Cost to Wallpaper a Room in the UK (2026)
Real numbers from a working decorator: labour, paper, lining and prep broken down by room size. Cheshire and South Manchester corridor pricing — what to actually expect.
The Short Answer
Wallpapering a standard UK bedroom in 2026 costs £550–£900 for labour, plus paper at £15–£150 per roll depending on brand. A feature wall alone runs £180–£380. The wallpaper-and-paint bundle (feature wall papered + rest of room repainted) is the most popular option at £450–£950 all-in.
That's what a properly run job in the Cheshire / South Manchester corridor looks like — Macclesfield, Wilmslow, Hale, Altrincham, Didsbury and around. London prices run 20–40% higher. Stoke and Staffordshire run about 15% lower but the volume of paper-buying clients up there is much smaller.
How Wallpapering Is Quoted
There are three ways decorators quote wallpaper work, and you'll see all three on quotes you get:
1. Per roll
£35–£60 nationally; £50–£85 in our corridor; £80–£150 in London. Pattern complexity and paper weight push this up — Cole & Son archive papers and Little Greene heritage ranges are slower to hang than paste-the-wall modern papers.
2. Per day
£280–£420/day in the corridor. A standard bedroom with feature wall and lining is 1–2 days. Full-room papering is 2–3 days including strip and prep. London day rates: £450–£650.
3. Fixed price per job
How we quote feature walls and bundles — you get a fixed number after the site visit and that's the number you pay. No surprises if the wall took longer than expected.
Cost by Room — Full Breakdown
Feature wall
| Component | Cost |
|---|---|
| Site visit + measurement | Free |
| Strip existing paper (if needed) | £40–£90 |
| Prep — fill, sand, mist coat | £40–£80 |
| Lining paper (recommended) | £65–£95 |
| Decorative paper (3–5 rolls) | £75–£500+ supply |
| Labour to hang | £180–£280 |
| Total all-in | £280–£550 |
Standard bedroom (4 walls, full paper)
| Component | Cost |
|---|---|
| Strip existing paper | £120–£240 |
| Prep all walls | £140–£220 |
| Lining paper (4 walls) | £220–£380 |
| Decorative paper (8–12 rolls) | £180–£1,500 supply |
| Labour to hang | £480–£780 |
| Total all-in | £900–£2,100+ |
Wallpaper + paint bundle (most popular)
| Component | Cost |
|---|---|
| Feature wall (paper + lining + prep + hang) | £280–£420 |
| Repaint remaining 3 walls + ceiling (Dulux Trade) | £220–£320 |
| Shared prep + masking + clean-up saving | −£60–£100 |
| Bundle total | £450–£950 |
What Drives the Price Up
- Pattern complexity. Cole & Son Hummingbirds takes ~30% longer to hang than Graham & Brown plain. Drop matches eat paper too — budget extra rolls.
- Paper weight. Heavy paper (heritage Sanderson, Morris & Co) is slower. Silk grounds and grasscloth need a different adhesive grade and slower handling.
- Wall condition. Cracked or uneven plaster means a skim coat before lining. £150–£400 added.
- Lining grade. 1200 grade £65/wall; 1400 grade £75/wall; 1700 grade (for HNW papers) £95/wall.
- High walls. Stairwells, double-height halls — scaffold or platform work adds time and equipment cost.
- Round-the-corner pattern matching. Inside and outside corners doubled in time on patterned papers.
What Should Be Included (and Often Isn't)
Get these in writing on any wallpaper quote you accept:
- Stripping existing wallpaper — not always included as standard
- Wall prep (fill, sand, mist coat) — should be included; often isn't
- Lining paper — separate cost item; not always quoted at the start
- Pattern-matched corners
- Clean-up at end of each day, full clean-up at job end
- Touch-up paint on trim/skirting that gets marked
Per-Square-Metre Pricing
You'll sometimes see decorators quote per m². Rough guide for the UK:
- Hang only (mid-market paper, prepared wall): £14–£20/m²
- Hang + strip + prep (mid-market paper): £18–£30/m²
- Hang including paper (mid-market): £32–£56/m²
- Hang including premium paper (Cole & Son etc.): £55–£95/m²
Cheshire / South Manchester Pricing — What's Different
The affluent Cheshire and South Manchester corridor — Wilmslow, Alderley Edge, Hale, Bowdon, Didsbury — has its own price profile because of three things:
- Designer brand mix. More Cole & Son, Little Greene, Sanderson, Morris & Co than national average. Means higher paper supply costs and slightly slower hang times.
- Wall condition. Period property stock (Victorian, Edwardian) often needs additional prep — coving, picture rails, varied plaster age.
- Standard expected. Lining paper underneath is almost always assumed, not a bolt-on. Drop matching is taken as standard.
Net effect: a Wilmslow feature wall typically prices £40–£80 above the same job in Stoke-on-Trent.
Bundle vs Two Trades — The Money Difference
Hiring a wallpaper hanger separately and then a painter to repaint the rest of the room nearly always costs more than bundling. The bundle saves on:
- One site visit, not two (£30–£60 saved)
- Shared prep and masking (£40–£80 saved)
- One clean-up, not two (£20–£40 saved)
That's £90–£180 in real money on most rooms. We run the bundle as our most-booked package because it's genuinely the cheaper option for the client too.
Free Site Visit, Fixed-Price Quote
We cover the Cheshire / South Manchester corridor for wallpapering — see the full service or look up your town directly: Wilmslow, Altrincham, Didsbury, Hale, and the rest of the catchment.
Free site visit, pattern-aware measurement (we account for repeat waste before we quote), and a fixed-price written quote. Get yours here or give us a bell.