PAINTING A WALL TECHNIQUES – CUTTING IN

When it comes to making a start on painting a wall, the approach favoured by those who produce  the most consistently high-quality results (in terms of the painless application of an even coat) is cutting in…

Cutting in is a sensible route to take as it gets the edges – the trickiest part of the job to get right to a high standard – out of the way right at the beginning, leaving you free to focus on the remainder of the wall with your mind at relative ease.

However, the delicate nature of painting the walls edges – both horizontal and vertical – means that the technique requires some degree of precision!

Unlike the large open spaces in the middle of a wall, painting the edges requires a brush rather than a roller – to properly manoeuvre around the tight space. Ideally, you should be using an angled brush (check out our Perfection Pure Synthetic Angled Brush) – they offer a number of benefits over the standard type:

• Their bristles tend to be much finer, therefore:

1. reducing the amount of paint picked up, so the brush won’t be heavily loaded.
2. eliminating the possibility of paint getting onto edges where no paint is needed.

• The angular nature of the brush also makes it much easier to see where the tip is in relation to the edge, allowing for a much neater finish.

The actual application of the paint also requires a certain level of care if the best finishes are to be achieved; rather than going straight for the edges on the first attempt, we recommend starting with the brush approximately ¼ of an inch away and gradually working the paint closer and closer. This way, you can be much more precise with your paint distribution and ensure that there is no overlap onto the edge.

Although you may be inclined to cut in with the brush held so that the brush head is positioned vertically, we do not recommend taking this approach. Although this technique does make it much easier to discern where the brush is in relation to the edge that you’re cutting in to, the finish it produces is typically of a sub-standard quality due to the way the paint is spread on the wall.

For the most even coat – and therefore the best possible finish – we highly recommend keeping the brush head positioned horizontally. It will take slightly longer to apply the paint, but the high-quality finish it produces will make it worthwhile

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