The whole 'paint the ceiling before the walls' thing - does it actually save time or just make a mess?

I was doing my living room in Edmonton last month and debated for like two days whether to paint the ceiling first or do the walls then tape off for the ceiling. My buddy swears by doing the ceiling first because you can just roll right over the top of the walls and it doesnt matter if you get paint on them. But my dad always did walls first and was super careful with cutting in the ceiling line after. I tried the ceiling first method on a small bedroom and honestly it felt like more work fixing all the splatter on the walls later. But maybe I just did it wrong? Has anyone else gone back and forth on this or found a solid trick that makes one way clearly better?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesleyburns5d ago

Ceiling first is the way to go but you gotta lay down drop cloths way further out than you think. I learned that the hard way after painting my kitchen and had little speckles all over the baseboards. Also helps to keep a damp rag handy and wipe off any drips right away rather than letting them dry. But honestly if you're real careful with cutting in, doing walls first works just as well and saves the cleanup headache.

seth_carr5d ago

Wait, wait, wait. You actually did your kitchen and still got speckles everywhere even with drop cloths down? That's wild to me, I would've been so mad. I guess that's just one of those things you don't realize until it happens to you. The damp rag tip is solid though, I learned that one the hard way too after finding a dried drip on my trim three days later.