Cut In Painting Tips

3 min readMay 12, 2019

One of the more challenging aspects of painting is the cut in.
In this post I have put together a few tips that may help you.

Tip # 1 Use the right brush.

When I am painting interiors I like to use a 2 ½”- 3” synthetic bristle angle or “sash brush” as they are called. Anything smaller doesn't hold an adequate amount of paint.

Tip # 2 Use an empty paint pail or separate container to cut in paint.

Pour a small amount of paint, no more than one or two inches in the pail.
By doing this you can control the amount of paint you get on your brush, you're less likely to have an accident and a full gallon of paint becomes very heavy to carry around while you're cutting in your edges.

Tip # 3 Use a fully loaded paint brush.

To load a paint brush with paint grab your paint pail with your cutting paint and dab the brush several times in the paint then tap the sides against the pail to remove any excess.

Tip # 4 Unload your brush just below the area you want to cut in.

Draw a parallel line below, beside or above the cut in area. Roughly half an inch from the area to be cut and then work the paint you just applied up to the line to be cut.

Tip # 5 Feather the edge

After applying the cut line be sure to feather the bottom edge of excess paint

Tip # 6 Work from dry to wet.

Continue working the cut line by moving further down the line applying the paint as described earlier working from the unpainted area to painted area.

Tip # 7 Cut in one wall at a time

Cut only one wall at a time and immediately roll the cut in wall. This will help prevent lap marks and the darker border that appears from rolling over dried cut lines.

Tip # 8 Cut in Twice

Cut in a wall then roll that wall. After it dries do it again. No matter how good you are at painting your cut lines will have fade marks and will need a second coat.

If you're anything like me you can learn more by watching so I have a Cut In Painting Tutorial on YouTube. Click HERE to watch.