How to measure your wall (the right way)

Because every wallskin design is printed to order at the exact size you give us, your measurements are the single most important part of the process. Get them right and your wallpaper arrives ready to hang, with the pattern falling just where you pictured it — no awkward trimming, no gaps at the edges, no wasted material.

The good news is that measuring a wall is genuinely quick. With a tape measure, a notepad, and five unhurried minutes, you'll have everything we need. This guide walks you through it step by step, including the small details that people most often miss.

A steel tape measure gives the most reliable reading — fabric tapes can stretch and sag over a long span. Keep a notepad or your phone handy to jot down each figure as you go, rather than trying to remember them, and grab a second pair of hands if the wall is wide or tall.

Decide up front whether you're working in inches or centimetres and stick to it throughout. Our calculator accepts either, so use whichever feels natural — just don't mix the two on the same wall.

Measure the full width of the wall from one corner to the other, at the widest point. Walls are rarely perfectly square, so take the width in two or three places — near the ceiling, at the middle, and near the floor — and use the largest figure. It's always safer to have a little extra to trim than to come up short.

If your wallpaper will wrap around a corner or cover more than one wall, measure each wall separately and note them down individually. We can print continuous runs, but we need the breakdown to plan the pattern.

Measure from the floor (or the top of the skirting board, if you're stopping there) up to the ceiling. As with the width, take the height in a few spots across the wall, because floors and ceilings are seldom perfectly level. Again, go with the tallest reading.

If you have crown moulding, a picture rail, or skirting you want the paper to meet neatly, measure to those lines and make a note of exactly where you'd like the design to start and stop.

For most rooms, the simplest and safest approach is to measure the full wall as if the doors and windows weren't there, order to that size, and trim around the openings during installation. This keeps the pattern continuous and gives your installer room to work.

If you'd prefer us to account for a large opening, measure the opening's width and height and its position on the wall, and mention it when you order. A bed, sofa, or shelf sitting in front of the wall needs no special treatment — the paper simply continues behind it.

Angled and irregular walls are very doable — they just need a couple of extra numbers. For a sloped ceiling, measure the height at both the tallest and shortest points, plus the width. For an alcove or a stairwell, treat each flat section as its own wall and measure it separately.

When in doubt, send us a quick sketch with your figures. We'd far rather ask a question before printing than have anything arrive that doesn't fit.

Before you order, measure each dimension a second time. It's the thirty-second habit that prevents almost every fit problem. Round up rather than down, and keep your notes until the wallpaper is safely on the wall.

When you're happy, open your chosen design and enter the width and height into the calculator. Your price updates instantly with GST included, and we take it from there — printing your wallpaper to the millimetre and shipping it ready to hang.