Buying paint for several rooms at once
Same colour in three rooms? Add the areas first and round once. Different colours or finishes? Keep them apart — the planner will not merge them even if the labels match.
Pool the same product
Paint in the same product, finish and colour is one purchase. Rounding the summed volume once avoids buying a nearly empty can for each room. Three rooms needing 1.2, 1.4 and 0.9 gallons are 3.5 gallons pooled → 4 cans, versus 2 + 2 + 1 = 5 cans separately.
Never merge different products
Ceiling flat white and wall eggshell are different purchases even if the brand is the same. A second colour is a second line. The planner's consolidation key includes product, finish, colour and container size, so two items with the same name but different coverage cannot be merged silently.
Worked example
| Room | Net wall area | 2 coats ÷ 350 × 1.10 |
|---|---|---|
| Bedroom (3 walls) | 287 sq ft | 1.80 gal |
| Hall | 190 sq ft | 1.19 gal |
| Office | 320 sq ft | 2.01 gal |
| Pooled | 797 sq ft | 5.01 gal → 6 one-gallon cans, or 1 five-gallon + 1 gallon |
| Room by room | 2 + 2 + 3 = 7 cans |
Primer
Primer has its own coverage (often lower on new drywall) and usually one coat. It is a separate line with its own surface selection — you may prime the new drywall in one room and only paint in the others.
Keep the breakdown
Even when pooled, the shopping list shows how much of the purchase each room consumes, so you can still budget per room or split a shared order. Set this up in the planner with "Pool purchases across rooms".