-
Step 1
Choose a brush with bristles that go with the type of paint you buy. Paint brush bristles come in two types: natural and synthetic bristles. If you're working with an oil-based paint, you need to use a natural bristle brush. You can use synthetic-bristle brushes for oil-based and latex paints. If you use a natural bristle brush with latex paint, the bristles absorb the water in the paint and soften, ruining the finished product.
-
Step 2
Look for split ends. You can tell whether a brush is high quality if it has split ends or "flagged" ends. If the brush is made this way, it will apply the paint more evenly.
-
Step 3
Check for flexibility. While you're in the paint store, take the brush you're considering and flatten it against your hand to see if the bristles spring back into shape. The bristle tips need to be flexible so that the brush retains its shape and is useful for more than one paint job.
-
Step 4
Make sure that the bristles aren't even. A quality paint brush doesn't have even bristles; rather, the bristles should be longer in the middle with shorter bristles on either end. This construction ensures better control when applying the paint.
-
Step 5
Measure the bristle length with your eye. The length of the bristles is important; on a quality paint brush the bristles are half again as long as they are wide.
-
Step 6
Select the appropriate size for the job. For exterior paint jobs, buy a paint brush that's 4" long with a thickness of 3/4" to 1"; for interior projects like ceilings and walls, buy a 3"; for cutting in, buy an angled 2" brush; and for trim, a 1" paint brush will do the job nicely.
