Kitchen cabinet paint calculator
Cabinet painting math is different from wall paint — you're coating doors, drawer fronts, face frames, and the visible sides of every cabinet box. Linear feet of cabinetry × per-foot face area gives a much better estimate than wall sqft. PRO Semi-Gloss is the right finish.
Estimates round up to the nearest quart and are based on Kompozit's published coverage. Buy slightly more for touch-ups and color changes.
The math behind cabinet paint
Per linear foot of cabinetry: ~6.5 sq ft of paintable face area for uppers (24" tall, doors + face frame + sides), ~9 sq ft for lowers (34" tall + toe kicks), and ~12 sq ft for tall pantry cabinets. Doors get painted both sides — that doubles the door area. Pulling the doors and laying them flat for spraying is the right move for any job over 20 linear feet.
Why three coats, not two
Cabinets get touched constantly — every door, every drawer, ten times a day. Two coats of wall paint scuffs in a year on cabinets. Three coats of PRO Semi-Gloss with proper sanding between coats holds up for 8–10 years and wipes clean.
Bonding primer is non-negotiable
Factory cabinet finishes are typically conversion varnish or melamine — neither bonds well to regular topcoat paint. Use a true bonding primer on day one. Skipping this step is the most common reason cabinet paint peels in a year.
FAQ
For doors and drawer fronts off the cabinet: spray, every time. Foam-roller-and-tip-off works for the boxes (you can't easily mask everything around them for spraying), and looks fine if you use a high-density foam roller and tip off with a quality brush.
You can, but the grain texture will telegraph through any paint. If you don't want to see oak grain, sand smooth, fill with a paste filler, sand again, prime. It's the painful step that defines good vs. sloppy cabinet paint.
Recoat in 4–6 hours. Light handling in 24 hours. Full cure (when the paint is hard enough to resist fingernails and dings) takes 14–30 days. Don't lean groceries against new cabinet doors for two weeks.