Where to Start When Wallpapering a Room
Which wall to begin on, how to mark a line worth hanging to, where to centre the pattern, and how to decide in advance where the one imperfect join ends up
Start against a vertical line you have drawn yourself, never against a corner or a door frame. On a feature wall, centre the design on the middle of the wall and work outwards. In a whole room, start on the largest uninterrupted wall and work around in one direction, finishing in the least visible corner.
Where you begin decides two things you cannot change later: whether the pattern sits square on the wall, and where the one join that does not match ends up.
Why you never start in a corner
No corner in any house is truly vertical. Nor is a door frame, a window reveal or the edge of a chimney breast. Hang your first length against one and you inherit its error, and because every subsequent length is butted to the one before it, that error compounds. By the fourth or fifth drop the pattern is visibly running uphill.
The fix takes two minutes: mark your own vertical and hang to that instead.
How to mark your line
- Decide where the edge of your first length will fall.
- Measure 48cm from that point, the width of a roll, and mark the wall at the top.
- Draw a line from ceiling to skirting with a spirit level, a long straight edge or a laser level.
- Keep it light, in pencil. Never use a pen or a marker; ink bleeds through damp paper.
Mark a fresh line on every wall. A line carried round a corner is no longer vertical.
One feature wall
Centre the design. Find the middle of the wall, then decide whether to centre a length on it or a seam:
- Centre a length when the design has a strong repeating motif you want sitting square in the middle of the wall. Mark the centre, measure 24cm either side, and draw your line there.
- Centre a seam when the design is fine, dense or textural and the motif does not need placing. Simpler, and the offcuts at each end come out the same width.
Either way you work outwards from the middle in both directions, so the cut lengths land in the corners where they are least noticed.
A chimney breast
Centre the first length on the middle of the breast, always. It is the most looked-at surface in the room and an off-centre motif on it is the one thing everybody notices.
A whole room
Your starting point is also your finishing point, so choose it for where you want the job to end rather than where it is easiest to begin. Work all the way round and the last length comes back to meet the first, and the two are unlikely to match, because the room's walls do not divide neatly into 48cm widths.
So start in the most inconspicuous place in the room: behind the door, in the corner furthest from where people sit, or above a doorway. Work around in one direction from there and the one imperfect join finishes exactly where it started, out of sight.
You may have read that you should start at the window and work away from it. That advice belongs to older papers that were overlapped at the seams, where the overlap cast a shadow if you worked towards the light. Our papers are butt-joined, so there is no overlap and no shadow, and you can work in whichever direction suits the room.
A room with a dominant window or fireplace
If one feature dominates the room, centre the design on it and work out both ways, on the same principle as a chimney breast. A pattern that is visibly off-centre over a fireplace will bother you every day.
Where the mismatch goes
In any papered room the last join will not match the first. That is true of every wallpaper in every house. You have worked all the way round and the wall widths do not divide neatly into 48cm.
What you can control is where it lands, and you control it by choosing where you start. Since the start and the finish are the same point, pick somewhere nobody looks: behind the door, above a doorway, or the corner least visible from where people sit. Decide this before you cut anything.
Small rooms and awkward layouts
- Small rooms: corners come round quickly and errors show sooner. Mark a line on every wall without exception.
- A wall with a door in it: a doorway is a good place to begin and end, since a short length above the door hides the join.
- Alcoves either side of a chimney breast: paper the breast first and centred, then the alcoves, then the remaining walls.
- A stairwell: start with the longest drop and work from there.
One more check before you cut
Hold a length up against the wall, dry, in the position you intend to hang it. Step back to the doorway and look at it. It takes a minute and it is the last easy moment to change your mind about where the pattern sits.
Where should I start wallpapering a room?
In the most inconspicuous part of the room, against a vertical line you have marked yourself. You finish where you started, and the two ends may not meet, so put that join somewhere you will not look.
Should I start wallpapering left to right?
Either direction works with a butt-joined paper. Most right-handed decorators find left to right more comfortable. Pick one and keep going the same way.
Where do I start on a feature wall?
In the centre, working outwards both ways, so the design sits symmetrically and the cut lengths fall in the corners.
Do I need a plumb line for every wall?
Yes. Corners are not vertical, so a line marked on one wall is meaningless on the next.
Why won't the pattern match on the last join?
Because a room's walls rarely divide into whole 48cm widths. It happens on every wallpaper in every house, so plan for it to land somewhere you will not look.
Can I start at a corner if the room is very square?
Even a well-built room is out by a few millimetres over a full wall height, and that is enough to show by the fifth length. Mark a line.
