Buy | 3 gallonsor 1 five gallon pail |
The material list this produces
| Paint, gallons | 3 |
|---|---|
| Primer, gallons (if bare or color change) | 2 |
| 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 | 1.5 gallons |
| 2 coats | 2.75 gallons |
| 3 coats | 4.25 gallons |
What else matters here
Sixty feet of perimeter at nine feet high is 540 square feet of gross wall, dropping to 474 after a door and three windows. The extra foot of ceiling height over a standard eight foot room is 60 square feet per coat, which is a fifth of a gallon each time.
Three windows is a lot of cutting in. The deduction the calculator makes is for the glass area, not the work, and a room with three windows and a door takes noticeably longer to cut than a blank one of the same size. If you are pricing the job rather than buying the paint, that is where the hours go.
Nine foot walls also change the equipment. An extension pole stops being a convenience and becomes the only way to keep a wet edge down a full wall height without a ladder move halfway along.
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 14x16 room with 9 foot ceilings?
About 2.75 gallons for two coats, so buy three. The same room with eight foot walls needs about 2.5.
How much does a foot of ceiling height add?
The perimeter times one foot, per coat. On this room that is 60 square feet a coat, so two coats is 120 square feet, which is a third of a gallon.
Do window and door deductions matter?
On a small room, yes. Here they take 66 square feet off each coat, about a fifth of a gallon over two coats. On a large blank wall they barely register.
The paint calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.