Wallpapering Plan
Count drops, not square feet. The pattern repeat sets the cut length, and the cut length sets everything else.
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The room
- Date
- Room
- Perimeter
- Wall height
- Pattern repeat
- Match type
- CUT LENGTH
- Roll length
- Roll width
- DROPS NEEDED
- Drops per roll
- ROLLS
- Paper
- BATCH NUMBER
Figures and rules
- Cut length (patterned)
- next whole repeat ABOVE the wall height
- Cut length (free match)
- the wall height
- Drops per roll
- roll length / cut length, ROUNDED DOWN
- Drops needed
- perimeter / roll width, rounded up
- US double roll
- about 20.5 in x 33 ft (~56 sq ft)
- European roll
- 20.9 in x 33 ft
- Also common
- 27 in wide
- ⚠ Doors and windows
- do NOT deduct
- ⚠ Offset / drop match
- wastes MORE — add a roll
- Free / random match
- no repeat penalty
- 8 ft wall, 21 in repeat
- cut 8.75 ft — 9 in binned per drop
- ⚠ Batch number
- buy ONE batch — colour differs between them
Wall by wall
| Wall | Width | Drops | Cut from roll | Hung |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Before the first drop
- Every roll checked for the SAME batch number
- Rolls checked for damage and shade before starting
- Match type confirmed — straight, offset or free
- Cut length worked out and written down
- First drop plumbed with a level, NOT measured off a corner
- Walls sized or primed as the paper requires
- Old paper removed and the wall made good
- Sockets isolated at the consumer unit
- Paste type matched to the paper
- Somewhere clean and long enough to paste and fold
- Offcuts kept, with the batch number, for repairs
The repeat sets the cut length
An 8 ft wall with a 21 in repeat is cut at 8.75 ft, because five repeats is 8.75 and four is only 7. Nine inches goes in the bin on every drop, and that is what takes you from 4 drops per roll to 3.
Do not deduct openings
Drops are cut full height whatever is behind them, and the offcut above a door rarely lines up anywhere else. Measure the perimeter as though the walls were solid. Only huge openings are worth removing, and then as whole drops.
One batch, and keep the offcuts
Wallpaper colour genuinely differs between print batches — a wall papered from two shows a seam in the right light. Buy it all at once, check the number on every roll, and keep the leftovers for repairs.