How many rolls of wallpaper do you need? Enter the room, the roll size and the pattern repeat to find out.
How to use this tool
Length, width and wall height in feet. Measure the height floor to ceiling, not just to the picture rail.
Width in inches and length in feet, from the roll label. A standard US roll is 20.5 inches wide and 33 feet long.
The vertical distance before the pattern repeats, from the label. A large repeat wastes more paper because every strip must start at the same point in the pattern.
Doors and windows reduce the area, but many decorators skip this — the extra paper covers mistakes and future repairs.
Formula & worked example
A 12 ft × 10 ft room with 8 ft walls: perimeter 44 ft = 528 inches, so 528 ÷ 20.5 = 25.8 → 26 strips. Each strip is 8 ft, so a 33 ft roll yields 4 strips, and 26 ÷ 4 = 6.5 → 7 rolls. With a 12-inch pattern repeat each strip is 9 ft, giving 3 strips per roll and 9 rolls.
Limitations — read this before you rely on it
This covers four full walls with no allowance for mistakes, mis-cuts or future repairs — most decorators buy one extra roll, and patterned paper often needs more than this minimum because of matching at corners. Openings are subtracted from the area figure only; the strip count is based on the full perimeter, which is the safer basis for ordering.
Frequently asked questions
The vertical distance after which the pattern starts again. When hanging patterned paper, each strip must be cut so the pattern lines up with its neighbour, which wastes the repeat length on every strip.
Because each cut strip must be height plus one full repeat long, so fewer strips fit in each roll. A big repeat on a short roll wastes a lot of paper.
For the area figure, yes if you want it. For ordering, many people do not — the spare paper covers mistakes and is handy for future repairs, and doors still need strips above and beside them.
Measure each wall's length separately and add them for the perimeter, then use the average wall height. Bay windows and alcoves are best measured wall by wall.
One extra roll is the usual advice, and buy them all from the same batch (dye lot) — colours can vary slightly between batches.