Wainscoting calculator: how much wainscoting do I need for a room?
6 sheets
12 strips of 48 × 36 in, 2 per 8 ft piece · 45 ft of wall, 135 sq ft · 45 ft of cap rail · for a 12 × 12 ft room, 36 in high, in 48 in wide panels
Run your own numbers
Enter it the way you measured it: 4.5, 4 1/2,
3/8 or 10' 6".
6 sheets
12 strips of 48 × 36 in, 2 per 8 ft piece · 45 ft of wall, 135 sq ft · 45 ft of cap rail
A 12 by 12 ft room with one 3 ft door, paneled 36 inches high, takes 6 sheets of 4 × 8 ft: 45 ft of wall needs 12 panels 48 inches wide, and each sheet gives 2 panels of 36 inches.
A worked example
A 15 ft 4 in by 11 ft 2 in dining room with 6 ft 8 in of openings, in beadboard planks covering 3 1/2 in, 32 in high, from 8 ft boards, needs 53 boards. The walls run 2 × (15.33 + 11.17) − 6.67 = 46.3 ft, 556 in, so 159 planks wide. An 8 ft board gives three pieces of 32 in, and 159 ÷ 3 is 53 boards.
How do I lay out picture frame wainscoting?
Decide how many boxes go on the wall and the gap between them and at each end, then divide what is left by the boxes: box width = (wall width − (boxes + 1) × gap) ÷ boxes. An 11 ft wall, 132 in, with 4 boxes and 4 in gaps leaves 132 − 20 = 112 in, so each box is 28 in wide. Work the height the same way, from the cap rail to the baseboard.
How many square feet of wainscoting do I need?
Multiply the wall length, less the doors, by the height in feet. A 14 by 12 ft room with a 3 ft door has 49 ft of wall; at 32 inches high that is 130.7 square feet, which is 5 sheets of 4 × 8 ft cut in three. Square feet alone overstate sheets when the height does not divide the sheet evenly.
What else it is called
Wainscoting is also called wainscot or wall paneling; beadboard, raised panel and board and batten are styles of it. The cap rail on top and the baseboard at the bottom run the same linear feet as the wall: the baseboard calculator turns those into pieces.
Common sizes
| Room | 4 × 8 ft sheets, 32 in | Sheets, 36 in | 3 1/2 in planks, 32 in | Planks, 36 in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 × 10 ft | 4 | 5 | 43 | 64 |
| 10 × 12 ft | 4 | 6 | 47 | 71 |
| 12 × 12 ft | 4 | 6 | 52 | 78 |
| 12 × 14 ft | 5 | 7 | 56 | 84 |
| 14 × 16 ft | 5 | 8 | 66 | 98 |
| 16 × 20 ft | 6 | 9 | 79 | 119 |
Pieces 8 ft long, with one 3 ft door opening and no waste added. Planks are counted by the width they cover, without the tongue.
Where the numbers come from
- Wall length is geometry: the room perimeter, 2 × (length + width), less the door openings. Strips are the wall in inches, plus your waste allowance, divided by the width each panel or plank covers, rounded up.
- Each sheet or board stands on end and is cut to the wainscoting height, so it gives as many strips as that height fits in its length, rounded down: a 4 × 8 ft sheet at 36 in gives two, at 32 in three. The cap rail runs the same linear feet as the wall.
Count every wall the wainscoting runs on and leave out the door openings; windows above the wainscoting do not change the count. Planks are counted by the face they cover once fitted, without the tongue. Outside corners and cuts around outlets take part of a strip, which is what the waste allowance covers.
By Javier Miralles · Last updated . How this site is made.
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