How to Cut In PERFECT Ceiling Lines | Straight, Clean, and Professional Results with a Brush

painter. So, here we go. We're going to give you the tips and tricks right now. So, stay tuned. One of the first uh tips that we're going to give you here when I'm cutting in, you've got different parts on your brush. You've got the toe, which is the point on an angle brush, and you've got the heel. I like leading with the toe sometimes. And what that does is that creates a little bit more spring in the bristle, which when you're working with a textured wall, especially a heavily textured wall, makes your brush bristle a little bit stiffer and helps push that paint up into those uh those valleys past the peaks. and I'll leave with that point. I'll start a little pull up, and then I'll bring it up. And that adds that nice stiffness. And especially if you're using a a nylon or polyester blend brush, eventually those bristles end up becoming softer over time as you're using them. And that gives a little bit more stiffness while you're working on it through the day or if you've got a really rough texture. So tip number two, I'm going to show you how I start the cutins. And I kind of like to explain it like an airplane taking off. And I'm going to start you low. And then I'm going to rise slowly and steadily rise up to the altitude that I want to begin the cut in. And that's going to give you more odds of getting a nice straight cut in. And so I'm going to just take and you you'll pat my brush, load it up by patting it on my bucket. And I like to just I like to just touch it onto the surface and just get ready. And so I'm going to touch it. And then after I touch it, I'm usually about an inch and a half away from the surface. And then I'm going to begin gaining altitude and come up to my cut in. So I'm going to load my brush, tap it here, and then I'm going to begin rising up to where I want my cut in. And then just begin cutting in. And I'm just going to drag it down about a foot. So you can see how I've gradually rose up to, you know, my cut in where I want it. And so that kind of gives you the ability to just take off, get your confidence, build it up to your cut in, and then start drawing um start drawing your nice straight line. So tip number two, simple. So tip number three is using the right brush. You're only as good as the tools you're using, so choosing the right brush is extremely important. And we have two brushes here. And one of the things about having really good straight cutins and doing good cutins is choosing the brush that has bristles that will give you the best ability I guess is I want to say to doing straight cutins. So John, why don't you go over um these two brushes here and what we're looking for in bristles and what's going to give you the ability to make a nice straight line. Well, believe it or not, there is a reason why when you go look at brushes, there's so many different kinds of brushes, and it all has to do with the different bristles they're using. Um, when you're using bristles or a brush to do a lot of cutins, you want bristles that are not flagged, and so that is essentially like split ends on the end of the bristle and that holds more paint. The problem is those ends then are more flimsy and that that paint stays up on those tips and it makes it more difficult to get those nice clean lines. And so a good example of a good brush for for cutting in is this is a pretty clear cut or you've got a Corona v. Um both of those the bristles aren't extremely flag. You've got kind of a soft touch to them and they will help you get that nice clean line without getting too flimsy at the tip. There's one one other brush we use and I know you like doing cutins and I think it works really really well in the bristle style. it's a Corona or um a worooster chex and the worooster chex the bristles instead of coming up and being rounded they're really flat. Yeah. And that all has to do with how they're sanding it. And so sometime you'll pull that that brush out and some brushes um will curve really really bad like a nice dome. And that's again that's great for holding paint, not so great for getting those nice easy clean cutin lines. So here we go with tip number four. And what I'm using when I'm doing my cutins today, I'm using a pretty clear cut brush. And there's a couple brushes I like for doing really good quality um cutins. I do like a pretty clear cut. I think the worooster chex the the flat profile the bristles is excellent. So I like to use that one. It's a little bit stiffer this than this one. So kind of depending on the paints I'm using. I also like um the Corona X brush. Those are three buck brushes I like doing my cutins with. I am using today I'm testing out um first time I've used this. I'm using a um pretty roller a 4-in roller with their jumbo roller which rolls over on the edges which is really good for doing the edges and stuff like this cuz the um the lint and the pile the fuzz goes on the edge of the roller. Kind of convenient. So here we go with um tip number four. And tip number four is um going over your cut in twice. And I'm going to take do my cut in once. I'm going to rise up there, get up to the altitude I want, right into the cut in. I'm going to cut in. And then what happens is this isn't a smooth wall. And we're typically very rarely dealing with smooth walls. They're always some type of texture like orange field texture, knockdown texture, something. So there's going to be peaks and valleys like mountains. And so I'm going to go over the cut in. And usually I'm going to have these little spots on my cut in that didn't get the paint down inside of it. the softer bristle brush, the more of those you're going to have. The stiff stiffer bristle brush is going to fill in more of those. Or even if it's really, really rough, that's where John's technique of using um the back of the brush, he calls it the heel and toe. I just say back because I'm a little more simple, I guess, but um so, so going back over it again is going to fill those things in. So, I'm going to cut once, go back over it again, and cut twice. And that's where I can make any corrections also. So if my first cut had, you know, some misses on it or some you a little bit of winess to it, I could go back and correct it. So here we go. I'm just going to dip my brush in. I'm going to get it ready and I'm going to be about an inch or so, inch and a half from where I want to be. I'm going to rise up and then do my cut. And I typically do, you know, about a foot and then I tap it, come back, rise up, and then finish my cut. And there was about five little spots that were misses. That second cut going the opposite direction, filled them right in. And then like we typically always do, we um back roll over our cuts with our roller. And that'll give it the same texture instead of a brush stroke going this way. When you come up and roll your wall, um you're going to have the same texture and you're not going to see a difference. If there's any light spots and stuff after the wall, the room is all dry. We're going to come back and um just touch them up. We're not going to redo our cut ends. So tip number five is the cutting lines is a lot like riding a bicycle. The faster you go, the easier it is to keep your balance. Uh you know, you don't have to wear a helmet for this, but what you do want to do is move pretty quick when you're moving that line because the the more concerned you are about it and anxious you are about keeping that line nice and straight, the harder time you're going to have keeping it actually straight. So, take a deep breath and let it go. So, there you have it. We've got five tips for how to do cutins uh that we enjoy that we think are awesome. Check us out on the idaho painter.com. You can catch us on Facebook and Instagram at Idaho Painter on Instagram and the Idaho Painter on Facebook. Until then, we'll see you on our next video. Ow. This is Captain Zack with the apprenticeship. I got a bonus tip for you today. Uh, when cutting in, I like to hold my my brush out of the bucket like this for a couple of reasons. It's out of the bucket so it's not going to get paint all over it. Cuz if you do that, sometimes it falls in. Um, it's nice and secure. It's not going anywhere. And I got easy access to it if I'm going to go and cut in. [Music]