How to Cut a Line When Painting Walls & Ceiling

Set an A-frame ladder in the corner of the room. Pour a few inches of paint into a hand-held paint holder. Climb to the top of the ladder with the paint holder in one hand and your paintbrush in the other.

Dip the bristles of your brush up and down into the paint repeatedly until the bristles load with paint. Wipe paint off of the sides of the brush using the edge of the paint holder. Leave the tips of the bristles covered with about 1/2 inch of paint.

Reach into the corner with your paintbrush and softly push the tip into the corner just below the ceiling.

Hold the paintbrush so that its flat side is parallel to the ceiling and the tips of its bristles are about 1/8 inch below the ceiling. Press your pinky and ring fingers against the ceiling to act as stabilizing guides to keep the paintbrush at an even distance from the ceiling.

Move the paintbrush to the right, dragging the bristles along the wall in a straight line. Watch the top edge of the bristles as paint begins to draw from the inner bristles of the paintbrush. Push this paint in a straight line across the wall until paint stops flowing from the bristles.

Move the brush downward at the end of your painting stroke to keep from getting paint on the ceiling.

Dip the paintbrush in the paint again and reload the bristles. Wipe off excess paint from the sides of the brush.

Set the bristles of the paintbrush at the halfway mark of your last paint stroke to pick up the wet line of paint where you left off.

Continue this cutting in process around the entire room, always using your fingers on the ceiling as a guide to keep the line straight.