How much paint do I need?
Buy too little and you're back at the shop mid-job; too much and it dries out in the shed. Enter the room size and how many coats, and get the litres and the number of tins — with doors, windows and the ceiling all allowed for. Free, no sign-up.
Coverage & price — sensible defaults, tweak if you like
A guide, not a guarantee. Real coverage depends on the paint, the surface and how it's applied — bare plaster, a strong colour underneath or a rough wall all drink more. We round up to whole tins and suggest keeping a little spare for touch-ups. Woodwork (skirting, doors, frames) uses a different paint and isn't included here. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Getting the quantity right.
It's the wall area times the coats. We work out the area of the four walls (the perimeter times the height), take off a typical door and window, multiply by the number of coats, and divide by how far a litre goes. The ceiling, if you're doing it, is simply the floor area. Two coats is the norm for a decent finish.
Coverage varies more than people expect. A standard matt emulsion covers roughly 10–14 m² per litre on a smooth, previously-painted wall. Bare plaster, textured surfaces and bold colours all use more — and a mist coat on new plaster is practically a freebie that soaks straight in. Always check the figure on the tin and adjust the coverage in the panel above.
Buy a touch more, not less. Running out halfway through a wall means a visible join and a second shop trip — and the next tin may be a slightly different batch. A little spare also covers future touch-ups. That's why we round up to whole tins.
Don't forget the bits this skips. Skirting boards, door frames and doors take a different paint (usually a satinwood or eggshell) and aren't in this total. Primer or undercoat on bare or patched surfaces is extra again.
Keep every room's details in one place.
Stead remembers your rooms, their sizes and the jobs you've done — paint colours and codes, when you last decorated, what each room needs next — so the next time you pick up a brush you're not starting from scratch.