How many wallpaper rolls do I need? A simple guide for Pakistani rooms

The most common question we get about wallpaper is also the one people most often get wrong: how many rolls do I need? Buy too few and you may not find the same batch again. Buy too many and you have paid for rolls that sit in a cupboard. This guide shows the method our fitters use, with a worked example for a normal bedroom.

We use our Korean roll size throughout, because it is the one we sell by the roll: 42 in wide and 16 ft long, which is about 56 sq ft.

Why dividing by the area goes wrong

It seems logical to add up the wall area and divide it by 56. The trouble is that wallpaper is not laid like tiles. It goes up in vertical strips, each one running from the ceiling to the skirting. Once you cut a strip to the height of your wall, whatever is left on the roll is an offcut. Offcuts are useful above doors and below windows, but they cannot make up a full strip.

Many homes here have ceilings of around 10 to 11 ft. A strip needs the wall height plus a few inches for trimming at the top and bottom. So from a 16 ft roll you get one full strip, and the rest is offcut. That is why the area method can suggest far fewer rolls than you actually use.

The strip method, step by step

• Measure the width of each wall in feet, at roughly waist height. Use a steel tape.
• Measure the height from the top of the skirting to the ceiling. Measure in two or three places, because floors and ceilings are rarely perfectly level, and use the largest number.
• Work out strips per wall. Divide the wall width by the roll width. Korean rolls are 42 in, which is 3.5 ft. Always round up.
• Work out strips per roll. Divide 16 ft by your wall height plus about 4 in. With a wall under about 7 ft 8 in you may get two strips from one roll. With a 10 ft wall you get one.
• Divide strips by strips per roll and round up. That is your roll count for the wall.

Worked example: a 12 x 14 ft bedroom

Take a bedroom that is 12 ft by 14 ft with a 10 ft ceiling. It has one door about 3 ft wide and one window about 5 ft wide.

Option 1: one feature wall

Most people start with the wall behind the bed. Say that is one of the 12 ft walls.

• 12 ft divided by 3.5 ft is 3.4, so you need 4 strips.
• Each 16 ft roll gives one 10 ft strip, so you need 4 rolls.
• At Rs 9,000 per roll for Korean wallpaper, that is Rs 36,000 for the material.

Compare that with the area method: 12 x 10 is 120 sq ft, divided by 56 is 2.1, which would suggest only 3 rolls. You would run short by a full strip.

Option 2: all four walls

• The distance around the room is 12 + 14 + 12 + 14, which is 52 ft.
• 52 divided by 3.5 is 14.9, so 15 strips before any deductions.
• The door is about as wide as one strip. The small area above it can be covered with an offcut, so you save roughly one full strip.
• The window is about 5 ft wide. The areas above and below it can usually be covered with offcuts, which saves roughly one more strip.
• That brings you to about 13 strips, so about 13 rolls.

We normally suggest keeping one spare roll for a room like this, for pattern matching and for any future repair. So the realistic answer for this bedroom is 13 to 14 rolls.

Patterns change the count

Plain and small textured designs waste very little. Large patterns need each strip to line up with the next one, so you lose some length every time you match the pattern. If your design has a big repeat, add one extra roll per wall, or ask us to check the repeat for the design you have chosen.

What about marla?

People often tell us the size of their house in marla, such as a 5 marla or 10 marla home. That is useful for us to picture the house, but it describes the plot of land, not the walls. Two houses on the same size plot can have very different wall areas, depending on the number of rooms, ceiling height and how many windows there are. For wallpaper, always measure the walls you actually want to cover.

Tips before you order

• Order all your rolls at the same time, so they come from the same batch and the colour matches.
• Write down each wall separately, width first and height second.
• Take a photo of each wall, showing doors, windows, switches and AC units.
• If the wall has damp patches or peeling paint, get that fixed first, or the paper can lift later.

Let us check your numbers

You can use our room calculator to get a roll count, or send your wall sizes and photos on WhatsApp to +92 334 5709400 and we will count for you. If you would rather we measure, book a home visit. There is a small visit fee, and it is adjusted in your bill if you order.

Browse Korean wallpaper, Chinese wallpaper or our wall murals, which are printed to the size of your wall so there are no rolls to count at all. Our shop is at Al Hafeez Plaza, opposite DHA Phase 2, Islamabad, and our team fits across Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Kitne rolls lagenge? Deewar ki chaurai aur unchai WhatsApp karein, hum hisaab kar ke bata dein ge.