Painting your home's interior is not only a lot of work, it's expensive. And because the color must be custom-mixed in some cases, you want to be sure you buy enough.
A second problem with paint: You'll have to store leftovers in a place where they won't freeze. That ruins paint.
To calculate the right quantity so you'll have enough but not too much, follow this advice from Martha Stewart:
* Determine the wall area by multiplying the height of a room by the width. Don't subtract any square feet for doors and windows unless they take up half of the room.
* Divide the total number of square feet in all the walls by 450. That's the number of square feet one gallon of paint will cover.
* Add about 10 percent to your order for future touch-ups.
* If you know you will be using two coats, double the amount of paint you will buy.
If you calculate correctly, you won't run out of paint, but you will still have to find a place to store the future touch-up material.
Because you won't have very much, you could put it in the back of a closet inside the house.
