Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
"Oscar_Lives" wrote in message

Cutting in freehand with a brush is the best I can do and it still looks
bad.

Any tricks?

Practice.

Always paint the ceiling first.

Next you cut in using a good quality brush. Load the brush and start about
an inch away from the ceiling. As you pull the brush across, you bring it
to the ceiling line and just drag it straight across. As the brush runs
dry, pull it down and away.
Stand high enough on a ladder to get a fairly straight line of sight. When
you've done four or five feet, get down and go to a normal seated spot in
the room and it will look just fine from there. It is also better to be
slightly shy of the ceiling rather than go up on to it as it is less visible
that way.

Practice inside a closet first.

Good advice and a clear description. I use an angled sash brush for
most of my painting. It holds slightly less paint, but the tip comes
to a point naturally and makes it easier to control the line of paint.
Depending on how heavily the brush is loaded and the viscosity of the
paint (I rarely thin paint and just deal with it as is), I may run the
first brush stroke a 1/4" away from the ceiling line and leave a little
rope of paint. On the next stroke I'll push that rope of paint up to
the ceiling line. I find it easier to lay the paint on with the first
stroke and finesse it into place with the second. One other trick is
to kind of shake your hand a little bit as you draw the paint along the
cut in line. It deposits more paint and fills in any little
imperfections better than if you just drew the brush along.

Eventually you'll find that cutting in is enjoyable (as long as there's
not too much of it).

R