8 November 2015
Cutting a clean line where wall meets ceiling
Filed under Paint and Finishes
Cutting in is the part of painting that decides whether a room looks finished or looks attempted. Everything else is coverage. The line where the wall stops and the ceiling begins is at eye level for the whole life of the room, and a wobble there is the first thing a visitor's eye lands on, long before anyone notices that the roller left a light patch behind the door.
The mistake almost everyone makes at the start is to work with a nearly dry brush, on the theory that less paint means less risk. It is the opposite. A dry brush has to be pressed into the wall to leave anything behind, and pressing splays the bristles sideways in a way you cannot control. A properly loaded brush leaves a bead of paint that runs slightly ahead of the bristle tips, and that bead is what actually draws the line. Your job is to steer it.
Dip about a third of the bristle length, no more, and tap each side against the inside of the tin rather than dragging the brush across the rim. Dragging strips the paint off one face and leaves the brush lopsided, so the bead forms on one corner instead of across the tip. Tapping keeps the load even and still knocks off the drip that would otherwise land on the floor on the way to the wall.
Use an angled brush and hold it like a pencil rather than like a hammer. The grip matters because the movement comes from the whole arm, not from the wrist. A wrist pivots, and a pivot draws an arc; the ceiling line is straight. Lock the wrist, plant the heel of your hand or a knuckle lightly against the wall as a running guide, and move from the shoulder.
