Wallpaper Roll Calculator

Enter Calculation

Total Wall Width (m)

Wall Height (m)

Roll Width (m)

Roll Length (m)

Pattern Repeat (m)

Results

Wallpaper Rolls Needed

2

rolls (rounded up)

Strips needed	8
Strips per roll	4

What is the Wallpaper Roll Calculator?

This calculator estimates how many rolls of wallpaper you need to cover the walls of a room. It works from the total wall width to be covered, the wall height, and the dimensions of the wallpaper roll you have chosen. It also accounts for pattern repeat, which is the vertical distance between repeating motifs in a patterned design and which adds waste to every strip.

How to use it

Measure and add up the width of all the walls you want to paper (in metres) and enter it as the total wall width. Enter the wall height, then the roll width and roll length printed on the wallpaper packaging. Finally, enter the pattern repeat — set it to 0 for plain or free-match papers. The calculator returns the number of rolls to buy, plus the strips needed and strips you can get from one roll.

The formula explained

First, the number of vertical strips to cover the wall is \( \text{strips} = \left\lceil \frac{\text{wall width}}{\text{roll width}} \right\rceil \). Then the usable strips from a single roll is \( \text{strips per roll} = \left\lfloor \frac{\text{roll length}}{\text{wall height} + \text{pattern repeat}} \right\rfloor \), since each strip must be at least one wall-height long and patterned papers waste up to one repeat per strip. Finally \( \text{rolls} = \left\lceil \frac{\text{strips}}{\text{strips per roll}} \right\rceil \), rounding up because you cannot buy a fraction of a roll.

$$ \text{Rolls} = \left\lceil \frac{S}{R} \right\rceil \\[1.5em] \text{where}\quad \left\{ \begin{aligned} S &= \left\lceil \frac{\text{Wall Width (m)}}{\text{Roll Width (m)}} \right\rceil \\[0.4em] R &= \left\lfloor \frac{\text{Roll Length (m)}}{\text{Wall Height (m)} + \text{Pattern Repeat (m)}} \right\rfloor \end{aligned} \right. $$

Pattern repeat R adds extra length to each strip so patterns line up.

How total wall width and roll length translate into strips and rolls needed.

Worked example

A room with 4 m of wall width and 2.4 m height, using rolls 0.53 m wide and 10 m long with no pattern repeat.

$$ \text{Strips} = \left\lceil \frac{4}{0.53} \right\rceil = \lceil 7.55 \rceil = 8 $$ $$ \text{Strips per roll} = \left\lfloor \frac{10}{2.4} \right\rfloor = \lfloor 4.17 \rfloor = 4 $$ $$ \text{Rolls} = \left\lceil \frac{8}{4} \right\rceil = 2 \text{ rolls} $$

FAQ

Should I buy extra? Yes — it is wise to buy one extra roll for trimming errors, future repairs, and to ensure all rolls share the same batch number.

What about doors and windows? This estimate covers full wall width for simplicity, which builds in a safety margin. For large openings you may subtract their width from the total wall width.

What is pattern repeat? It is the vertical length after which a design pattern repeats. Larger repeats mean more waste matching adjacent strips, so they increase the rolls needed.