Advanced options
Based on standard UK rolls (10.05m x 53cm). Enter the combined width of the walls you are papering; there is no need to subtract normal doors and windows, as the offcuts get used around them. Buy all rolls from one batch number.
What The Wallpaper Calculator Works Out
- Rolls to buy: drops needed divided by drops per roll, rounded up. A standard UK roll is 10.05m long and 53cm wide, so an 18m run of 2.4m walls needs 34 drops, which is 9 rolls.
- Drops needed: the total wall width divided by the roll width, rounded up. Standard practice is not to subtract ordinary doors and windows, because the pieces cut away get used above and below them.
- Drops per roll: each vertical strip is the wall height plus about 10cm of trim, so a 2.4m wall gives four drops from a roll. With a pattern repeat each drop is rounded up to a whole number of repeats: a 50cm repeat turns a 2.5m drop into 3m, cutting a roll from four drops to three.
- Pattern repeat: printed on the label. The bigger the repeat relative to the wall height, the more paper is lost per drop, which is why bold large-scale designs cost more to hang than their roll price suggests.
- Roll size (advanced): switch to European 10m x 52cm rolls or wide 68.6cm (27 inch) and 70cm rolls, which halve the number of joins on a plain paper.
- Pattern match (advanced): an offset (half-drop) match means alternate drops start half a repeat lower, so the calculator adds half a repeat to every drop before rounding. Expect roughly one extra roll in five compared with a straight match.
- Trim allowance and large openings (advanced): change the 10cm per-drop trim, and knock off the width of genuinely large openings such as patio doors or a run of fitted wardrobes that will not be papered.
- Wallpaper cost (advanced): rolls x your price per roll, with the price including one spare shown alongside. Running out mid-wall with a discontinued batch is the expensive outcome, and unopened rolls are usually returnable.
- Paste needed (advanced): one standard packet or ready-mixed tub per five rolls or so. Paste-the-wall papers use a heavier adhesive that covers about half as many rolls per tub.
- Offcut waste and decorator estimate (advanced): how many metres of paper end up as offcuts (useful for judging whether a wide roll would be cheaper), and rolls x a decorator's rate per roll hung, typically GBP 20 to GBP 40 for standard paper and more for delicate or wide-width papers.