How to Measure Your Wall for Wallpaper
If you're like me, you're excited to design your space — and wallpaper is a huge part of that. You probably also want it to be perfect. Or as close to perfect as you can get.
The key to a professional-looking install, even if you're DIY-ing the whole thing, is the measurements. Whether you're doing a single accent wall or papering floor to ceiling, getting them right the first time matters more than anything else — because every panel is printed to order, custom for your project. If you come up short and need a few more, they'll come from a new print run, and slight color differences between runs are always possible.
So here's how to measure with confidence. And if you're still unsure about anything, reach out — I'm always happy to help.
Grab a tape measure and a piece of paper. This takes about five minutes.
Measuring your wall
Width: corner to corner
Run your tape along the full width of the wall, corner to corner. Papering more than one wall? Measure each one on its own and add the numbers together — don't measure around a corner in one go.
Height: floor to ceiling, at the tallest point
Measure from the floor to the ceiling. If you have baseboards and crown molding, measure only the wall you can see between them. If your ceiling slopes or vaults anywhere in the room, use the tallest point — every panel prints at one height, and a panel can't be cut down to fit a shorter section.
Measure over everything
Windows, doors, closets, built-ins, radiators — measure straight across as though the wall were empty. Panels are hung as full lengths and trimmed around openings as you go. Subtracting a window now is the single most common way to end up one panel short.
How many panels you'll need
Panels are 19 inches wide, so your panel count is simply your wall width divided by 19, rounded up:
- Up to 5 ft wide — 4 panels
- Up to 8 ft wide — 6 panels
- Up to 10 ft wide — 7 panels
- Up to 12 ft wide — 8 panels
- Up to 15 ft wide — 10 panels
Then choose a panel length that's equal to or taller than your wall — the extra is trimmed at installation. The calculator on every wallpaper page does all of this for you, including the extra panel I recommend ordering.
Three things worth knowing before you order
Buy the whole wall in one order
Each order is printed as one continuous run, which is what keeps the color consistent and the pattern lining up seam to seam. Panels ordered weeks apart — even the same design, same colorway — come from a different run, and I can't promise they'll match.
Hang them in order
Your panels arrive numbered. The design is printed to flow across the whole wall rather than repeat inside each strip, so they go up left to right in sequence. Out of order, the pattern won't meet.
Round up, always
An extra panel costs a fraction of what it costs to be short — a second order means a second print run, a wait, and the risk of a slight color shift. I build one extra panel into every calculator result for exactly this reason.
Still not sure?
Order a $9 sample first and see the color and the scale of the drawing on your own wall, in your own light. And if your space is unusual — a stairwell, a slope, an alcove, a wall you're not sure how to treat — write to me. I'd much rather talk it through beforehand than have you guess.