The One-Batch Wallpaper Order

Drops counted wall by wall, each roll's yield worked out for your paper's match with the worst case allowed, doors and windows credited only when the offcuts can carry them, every wall priced papered or painted, and one order, plus one spare, from one batch

DrainHouse's Wallpaper Calculator used to divide wall area by roll coverage, with no place for the pattern repeat, so on its own default room it said 7 rolls where the walls take 10. It now counts drops and adds one full repeat to every drop: a cautious rule that is never short, and that often orders rolls you will never open. Square feet hide the offcuts, the trim and the length lost lining up the pattern, and nothing on the free tool says what a door or a window really gives back, or that the roll you run short by comes from another batch. The One-Batch Wallpaper Order counts what you hang. In its worked example, a 13 by 11 ft bedroom with 9 ft walls and a 21 in straight-match paper on 20.5 in by 33 ft rolls takes 30 drops. The old area method bought 9 rolls, 3 drops short; the cautious rule says 15. Worked from the pitch the straight match demands (the drop rounded up to whole repeats) with up to one repeat lost lining up every roll, each roll gives 3 drops: 10 rolls to hang, 11 ordered with the spare, $212.50 less than the cautious order at an example $42.50 a roll. It then prices each wall papered or painted, orders once from one batch, and readies a dry, sound wall. Every figure is computed by the site's own calculator code, and every room, paper and price is an example to replace with yours; the trim allowance is called a rule of thumb, the lining-up loss a worst case. Safety lines are quoted from the EPA (mold up to about 10 sq ft, lead in pre-1978 homes, never mixing bleach with ammonia) and the CDC, with the circuit off at the breaker before any cover plate comes off and a licensed electrician beyond that. Included: 7 steps, 4 printable working pages, a drops-per-roll table for common heights and repeats, a quickstart, and a personalised sheet worked from the numbers you enter in the Wallpaper Calculator.

Look inside

Two full pages from the kit, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• Step 1: drops counted wall by wall, the widest of three measurements, never by square feet
• Step 2: the pitch your paper's match demands, random, straight or half-drop, from the label
• Step 3: drops per roll with the worst-case lining-up loss, rolls rounded once, beside the old and the cautious answers
• Step 4: doors and windows credited only when a sure column's short pieces fit an offcut
• Step 5: every wall priced papered or painted, with the Paint Calculator's gallons
• Step 6: one order, plus one spare, from one batch, with every label checked before a roll is opened
• Step 7: a dry, sound wall: damp and mold first, the circuit off at the breaker, old paint tested
• Working pages: a drop sheet, a pitch and roll sheet, an openings and offcuts sheet, and an order and batch card
• Reference tables: drops per roll for wall heights from 7.5 to 12 ft and five repeats, and rolls for a number of drops
• A personalised sheet worked from the numbers you enter in the Wallpaper Calculator

The kit picks up where the free Wallpaper Calculator, Paint Calculator and Room Size Calculatorleave off. The calculator counts drops with a cautious one-repeat-per-drop rule that is never short; the kit counts the drops each roll really gives for your paper's match, with the worst case allowed, credits doors and windows only when the offcuts can carry them, prices each wall papered or painted, and orders once, plus one spare, from one batch, on a wall made dry and sound first. Every figure in it is an example for you to replace.