Estimating quantities of Wallpaper

The standard UK roll of wallpaper is 20.5 inches by 11 yds (0.52m x 10.5m). Some continental papers are a little narrower while many American rolls are roughly twice as wide.

The type of pattern on the wallpaper will affect the amount of each roll you can use and so the number of rolls required; generally, the larger the repeat of the pattern vertically, the more waste there will be.

However it may be possible to reduce the amount of waste either by cutting adjacent strips from different rolls or by selecting the best match from cut lengths.

Waste will also result from papering around corners, where strips will be cut lengthways and this will often result in an unusable narrow strip.

Unless there are large areas of windows or other areas which will not be papered, simply measure the perimeter of the room (including around any chimney breast and other projections), and the height to be papered and use the table below.

Add on a couple of rolls if you are using a large repeat pattern or if the supplier will take back any rolls unused.

Unless you are using a paper which you will paint, only buy rolls of wallpaper with the same 'batch' or 'lot' number to ensure perfect colour matching.

If you are working in metric, checkout our conversion table.