Do Not Calculate for Wallpaper Based on Square Footage

Calculating for wallpaper is not about square feet. Square feet works for paint, where you can use every bit of paint in the can to spread around the room. Not so for wallpaper.
You also have to factor in the amount of waste. Waste has to do with trimming at ceiling and floor, trimming around windows and doors and vanities and etc. And with matching the pattern.
This pattern has a 30” pattern repeat.  That means, depending on the height of your wall, you can lose nearly 3’ just to match one strip to the next.  In this photo, you can see 2’ length being cut off.  All that gets tossed into the trash.

This wallpaper is nearly 2’ wide.  That 2’ wide x 2’ long lost to match each strip = nearly 4 square feet lost to the scrap pile – for each strip. 
Here’s a look at the scrap pile.
Multiply that by 20 strips needed to get around the room. !

Here’s more. All this is going in the trash.
So, please, before purchasing your wallpaper, please let the installer measure and calculate how much you need.   I prefer to / insist on measuring in person, but some of my colleagues will calculate from your measurements, drawings and photos.
The pattern is called Frutto Proibito and is by Cole & Son .

You Can’t Put Every Square Foot of Paper on the Wall

See this big pile of grasscloth? All of the paper lying flat on the floor, as well as the three short rolls standing on end are bound for the trash can.
The rolls on the left under my table are the tail ends of rolls and, even though they are 7′ long, because the walls are 8’2″, none of that paper can be used.

That’s a lot of wallpaper there, a lot of square footage, that is going to waste.

The reason I’m pointing this out is because it’s not uncommon for people to measure their room themselves, get out their calculator, and figure to the exact square inch how many rolls of wallpaper they think – THINK – it will take to paper their room. Inevitably, they are wrong.

Most of the time, people forget about the waste factor for trimming at the ceiling and floor, cutting around doors and windows and cabinets, matching the pattern, etc. All those bits can add up to a whole lot of paper that gets cut off and thrown away, because the pieces are too small to use anywhere in the room.

It’s hard to see how pretty this paper is, but it’s a finely woven grasscloth, natural color, with silver metallic background showing through. It’s by Thibaut Designs, and the interior designer is Pamela O’Brien of Pamela Hope Designs. http://www.pamelahopedesigns.com/