Calculate exactly how many litres of paint you need for your room — walls, ceiling, doors and windows included.
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A 12×12 ft room has about 480 sq ft of wall area (10 ft ceiling). With 2 coats of interior emulsion at 160 sq ft/litre, you need about 6 litres for walls + 2.5 litres for ceiling = 8–9 litres total.
Distemper: 80–100 sq ft/L. Interior emulsion: 140–180 sq ft/L. Exterior emulsion: 120–150 sq ft/L. Enamel/gloss: 120–160 sq ft/L. Primer: 100–120 sq ft/L.
Typically 1 coat primer + 2 coats top coat. For dark-to-light colour change, 3 coats. New plaster needs wall putty + 2 coats emulsion minimum.
All three are reliable. Asian Paints Royale and Tractor Emulsion are popular. Berger Silk and WeatherCoat are well-regarded. Nerolac Excel is good for exteriors. Compare prices — 20-litre drums offer better value.
Paint is typically the second-largest cost in a home renovation after labour — and also one of the easiest to miscalculate. Buying too little means a second trip to the store, with the risk of a slightly different paint batch (shade can vary between batches). Buying too much wastes money and creates disposal problems. Getting the calculation right upfront is worth the effort.
Every paint product specifies coverage per litre in its technical data sheet. Typical values for common Indian paint types:
New construction typically needs 1 coat of primer + 2 finish coats. Repainting over good existing paint may need only 2 finish coats. Dark colours being covered by light colours may need 3 coats. The calculator includes a wastage buffer of 10%— this accounts for roller drip, brush stroke overlap, and container residue.
Subtract doors and windows from wall area — a standard door is roughly 21 sq ft, a window 15 sq ft. For a typical room with 2 doors and 3 windows, deduct about 87 sq ft from your total wall area calculation. This deduction usually offsets the wastage factor, so many painters skip both.
Never skip primer on new plaster or bare masonry. Primer seals the surface, improves paint adhesion, and reduces the final paint quantity needed. White primer lets you achieve accurate light shades with fewer coats. Tinted primer (tinted to match the final colour) reduces the coats needed for deep or dark colours.