I am trying to paint my upstairs hallway myself.

I tried cutting in by brush to do the line between wall and ceiling, and it looks awful. Admittedly my brush is crap, but the paint is good quality. I am doing a medium-range color (almost a dark base) against a very light ceiling.

Anyway, now it is very uneven looking, and since this can be seen from below in the foyer, it *really* shows up. There are parts where the paint goes up onto the ceiling a little, and places where it doesn't go up enough (easier to fix that part).

Is there any way to 'fix' this, other than painting the ceiling? (which extends into our 2 story foyer and would be very hard to do).

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

A high quality brush will help. Diyers find a tapered brush easier to use.

As for the paint on the ceiling, if you have the original paint left you can try to touch it up. But if its been more than a couple of years, the shades will be different.

 

That's pretty much the deal
I can't think of anything to add to it

 

I agree. A purdy 2.5" angle brush would be a good start. Even if you don't get a good match on ceiling touch up it won't be as noticable as the wall color on the ceiling.

 

If you don’t have a steady hand, you could try an edging pad (with guide wheels). I know some DIYers that love these things. Shur-Line makes a few different types.

 

For whatever it is worth, I learned a trick to using the paint pads with wheels.... SPOON your paint onto the pad no higher than 1/2 inch from the top. As you start rolling, the paint will bleed up to the top edge but WILL NOT go over. Nor will it get on the wheels.

My ceiling mistakes always involved too much paint at the pad roller edge and/or paint getting on the rollers when dipping.

Recently painted quite a few walls (5 gallons of paint worth) and didn't make a single wall/ceiling mistake. Prior to learning this trick, I totally screwed up the ceiling in one bedroom grrrrr. It's the last thing that needs to be painted but I'm fairly burned out at the moment LOL.

 

Another trick I learned.... if you are touching up a white color that has become dingy over time, boil some strong tea and mix it with your white paint until you can match the current *shade* of white.