How Many Rolls of Wallpaper Do I Need?

Measure the walls, subtract openings

Start with paintable-style wall area: perimeter × height, minus about 21 sq ft per door and 15 per window. A 12 × 14 room at 8 ft with one door and two windows is roughly 365 sq ft of wall to cover.

Try it Wallpaper Calculator → Estimate how many rolls of wallpaper a room needs, with doors and windows removed and pattern-repeat waste included.

Mind the pattern repeat

Every strip has to line up with its neighbor, so patterned paper wastes material at the top of each drop. A small repeat wastes little; a large repeat (18+ inches) can waste 20–30%. Plain and random-match papers waste the least.

• Check the roll's usable coverage — it's less than the raw area once you account for the repeat.
• Buy every roll from the same batch (run number) so colors match.
• Order one extra roll for repairs; discontinued patterns are impossible to match later.

Single rolls vs. double rolls

Wallpaper is priced by the single roll but almost always sold in double-roll bolts, which cut more efficiently. A double roll covers roughly 56–60 usable square feet. Our calculator works in the coverage you enter and rounds up to whole rolls so you don't come up a strip short.