The difference between a mural and customised wallpaper

What is the difference between a mural
and 'custom-made wallpaper'?


Are you busy looking for wallpaper?
Then you will often come across the terms mural and 'made-to-measure’ or ‘custom-made’ wallpaper.

You are probably wondering what is the difference and which one should I order? The confusion is not surprising. Read further to find out which type of wallpaper is better for you to choose.

Mural – A Wallpaper With Fixed Sizes

A mural is wallpaper with designs in standard sizes. One could think of it as a 'panel' which makes it easier to understand when thinking of width and number of panels needed.

The height of a mural is always 280 cm.

The width of murals comes in 3 different sizes:

• 194.8 cm wide,
• 292.2 cm wide and
• 389.6 cm wide.

If you want your wallpaper to cover the entire wall, you should choose a size that is slightly larger than the measurements of your wall. If you only want your wallpaper to cover part of the wall, then the choice of the width of the mural is entirely up to you. When calculating the size of the wall, always include 5 cm extra in the width and height as an extra margin.

Customised Wallpaper – Personalising Your Wallpaper

Do you have a wall with different dimensions that is not available in a mural size? Or are there sloping walls, windows, doors or furniture against the wall? Then you can opt for customised wallpaper.

Other words for customised wallpaper that you may come across are custom wallpaper, customized wallpaper and personalised wallpaper.

Custom wallpaper can be made in a perfect size to fit your wall, but Creative Lab Amsterdam can also create a custom design for you. For each order, a designer works on the wallpaper and makes it customized for your room. For example, in the Jungle Print wallpaper for children's rooms, all the animals and plants are clearly visible and can be repositioned to showcase the elements.  

If there is a bed against the wall or a door or window in place, the design can be adjusted accordingly, so that no important elements are lost from our design. 

Bathroom Wallpaper

‘Made-to-measure’ wallpaper is great because it is also suitable for creating bathroom wallpaper. In general, bathrooms are not very large spaces, but we have to take into account that there is a bath, a washbasin, a toilet and a door.

Besides adding colour and a beauiful design, it is important for wallpaper in bathrooms to remain colourfast in damp rooms and should be tear, scratch and impact-resistant. All wallpaper designs by Creative Lab Amsterdam can, within the design, be tailor-made for your bathroom.

Creative Lab Amsterdam

We are specialists in designing wallpaper! The design is always central and aims to showcase the different elements as well as provide a variety of moods and tones for different spaces. For each design, a type of wallpaper can be chosen:

• ‘Made-to-measure’ wallpaper is best to choose if you have specific wishes for your wallpaper or a variety of charateristics in the room that need to be catered for.
• If ‘made-to-measure’ wallpaper is not necessary, a mural is a fantastic and easy option. The entire design is distributed evenly the wall creating a flow across the room. A mural design is always 2.80cm high and adjusted to three different widths: 194.8cm, 292.2cm or 389.6cm.
• We have a large collection of patterned wallpaper, with repetitive designs per metre. These patterned designs can be easily arranged on a wall from a roll.
• Our wallpaper circles show the designs in their entirety and, because of their standard sizes, are very easy to place on a wall. Creative Lab Amsterdam has all wallpaper circles in three sizes: 95cm, 120cm and 142,5cm in diameter. 

Both made-to-measure wallpaper and murals are delivered on one roll. The strips are marked with a black line and they are numbered, so you know exactly which one to paste and where. The ‘made-to-measure’ wallpaper is always created and printed square; this allows you to cut away the parts that are not needed.

The wallpaper from Creative Lab Amsterdam is easy to apply yourself. We have a simple DIY step-by-step plan and instruction with video. So nothing can go wrong!