Hanging Wallpaper Around Awkward Corners and Alcoves

Start With a Plan for Those Trickier Walls

Alcoves, chimney breasts and the corners beside boxed-in pipework have a habit of turning a straightforward morning's papering into an afternoon of swearing. The good news is that none of it is genuinely difficult — it just rewards a slower, more methodical approach than a plain rectangular wall. Before a single strip is cut, stand back and work out how the pattern will fall across each section. On a chimney breast flanked by two alcoves, most decorators treat the breast as the focal point and hang the first strip down its centre, letting the pattern sit symmetrically. The alcoves then get papered afterwards, working outwards from the internal corners.

Have your kit ready and within reach: a sharp trimming knife with plenty of spare blades, a papering brush, a seam roller, a spirit level, a plumb line or chalk line, a clean sponge and a pasting brush or roller. If you are using a paste-the-wall paper, read the manufacturer's guidance before you start — the technique for corners is the same, but your timing and trimming allowances change slightly.

Measure Twice, Cut Once — and Mind the Pattern Repeat

Awkward walls eat wallpaper. Internal corners are rarely true, and the drop you need at the top of a strip is often longer than you think once you allow for pattern matching and a trim allowance at both ceiling and skirting. Measure the full height of the wall at three points: the highest, the lowest and the middle. Add roughly 50mm at the top and 50mm at the bottom for trimming, then add the pattern repeat on top of that.

• Write your measurements down as you go — guessing from memory is how strips end up short.
• Cut all the strips for one wall in a batch so the pattern matches consistently.
• Label the back of each strip with a pencil showing which way is up and where it goes.
• Allow extra length on any strip that will run past an external corner, because you will wrap it around by 10–15mm.

The Plumb Line Is Your Best Friend

Old walls are almost never vertical, and an alcove wall is often the worst offender. If you simply butt the first strip up against the internal corner and work outwards, you will end up with a visible lean by the time you reach the far edge. Instead, measure out from the corner a distance slightly narrower than your roll — say 500mm on a 530mm roll — and mark that point at the top and bottom of the wall.

Join the marks with a plumb line or a chalk line snapped against a spirit level. That line becomes your true vertical, and it is where the edge of your first full-width strip goes. The narrow sliver between the line and the corner gets papered afterwards with an offcut, which is far easier to deal with than a leaning pattern across the whole wall.

Tackling Inside and Outside Corners

For an internal corner, hang the strip that overlaps the corner so it wraps around by 10–15mm only. Press it firmly into the crease with your brush, then trim it carefully with the knife held at a slight angle. Do not try to force the paper tight into the corner — a small amount of slack in the crease prevents it tearing as it dries.

Outside corners, such as the edges of a chimney breast, need a slightly different approach. Wrap the paper around the corner by about 15mm and press it down well. Then hang the next strip on the adjoining wall so it overlaps that 15mm edge, matching the pattern as closely as the wall allows. On a badly out-of-true corner, accept that the pattern will not line up perfectly — nobody notices once the room is furnished, and fighting it only causes creases.

Smoothing Down: Where Bubbles Come From

Bubbles and blisters nearly always come from trapped air or from paper that has been stretched rather than laid. Work from the centre of each strip outwards and downwards with your papering brush, using firm but gentle strokes at roughly 45 degrees. Never press so hard that you stretch the paper — it will shrink back as it dries and pull the seams apart.

• Use the brush, not your hand, to chase air towards the edges.
• Run a seam roller lightly along each join once the paper has had ten minutes to settle.
• If a bubble appears later, do not panic — a small puncture with a sharp blade and a dab of adhesive usually sorts it.
• Sponge off excess paste as you go, especially near the ceiling line where it dries to a shiny streak.

Finishing Around Alcoves and Awkward Reveals

The returns and reveals inside an alcove — the narrow facing strips around shelves or a recessed cupboard — are fiddly but quick if you work in small pieces. Cut short lengths slightly oversized, press them into place with your fingers first, then smooth with the brush and trim the edges cleanly while the paste is still tacky.

Where sockets, switches or radiator brackets interrupt a strip, turn the power off at the consumer unit, loosen the faceplate, hang the paper over it, then trim a small cross with your knife and tuck the flaps behind. Give everything a final once-over with a clean damp sponge once the paper is touch-dry, stand back, and enjoy the fact that the trickiest wall in the house now looks like the easiest.