How much paint for kitchen cabinets?
A typical cabinet door or drawer front is about 5 sq ft. Twelve doors ≈ 60 sq ft before coats and waste. Two coats with 15% waste often lands near half a gallon to one gallon — buy a gallon for touch-ups.
Cabinet & Trim Paint Calculator
Cabinets and trim are piece counts and linear feet — not room wall area. Enter door/drawer fronts and baseboard length; we estimate gallons (or quarts) with waste for enamel and trim paint.
Cabinets, doors & trim
Enter piece counts in project settings below — no room dimensions needed for cabinets and trim.
Project settings
Count cabinet doors and drawer fronts (~5 sq ft each), interior doors (~20 sq ft per face), and baseboard/casing linear feet × height.
Default 3.5″ for baseboards
Default 15% for cutting in
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Why cabinets need a different paint math
A kitchen remodel is dozens of faces, not one big rectangle. Count doors and drawer fronts separately, then add linear feet of baseboard, casing, and crown. Our cabinet & trim paint calculator totals coverage for both.
Cabinet enamel often covers less per gallon than wall latex — enter the label sq ft/gallon (often 300–350) so you do not under-buy mid-project.
Primer, coats, and sheen
Bare wood and stained cabinets usually need bonding primer plus two topcoats. Semi-gloss or satin enamel hides fingerprints better than flat. For full-room walls after cabinets, switch to the how much paint do I need tool.
Walk the whole job in our interior painting project guide — prep, prime, and cut-in order matter as much as gallons.
Quarts vs gallons
Small trim jobs often finish under one gallon — buy quarts when the estimate is well under a gallon to avoid waste and colour-match issues later. Keep leftover for touch-ups in a labelled jar.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
Do I paint both sides of doors?
Yes for swinging interior doors if both faces show. Toggle “both faces” in settings. Closet doors sometimes get one face only.
How do I measure trim?
Add linear feet of baseboard, casing, and chair rail. Default height is 3.5 inches for baseboards — raise it for taller trim or crown.
Related calculators
Paint Calculator · https://paint-calculator.ca/cabinet-trim-paint-calculator/