How to calculate wallpaper rolls
- Measure the total width of the walls you will paper (the room perimeter, or just one feature wall) and the wall height.
- Enter the roll width and length from the label. A standard European roll is 53 cm × 10.05 m; US double rolls are often 20.5 in × 33 ft.
- Enter the pattern repeat if your paper has one, and the total width of doors or large windows you will not paper.
- Read the number of rolls, strips and strips per roll.
Why we count strips, not square metres
Dividing the wall area by the roll area underestimates, because you cannot join small offcuts on a wall. Wallpaperers count drops (vertical strips) instead. Each drop is the wall height plus about 10 cm for trimming at the ceiling and skirting. A roll gives as many whole drops as fit in its length; the rest is waste. For a 2.5 m wall, a 10.05 m roll gives three 2.6 m drops. A 15 m room perimeter needs 29 drops of 53 cm width, so 10 rolls.
With a pattern repeat, each drop must be rounded up to a whole number of repeats so the pattern lines up from one strip to the next, which can significantly increase waste: a 64 cm repeat on a 2.5 m wall makes each drop 3.2 m. Large windows and doors can be subtracted by their width, but small ones are usually ignored because of offcuts above and below them. Always buy rolls from the same batch and keep one spare for repairs. The calculator runs in your browser.
How many rolls of wallpaper for a feature wall?
A typical 3–4 m wide feature wall with 2.4–2.5 m height needs 3–4 standard rolls without a repeat.
What is a pattern repeat?
The vertical distance before the design repeats. It is printed on the label in centimetres or inches.
What is a US double roll?
US wallpaper is priced per single roll but sold in double rolls, typically around 56 sq ft. Enter the double-roll length.