Wallpaper Calculator
Wallpaper calculator — enter your wall width and height plus the roll size and pattern repeat to get the exact number of rolls you need. Accounts for the wastage a pattern match costs on every drop. Runs in your browser.
Wallpaper Calculator
How to Use the Wallpaper Calculator
Measure the wall
Enter the total width and the floor-to-ceiling height in metres.
Enter the roll size
Use the width and length printed on the roll label.
Add the pattern repeat
Enter the repeat distance (0 for a plain paper).
Read the roll count
See rolls needed, plus drops and strips per roll — then add one spare.
Counting Rolls the Way Decorators Do
The reason wallpaper is so easy to under-buy is that rolls are not sold by area — they are hung in full-height strips called drops, and the relationship between roll length, wall height and pattern repeat decides how many usable drops you actually get. This calculator thinks the way a professional decorator does. It divides your wall width by the roll width to find how many drops the wall needs, divides the roll length by the height of each drop to find how many drops you can cut from one roll, and then divides one by the other and rounds up to a whole number of rolls. The result is the honest roll count, not a misleading square-metre figure.
The variable that trips most people up is the pattern repeat. A plain paper wastes almost nothing, but a patterned one has to be matched between adjacent strips, and lining the design up can cost you up to a full repeat of length on every single drop. That waste is invisible until you are halfway up the wall and run short. By folding the repeat into the drop height, this tool captures the effect directly: a large repeat means fewer drops per roll and therefore more rolls overall. The standard European roll defaults here — 0.53 m wide by 10.05 m long — but you should always enter the exact figures from the label, because American and feature rolls can be quite different.
A few habits turn a good estimate into a flawless job. Always buy one extra roll: it covers a mis-cut today and a repair years from now, and crucially it lets you match the dye-lot (batch) number, since rolls from different batches can differ subtly in shade in a way that is glaringly obvious on a finished wall. Measure height from the top of the skirting to the ceiling, and when papering a whole room, add the widths of every wall you intend to cover. You generally do not subtract doors and windows, because drops are still hung across openings and the offcuts fill the short sections above and below. Treat the number here as your shopping list, round up, add the spare, and you will not be making a second trip to the shop mid-project. As always, everything is calculated in your browser, so your measurements never leave your device.
Wallpaper is bought in drops, not square metres — and a big pattern repeat quietly steals a strip’s worth of length from every roll.
10 Facts About Wallpapering
A standard Euro roll is 0.53 m × 10.05 m.
A pattern repeat wastes length on every strip.
Always buy from the same batch (dye lot) number.
Buy one extra roll for repairs and mistakes.
A “drop” is one floor-to-ceiling strip.
Free-match patterns waste less than offset matches.
American rolls are often wider and shorter.
Order doors and windows don’t cut your roll count much.
Measure wall height to the skirting, not the floor.
This calculator runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Frequently Asked Questions
- It works out how many full-height strips (“drops”) your wall needs by dividing the wall width by the roll width, then how many drops you can cut from one roll by dividing the roll length by the height of each drop. Dividing one by the other — and rounding up — gives the number of rolls. The drop height includes any pattern repeat, because a matching pattern wastes length on every strip.
- A pattern repeat is the vertical distance before the design starts again. To line the pattern up between adjacent strips, you often have to waste up to one repeat of length on each drop. A large repeat can mean you get fewer usable drops per roll, pushing your roll count up — which is exactly why this calculator asks for it.
- Check the label. The most common European standard roll is 0.53 m wide and 10.05 m long, which is the default here. American and feature rolls differ — some are wider or shorter — so always enter the actual dimensions printed on the roll you intend to buy.
- Generally not when estimating rolls. Because wallpaper is hung in full-height drops, a door or window usually still consumes most of a drop’s width, and you keep the offcuts for the short sections above and below openings. Most decorators calculate on the full wall area and rely on the spare roll for openings, which is the safer approach.
- Two reasons: mistakes happen, and dye lots vary. A spare roll covers a mis-cut or a future repair, and buying it now — from the same batch number — guarantees a colour match. Rolls from a different batch can be subtly different in shade, which is very visible on a finished wall.
- A drop is a single floor-to-ceiling strip of wallpaper. The calculator thinks in drops because that is how paper is actually hung: you cut a length a little longer than the wall height, hang it, then trim top and bottom. How many drops fit on a roll, and how many drops the wall needs, together determine the roll count.
- Measure the total width you intend to cover (for a feature wall, that is just that wall; for a whole room, add the widths of all walls). Measure the height from the top of the skirting board to the ceiling. Use the area you actually intend to paper — measuring generously is safer than under-measuring.
- Yes — just enter the combined width of all the walls you are papering as the wall width, and the room height. The drop-based maths is identical. For rooms with very different wall heights, calculate the tallest section to be safe.
- No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is transmitted, logged or stored.
- Completely free, with no account or limit. It works offline once the page has loaded and collects no data.
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