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Wallpaper ships to 40+ countries · Duties & taxes paid · Australian Made since 2015

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How Much Wallpaper Do I Need? The Australian Calculator Guide

How Much Wallpaper Do I Need? The Australian Calculator Guide

The question of how much wallpaper to order sits at the intersection of mathematics and experience, and it is a question that causes significant anxiety for anyone who has not wallpapered before. Get it wrong in either direction and you either run short mid-installation — requiring a reorder that may not match the original dye lot — or you over-order and pay for material you cannot use. The good news is that the calculation is straightforward once you understand the variables, and our custom sizing system eliminates most of the complexity entirely.

At Olive et Oriel, we manufacture wallpaper to your exact specified dimensions. You do not order standard rolls and try to make them fit your walls. You measure your walls, give us the dimensions, and we produce panels sized precisely for those walls — width, height, and pattern repeat all accounted for. What follows explains both the traditional calculation method (for context) and how our custom system works in practice.

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Measuring Your Walls

Accurate measurement is the foundation of correct ordering. You need three measurements per wall:

  • Width: Measure from corner to corner at the widest point. If the room has alcoves, measure each wall section separately.
  • Height: Measure from the top of the skirting board to the bottom of the cornice or ceiling line. Not the total floor-to-ceiling height — the wallpaper covers the wall between architectural features, not the features themselves.
  • Doors and windows: Note their positions and dimensions. These are areas where wallpaper is not required, but the wall sections above, below, and beside these openings still need to be covered.

The Traditional Calculation Method

For standard-roll wallpaper, the calculation is: total wall area (width × height, less any large openings) divided by the usable area per roll, with an allowance for pattern repeat. Most standard rolls cover approximately 5 square metres of wall area at a standard height before pattern repeat allowance. For a typical bedroom with four walls of approximately 3.5m × 2.5m each, you would need approximately 10 rolls before pattern repeat allowance — more if the repeat is large.

The pattern repeat adds complexity. A 64cm repeat means every panel requires an additional 64cm of wallpaper to align the pattern correctly. For a room requiring 10 panels, this adds approximately 6.4 metres of extra material — roughly one additional roll. Large pattern repeats can add 15–25% to the total material requirement.

How Our Custom Sizing Eliminates the Calculation

Rather than buying standard rolls and calculating how to cut them, our system works the other way: you tell us the exact dimensions of every wall section, and we manufacture panels to those exact dimensions, with pattern repeat already accounted for in the production process.

You receive the exact number of panels you need, each at the exact size for its section of wall. There is no wasteful cutting, no pattern repeat calculation, and no risk of running short. The only measurement you need to provide accurately is the width and height of each wall section.

The 5cm Rule

We always manufacture panels with 5cm of excess on each edge — top, bottom, and sides. This excess is trimmed to the precise line during installation, allowing for walls that are not perfectly square (a near-universal reality in Australian homes, particularly in period properties). Specify your finished dimensions and we add the excess automatically.

Multiple Rooms in One Order

If you are wallpapering multiple rooms, order all panels in a single production run where possible. Our digital printing process maintains colour consistency within a single production run. Panels ordered in separate runs, even with identical specifications, may have slight colour variation — a normal characteristic of digital printing that is minimised but not eliminated between separate batches.

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Designer Tips

  • Measure twice. The most common ordering error is a transposed digit — a wall measured as 2.84m entered as 2.48m produces a panel that is 36cm too narrow. Check every measurement before submitting your order.
  • Order your $4.99 sample (48cm × 40cm / 19in × 16in) and assess the scale, colour, and texture in your room before ordering the full quantity. Changing your mind after ordering is not possible — every panel is custom manufactured for your specific dimensions.
  • Production takes 4 business days at our Central Coast NSW facility. Plan your installation date accordingly — allow a week for delivery plus installation preparation time. We ship to over 40 countries with all import duties included on wallpaper orders.

Read our full wallpaper measuring guide, browse our full wallpaper range, or contact our team if you have a complex room with alcoves or non-standard dimensions.

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