How much paint for a 12×12 ceiling?

At 144 sq ft, a 12 × 12 ceiling is a one-gallon job for two coats on smooth drywall, with enough over for touch-ups. Texture is what changes the answer: the same ceiling with a heavy knockdown or popcorn finish can need a gallon and a quart.

What to know about painting a 12×12 ceiling

• Smooth: 0.82 gallons. 144 × 2 ÷ 350. Four quarts cover it, and a gallon costs less than four quarts nearly everywhere.
• Textured: about 1.15 gallons. At 250 sq ft per gallon, the low end of the Behr ceiling paint range, two coats need a gallon and a quart.
• One coat of the same white. 0.41 gallons, two quarts. If the old ceiling is sound and only dingy, one coat of a good flat ceiling paint often does it.
• Cutting in. The perimeter is 48 ft. Brush a 2–3 in band along every wall first, then roll the field while the band is still wet so it blends.

Stains from an old roof leak or cooking smoke will bleed through ceiling paint. Spot-prime them with a stain-blocking primer first; the Behr multi-surface stain-blocking primer lists the same 250–400 sq ft per gallon as its paints, so a quart treats a lot of patches.

For the walls of the same room see how much paint for a 12x12 room, or both together on how much paint for a 12x12 room and ceiling.