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Paint quantity calculator for cupboard doors

Add your doors and drawer fronts by size, choose coats and method, and get litres of primer and topcoat plus the cheapest mix of 750 ml and 2.5 L tins.

1. Doors and drawer fronts

Standard UK carcass widths are 300, 400, 500 and 600 mm (doors are about 4 mm narrower). Base doors are about 715 mm high, wall doors 570 or 900 mm.

2. Door details

Which faces

Both sides Front and edges only

Door style

Flat slab Shaker Moulded or beaded

3. Carcass faces

End panelsAbout 720 × 580 mm each

Plinth length (m)150 mm high

4. Coats and coverage

Primer coats

Topcoats

Primer coverage (m² per litre)

Topcoat coverage (m² per litre)

Use the figure printed on your tin. Cupboard paints usually state 10 to 14 m² per litre per coat.

5. How you will apply it

Brush and roller HVLP sprayer Airless sprayer

Your paint list

Results appear here as you type.

How this is calculated

Area of each piece. Width × height for each face painted, multiplied by a profile allowance (slab 1.0, shaker 1.1, moulded 1.2) because profiles have more surface than a flat panel. Edges are added once: perimeter × 18 mm door thickness.
Carcass. Each end panel is 0.72 × 0.58 m (one face). Plinth is length × 0.15 m.
Net paint. Total area × number of coats ÷ coverage per litre.
Method allowance. Brush and roller × 1.10. HVLP × 1.35 plus 0.05 L left in the cup. Airless × 1.60 plus 0.4 L to fill the pump and hose. These are typical working allowances, not figures for any particular machine.
Tins. The calculator tries every combination of 2.5 L and 750 ml tins that covers the amount and picks the cheapest, assuming a 2.5 L tin costs about 2.6 times a 750 ml tin of the same paint.

Worked example

Ten 500 × 715 mm shaker doors painted both sides: each door is 0.3575 m² per face × 2 faces × 1.1 = 0.7865 m², plus edges 2 × (0.5 + 0.715) × 0.018 = 0.0437 m², so 0.83 m². Ten doors = 8.3 m². Two topcoats at 12 m²/L = 1.38 L net; with HVLP that is 1.38 × 1.35 + 0.05 = 1.92 L. The cheapest tin mix is one 2.5 L tin.

Limits

Dark-to-light colour changes and porous raw MDF use more primer than the label suggests.
Spray loss varies with skill, gun setup and how much you spray off the edge. First-time sprayers often waste more.
Thinning adds water or solvent, not paint, so it does not change the paint you buy.

Next: the painting method, spray setup, or plan your drying times.