How to Paint a Clean Edge Freehand

Choose a paintbrush with a tapered edge, rather than one with a straight edge. The taper allows the bulk of the paint to fall away behind the brush where you can see it, rather than pooling in front of it.

Stand so that you can see the edge of the brush nearest the edge. This sometimes means standing one rung higher on a ladder than you normally would or contorting your body in an uncomfortable position -- temporarily.

Load the brush, and then scrape off enough to prevent it from dripping. It's important to have the right amount of paint. If there's too much, it can easily flow past the edge, but if there's too little, you have to make more than one stroke to cover, increasing the likelihood of slipping.

Paint a stroke far from the edge to clean the brush, then move the brush close to the edge and press slightly to flatten the bristles against the wall and pool the paint.

Watch the edge of the paint carefully as you stroke close to the edge. As soon as the edge of the pool is flush with the edge of the area you're painting, draw the brush in a straight line until you run out of paint.

Run the brush over the area you just painted to fill in any voids before you reload it.

Stroke toward an area you've already painted, and finish the stroke on that previously-painted area. When you finish applying the paint, make a long stroke that spans both the area you just painted and the previously-painted area to blend them.

Paint corners by flattening the brush to form a pool of paint and pushing the pool toward the corner. Stop pushing before it reaches the corner, and lightly dab paint from the pool to the unpainted areas with the long edge of the brush.