Wallpaper Calculator

A standard UK wallpaper roll is 10.05 m long and 0.53 m wide, covering approximately 5 m². The number of drops (vertical strips) per roll depends on room height and pattern repeat. A plain or small-repeat paper in a 2.4 m room gives 4 drops per roll. A large pattern repeat (e.g. 64 cm) reduces this to 2–3 drops per roll due to pattern matching waste. In terms of usable coverage, a plain or random pattern nets 4-4.5 m² per roll, a small repeat 3.5-4 m² and a large repeat over 30cm only 2.5-3.5 m². A bedroom with 30 m² of wall at a typical net of 4 m² per roll therefore needs 8 rolls.

This calculator measures the room perimeter, divides by roll width to get the total number of drops needed, then divides by drops per roll to get the number of rolls. It subtracts doors and windows (each equivalent to roughly half a drop) and adds 1–2 spare rolls for mistakes and future repairs. Enter room dimensions, ceiling height and pattern repeat length, and it shows drops needed, rolls required and estimated cost. For wide-width wallpapers (0.70 m or 1.06 m), the strip count is adjusted accordingly. Whatever the total, all rolls should carry the same batch number, because colour varies slightly between batches.

The pattern match type on the label tells you how much paper you will lose. A free-match paper has no repeat, so consecutive lengths are cut straight off the roll for maximum yield. A straight match repeats horizontally at the same height and wastes a moderate amount. An offset or drop match (half-drop) lifts each strip half a pattern from the previous one and wastes the most, losing 30-50% of the material on large repeats. Divide the wall height by the repeat to find the waste per drop: a 64cm repeat in a 2.4m room needs 4 repeats, so 2.56m of paper is cut for each 2.4m drop, which is 6.7% waste before any matching at the seams.

Paper type affects both hanging and durability. Standard paper is the cheapest but tears easily and is hard to hang. Vinyl is durable and wipeable, good for kitchens and bathrooms, and is the most common UK retail choice. Non-woven paper is the easiest to hang because you paste the wall rather than the paper, and it peels off cleanly later. Textured papers such as anaglypta and woodchip hide poor walls but have been out of fashion since the 2000s. Murals and photo papers stretch a single image across a wall and are custom-printed to size. Budget rolls cost £8-£15, mid-range £20-£40, and designer names such as Cole & Son, Sanderson and Farrow & Ball £75-£200 a roll.

Preparation makes or breaks the job. Strip the old paper (a steam stripper costs about £15 a day to hire), wash the walls with sugar soap, fill cracks and sand them smooth. Size the walls with diluted paste, which improves slip while you position each drop. Stained walls need priming with shellac, otherwise water stains bleed through the fresh paper. Lining paper at £3-£5 a roll under the wallpaper hides imperfections in old plaster. Use a plumb line for the first drop, since walls and ceilings are never perfectly square, and cut each drop with 50mm of overlap at top and bottom to trim after hanging.

For a materials-only DIY job on a 3.6m × 4m bedroom with about 30 m² of wall, 8 rolls at £25 come to £200, plus £5 of paste and £25 of lining paper, so £230 in total. One-off tools add around £40: scissors £10, brush £10, smoother £8 and plumb bob £8. A professional decorator charges £200-£400 a day in labour plus materials, and a typical bedroom takes 1.5 days, so £400-£800 all in. A single-wall mural costs £100-£300 for the paper and £150-£300 to hang. A room in designer paper runs £600-£2,000 or more, depending on the roll price and the complexity of the pattern.