Hanging Wallpaper Around Awkward Corners and Alcoves

Why Corners and Alcoves Catch Everyone Out

Walls are almost never square, and nowhere is that more obvious than in a corner. Add a chimney breast, a recessed alcove beside a fireplace, or a bay window, and you have a run of awkward angles that will punish anyone who hangs paper by eye. The good news is that the techniques for these spots are straightforward, just slower. Once you understand why the paper behaves the way it does, corners stop being the part of the job you dread.

Before you mix a single batch of paste, spend ten minutes on preparation. Fill any hairline cracks in the corner with a fine filler, sand it back, and dust everything down. Then seal the surface with a coat of diluted paste or specialist primer and let it dry. This stops the new paper grabbing the wall instantly, which means you can slide a drop a few millimetres left or right to line up a pattern rather than pulling it off and starting again.

Measure the Corner, Not the Wall

Corners bow. A corner can be a full centimetre out over the height of a wall, so never assume the distance from your last full drop to the corner is the same at the top and the bottom. Measure that gap in three places, at the ceiling line, at waist height, and just above the skirting. Take the widest of the three, then add 10 to 15mm for the turn into the corner.

Cut your final drop on that wall to this width and hang it as normal, brushing it firmly so the extra 10 to 15mm wraps around into the corner and sits on the adjoining wall.

• Always work with a plumb line, never the corner itself, as your starting reference.
• Use a spirit level or a chalk line to mark a true vertical before hanging the first drop of any wall.
• Check the pattern match at eye level before you commit, because that is where mistakes show.

Overlap, Then Hide the Seam in the Fold

Now move to the adjoining wall. The turned edge from the previous drop is sitting there waiting, and it is your friend. Draw a plumb line right at the internal corner, or just a whisker to one side, and hang your next full drop so its leading edge sits deep in the crease of the corner, covering that turned edge beneath it.

Smooth the paper into the corner with a paper-hanging brush, working from the centre of the drop outwards and downwards. For the last few centimetres, switch to a clean, barely damp sponge and your fingertips, pressing the paper right into the angle. Do not drag a dry brush hard along the fold, because you will stretch the paper and it will spring back off the wall overnight. A light pass with a seam roller along the corner, once the paper has taken, helps everything settle without lifting the surface.

Double-Cutting for Patterned Papers

If your wallpaper has a bold or geometric pattern, an overlap of 10 to 15mm is much more obvious, even tucked in a corner. The professional solution is a double cut. Hang the new drop so it overlaps the turned edge by around 25mm, lining the pattern up with the wall you have already done. Then, using a brand new blade in a sharp trimming knife, cut straight down through both layers, roughly in the centre of the overlap, keeping the blade vertical against the corner.

Peel away the waste from the top layer and the strip underneath, then press the two cut edges together and smooth them flat. The joint is almost invisible because the pattern lines up perfectly on both sides.

External Corners and Chimney Breasts

Corners that stick out into the room need the opposite approach, because you cannot hide anything in a fold. Paper the wall that matters most, and let the final drop wrap 25 to 40mm around onto the return face. Then hang the next wall starting with a plumb line set so the drop overlaps that wrap, and double-cut the seam as described above. Chimney breasts usually give you the choice of which side to start on, so begin on the side furthest from the window and let any slight imperfection fall in the shadow.

Alcoves, Recesses and the Final Smooth-Off

Alcoves deserve their own plan. Measure the width and depth of the recess first, then decide where the seams will land, aiming for every join to sit in an internal corner. Hang the two side walls first, turning 10mm of paper around each back corner. Then cut your back wall drops to the alcove width plus 20mm and hang them so the edges tuck into the corners, covering those turns.

• Narrow alcove walls mean narrow strips, so a large pattern repeat will waste a lot of paper. A small repeat or a textured plain paper is far kinder here.
• Remove shelves and brackets before you start, and fill the screw holes. Paper behind the shelf standards, then refit them once the paper is dry.
• Allow paste to dry fully, usually 24 hours, before trimming any stubborn bubbles at the corners with a fresh blade.

Slow down at the corners and the rest of the job feels easy. A corner hung properly simply disappears, and nobody notices the ones you took your time over, only the ones you rushed. Work one angle at a time, keep your blade sharp, and your alcove will look like it was papered as one seamless wall.