How much paint for kitchen cabinets?

Most kitchens are a one-gallon cabinet job. The example here is a mid-size L-shaped kitchen: eight 15 × 30 in upper doors, eight 15 × 24 in lower doors, six drawer fronts and the frames and end panels. Swap in your own sizes in the calculator for an exact count.

Where the 113 square feet come from

• Upper doors: 50 sq ft. Eight doors of 15 × 30 in, both sides.
• Lower doors: 40 sq ft. Eight doors of 15 × 24 in, both sides.
• Drawer fronts: 3.1 sq ft. Six fronts of 15 × 5 in, face only.
• Frames and end panels: 20 sq ft. Two base end panels (24 × 30 in, 5 sq ft each), two upper end panels (12 × 30 in, 2.5 each) and about 5 sq ft of face-frame strips.

Two coats at 400 sq ft per gallon, the low end of the Benjamin Moore Advance range, need 0.57 gallons: three quarts, or more sensibly one gallon with enough left for a touch-up kit. Raised-panel doors, an island, a pantry cabinet or a run of open shelving can push a big kitchen past a gallon; add them as extra rows.

Primer is the part people forget. A bonding primer at 250–400 sq ft per gallon (the range on Behr’s stain-blocking primer) on the same 113 sq ft takes about half a gallon for one coat; with oak cabinets that bleed tannin, a second spot coat is common. Run it on the primer calculator with I know the area.

The doors of the rest of the house are on how much paint for a door. For small hardware-store jobs like knobs, hinges or a metal range hood, see the spray paint calculator.