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Wallpaper Calculator

How Many Rolls of Wallpaper You Need

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How the Wallpaper Calculator works

This wallpaper calculator tells you how many rolls to buy for a room or a feature wall. Enter the total width of the walls you are papering, the wall height and the pattern repeat from the roll label, pick the roll size, and it returns the rolls needed, the number of drops, how many drops each roll gives and the length to cut each one.

Wallpaper is hung in vertical strips called drops. The number of rolls depends on how many full drops you can cut from one roll, not on the wall area alone, because the offcut at the end of each roll is usually too short to use. A pattern repeat makes each drop longer, since every strip has to start at the same point in the pattern to match its neighbour.

How the wallpaper calculator works

The formula is: cut length = wall height + pattern repeat + 10 cm trim; drops per roll = roll length ÷ cut length, rounded down; drops = wall width ÷ roll width, rounded up; rolls = drops ÷ drops per roll, rounded up. For example, a room with 14 m of wall at 2.4 m high and plain paper on standard 53 cm rolls needs 27 drops at 2.5 m, four drops per roll, so 7 rolls. A second example: the same room with a 64 cm repeat has 3.14 m drops, only three per roll, so it needs 9 rolls.

Measure the width all the way round, including over doors and windows; the small savings from gaps are normally lost in cutting around them. Buy one extra roll from the same batch number for repairs and mistakes, because a later batch can differ slightly in colour.

To work out how many rolls for a single feature wall, enter just that wall's width. US wallpaper is often sold priced per single roll but supplied as double rolls, so check which you are buying.

Rolls of standard 53 cm wallpaper for a 2.4 m high room, by wall width and pattern repeat

Wall width No repeat 32 cm repeat 53 cm repeat 64 cm repeat
4 m 2 3 3 3
5 m 3 4 4 4
6 m 3 4 4 4
7 m 4 5 5 5
8 m 4 6 6 6
9 m 5 6 6 6
10 m 5 7 7 7
11 m 6 7 7 7
12 m 6 8 8 8
13 m 7 9 9 9
14 m 7 9 9 9
15 m 8 10 10 10
16 m 8 11 11 11
17 m 9 11 11 11
18 m 9 12 12 12
19 m 9 12 12 12
20 m 10 13 13 13
21 m 10 14 14 14
22 m 11 14 14 14
23 m 11 15 15 15
24 m 12 16 16 16

FAQ

How many rolls of wallpaper do I need for a room?

Add up the width of every wall, divide by the roll width to get the number of drops, and see how many drops one roll gives at your wall height plus the pattern repeat. A typical 4 × 3.5 m bedroom with 2.4 m walls takes about 7 standard rolls of plain paper and 9 of a large pattern.

What is a wallpaper pattern repeat?

It is the vertical distance before the design repeats itself, printed on the roll label in centimetres or inches. Each drop must be cut long enough to line the pattern up with the next strip, so larger repeats waste more paper and reduce the drops you get per roll.

Should I buy extra wallpaper?

Yes, buy at least one spare roll with the same batch number. Colours can vary slightly from batch to batch, so if you run short or damage a drop later you may not be able to match it exactly with a roll bought another time.

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