Wallpaper Calculator UK — Rolls and Pattern Repeat

Your measurements

Wall to paper

Wall run (width) Metres. The width of the wall you are papering, measured at its widest. A whole room is several walls — add their widths together and check the drop count, because each wall buys its own drops.

Drop height Metres. Floor to ceiling, measured in a few places and taken at the tallest, because the ceiling line is rarely level. Add a little at the top and bottom if the paper needs trimming to a picture rail or a skirting.

Roll and pattern

Roll width Millimetres across the roll, as the label states. 530 mm is the common UK width — a wide vinyl or a mural panel is a different size again, so read the label on the roll you are buying. A narrower roll means more drops and more cutting.

Roll length Metres on the roll, as the label states. Rolls are often around 10 m, but a longer or shorter roll gives a different number of drops. Check the figure on the roll you are buying rather than relying on the default.

Pattern repeat Millimetres between one repeat of the design and the next, printed on the label. Enter 0 for a plain or free-match paper with no design to line up. A large repeat adds to every drop and is usually what pushes the order up.

Doors and windows to deduct Square metres of openings you do not want to paper. Optional — leave it at 0 for the safe figure. Treat any saving as a bonus: an opening that stops short of the ceiling is cut out of a drop you hang anyway, so it often removes no paper at all.

Results

Fill in every measurement above and your results will appear here.

Your shopping list

Wallpaper is ordered by the whole roll, and the pattern repeat eats into every drop, so the order is driven by the drop count rather than the wall area. The paste figure is a planning estimate: check the product data on the pack before you order.
Material	Quantity	Notes

Wall elevation: one vertical strip per drop, one roll width across, dimensioned by the wall run and the drop height, with the pattern repeat taken at every join. It redraws to your own figures as you fill the form in.

Check current prices

Wallpaper is quoted by the roll, and ranges differ in width, length and repeat, so compare the price of the roll size you actually need rather than the price per metre — a cheap narrow roll can need more drops, and a dearer long roll can need fewer rolls, so the cheaper-looking one is not always the cheaper job. Check the batch number matches across every roll, whether an unopened roll can be returned, and what the minimum order is, because a short run of a premium paper often has a two-roll minimum whatever the wall measures.

B&Q
Wickes
Homebase
Dunelm
Local decorator centre

No prices or shop links are shown here. Check today's pack size, coverage and stock with whichever supplier you use — those change more often than the quantities do.

How the wallpaper calculator works

Most wallpaper guides start with the wall area, and that is where they go wrong. A roll is not an area: it is a fixed width — the drop — and a fixed length, and what you hang are whole drops. So the calculator counts drops, not square metres. It divides the wall run by the roll width to find how many drops the wall needs, then divides the roll length by the drop height to find how many of those drops come off one roll. The two numbers meet in the order, then round up, because a part drop and a part roll are both bought whole.

The pattern repeat is what eats a roll

Every drop has to carry a full pattern repeat so the design lines up where two drops meet, and that repeat is added to the drop height. A 2.4 m wall with a 260 mm repeat consumes 2.66 m of roll for every drop. A large repeat makes each drop longer without making the wall taller, so fewer drops come off each roll and the order climbs. A free match — a plain paper or an unpatterned textured vinyl — has no repeat, so each drop is only as long as the wall is high, and the same wall then needs fewer rolls. Leave the repeat at zero for those: the maths still holds, because a zero repeat never divides by anything and never inflates the order.

Drops, rolls and rounding

The calculator rounds in two places, and both are deliberate. Drops round up, because the strip at the end of the wall is cut from a whole drop. Rolls round up too, because wallpaper is sold by the whole roll and a part roll is still a roll. An offcut is normal: it is the price of the repeat, and the reason a spare half-roll so often ends up in the loft for a repair ten years later.

Doors, windows and paste

You can deduct doors and windows, and the calculator turns the area you enter into the length of wall it removes. Treat that saving as optimistic, though: an opening that stops short of the ceiling is cut out of a drop you hang anyway, so it often removes no paper at all. Paste is a planning estimate on top. A typical 5 kg pack pastes about five rolls, but paste-the-wall papers, heavy embossed papers and thirsty or newly plastered walls all change that — always check the product data on the pack.

Measure before you buy

Measure the wall run at its widest and the drop from floor to ceiling, then read the roll width, the roll length and the pattern repeat off the label and type those figures in. Buy every roll at once and check the batch numbers match: a later roll from a different batch can be a shade out, and no calculator can fix that.

Wallpaper FAQs

How many rolls of wallpaper do I need?

Divide the wall run by the roll width to get the number of drops, then work out how many drops one roll gives. A 6 m run papered in 530 mm drops is 12 drops. A 10 m roll with a 2.4 m drop and a 260 mm repeat gives 3 drops a roll, so 12 drops needs 4 rolls. The calculator does both steps and rounds up, because a part drop and a part roll are still whole things to buy.

Does the pattern repeat change how many rolls I need?

Yes, and it is usually what pushes the order up. Every drop has to carry a full repeat so the design lines up at the join, so a 2.4 m drop with a 260 mm repeat consumes 2.66 m of roll. A large repeat makes each drop longer without making the wall taller, so fewer drops come off each roll and more rolls are needed for the same wall.

What does a free match, or no repeat, mean?

A free match — a plain paper or an unpatterned textured vinyl — has no design to line up, so the drop takes only the wall height. A 10 m roll then gives 4 drops of 2.4 m instead of 3, so a free match normally needs fewer rolls than a patterned paper on the same wall. Leave the repeat box at 0 for these papers.

Should I deduct doors and windows?

You can, and the calculator converts the area you enter into the length of wall it removes. Be aware that it is optimistic: a door or window that does not reach the ceiling is cut out of a drop you hang anyway, so the opening often saves no paper at all. Treat any saving as a bonus and check the roll count without it before you order.

How much wallpaper paste do I need?

As a planning estimate, one typical 5 kg pack pastes about 5 rolls, so a 4 roll job is one pack and a 6 roll job is two. That is an estimate only: paste-the-wall and paste-the-paper papers use it differently, and a porous or newly plastered wall drinks more. Check the product data on the pack before you buy.

What should I check on the roll label?

The roll width, the roll length and the pattern repeat are all printed on the roll label, and those three figures decide the order. Type them in from the roll you are buying rather than trusting the defaults here, because a wide vinyl, a mural panel or a short roll is a different calculation. Check the batch number too, so every roll comes from the same run.