Start by Measuring Your Wall the Right Way
Coverage math is only as good as your measurements, and the most common mistake is treating a wrapped fence or a room corner as a single flat rectangle. Instead, break the project into planes. A plane is any single flat face you plan to cover: one side of a fence run, one wall of a lobby, one face of a column.
For each plane, measure the height and the width in feet, then multiply them to get the area of that plane in square feet. Add every plane together for your project total. Working plane by plane keeps corners honest, because the material that turns a corner belongs to whichever face it finishes, not to both.
- Measure height × width per plane. Multiply the two to get square feet for that face, then sum the faces.
- Subtract openings. Take out gates, doorways, and windows you are not covering so you are not buying material for empty air.
- Treat corners and columns as separate planes. An L-shaped fence is two planes; a wrapped column is three or four narrow ones.
Artificial boxwood hedge mats and fence-covering panels clip and attach to fencing and framework, so once you know the square footage of each plane, the rest is arithmetic.
The Panel Math: Square Feet to Panel Count
A standard hedge mat or panel measures 40 inches by 40 inches. To find the coverage of one panel in square feet, convert inches to feet and multiply:
40 in ÷ 12 = 3.33 ft. One panel is 3.33 ft × 3.33 ft.
3.33 × 3.33 ≈ 11.1 square feet per panel.
From there, the panel count for any project is your total square footage divided by 11.1, rounded up to the next whole panel. The table below runs that arithmetic for common wall and fence sizes so you can find a starting number at a glance.
| Wall / fence size | Area (sq ft) | ÷ 11.1 | Panels (rounded up) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 ft × 8 ft fence panel | 48 | 4.3 | 5 |
| 6 ft × 10 ft fence run | 60 | 5.4 | 6 |
| 6 ft × 20 ft fence line | 120 | 10.8 | 11 |
| 8 ft × 10 ft accent wall | 80 | 7.2 | 8 |
| 8 ft × 12 ft feature wall | 96 | 8.6 | 9 |
| 10 ft × 12 ft lobby wall | 120 | 10.8 | 11 |
| 10 ft × 20 ft backdrop | 200 | 18.0 | 18 |
Notice that the 6 ft × 20 ft fence line and the 10 ft × 12 ft lobby wall both come to 120 square feet and about 11 panels — coverage math cares about total area, not the shape it takes. Products are priced per case rather than per panel, and case quantities differ from one product to the next, so use the panel count as your planning figure and confirm exact case counts when you request a quote.
Plan Overage and Trimming Before You Order
The table gives you the bare minimum to cover a clean rectangle, but real walls are rarely clean rectangles. You will trim panels to finish a run, cut around a gate post or an outlet, and match the leaf pattern where two panels meet so the seam disappears. Standard trade practice is to add a small buffer above the exact square footage for exactly this reason.
Add 5–10% overage for cuts and pattern matching. On the 120 sq ft fence line, that is roughly one extra panel; on the 200 sq ft backdrop, one to two.
Lean toward the higher end of that range when the layout has lots of corners, tight openings, or a visible pattern that has to line up, and toward the lower end for a plain, uninterrupted run. Mats can be trimmed to fit, so leftover material rarely goes to waste — it becomes the pieces that finish edges and corners cleanly.
When It Makes Sense to Go Custom-Panel
Standard 40″ × 40″ mats are the right tool for most fences and feature walls, because they clip together and trim easily. But on large, uninterrupted walls, seams multiply fast, and every seam is another line to pattern-match. That is where a custom panel earns its place.
For the Vallum FRX system, custom panels are available up to 96 inches by 48 inches — that is 8 ft × 4 ft, or 32 square feet in a single panel, nearly three times a standard mat. Fewer, larger panels mean fewer seams across a big lobby wall or a tall privacy screen and a faster, cleaner install.
Larger panels also carry more weight per piece, so plan the mounting structure accordingly. For the Vallum FRX system, figure roughly 4.8 lbs per square foot installed; a full 32 sq ft custom panel therefore lands near 150 lbs of finished assembly to support. If your project is a tall or continuous run, a tall privacy hedge configuration or a custom-panel living wall is usually the cleaner path than tiling dozens of standard mats.
Send Your Dimensions and Get an Exact Count
Once you have your plane measurements and a rough panel count, the fastest way to a firm number is to hand them to the team. The quote form asks for your dimensions and now supports photo and plan uploads, so you can send a sketch or a picture of the wall alongside the numbers. That lets the team confirm the right product, the exact case count, and any overage for your specific layout.
Most quote requests get a response within 24 hours. If you would rather browse first, the shop lists products by case, and the artificial hedges range shows the full set of panel styles you can size against the math above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Case quantities vary by product, so there is no single number that applies across the range. The number of mats per case is confirmed with your quote, once the specific product and coverage are known. Plan from total square footage first, then confirm how that maps to cases when you request pricing.
Measure the height and width of each wall or fence plane in feet, multiply to get square feet, and add the planes together. A standard 40 by 40 inch panel covers about 11.1 square feet, so divide your total square footage by 11.1 and round up. Add 5 to 10 percent for cuts and pattern matching.
Yes. Mats are designed to clip and attach to fencing and framework, and they can be trimmed to fit edges, corners, and openings. Because you cut panels to finish a run, ordering a small overage above the exact square footage is standard practice so you have material for trimmed pieces.