Why is there a darker frame around the edges of my wall?

The standard way people paint a room — cut the whole room in, then roll it — is the direct cause of this fault. A brush lays down more paint than a roller and leaves a different texture, and the moment the brushed band has begun to set, the roller can no longer flow into it. You are left with a visible border round every wall, along the ceiling line and around every switch and socket.

Step by step

1. Confirm what you are looking at.A band roughly a brush-width wide, following every edge of the wall, the ceiling line, the internal corners and around fittings, differing in sheen or depth of colour from the field. It shows most under raking light and in any finish with sheen. If the difference follows repairs rather than edges, it is flashing, which is a different fault.
2. Change the order of work, not the paint.Divide the wall into vertical bands you can complete quickly — commonly a metre or so wide. Cut in the top, bottom and any edges within one band only, then immediately roll that band, running the roller as close into the wet brushed edge as you can. Then cut in the next band and repeat.
3. Roll back into the previous band.Take the roller a little way into the section you have already done, with a light, nearly dry pass, so the two areas blend rather than butting. This is what removes the join between bands.
4. Get the roller as close to the edge as it will go.The narrower the brushed band you leave, the less there is to show. A small roller — 100mm or so — run right up to the ceiling line and into the corners after cutting in reduces the visible band to almost nothing.
5. Manage the conditions.Heat, sun on the wall, draughts and low humidity all shorten the open time, and every one of them makes framing worse. Close the windows to a gentle airflow rather than a through-draught, keep the sun off the wall, and work smaller sections in warm weather. A paint conditioner buys genuine extra open time.
6. Fix an existing frame by recoating the whole wall properly.There is no local repair. Repaint the wall corner to corner using the band method, and the fresh coat laid as one continuous film covers the frame beneath. Adding a coat by the same method that caused it will simply reproduce it.
7. Consider the finish if it keeps happening.Matt hides framing almost completely; soft sheen shows it a little; silk shows it clearly. If a wall is repeatedly problematic, a flatter finish is a legitimate answer as well as a better technique.

Tips

• The wall opposite the main window is where framing shows first, because that is where the light rakes across the surface.
• Cutting in freehand with a good angled brush leaves a narrower band than taping does, which means less to disguise.
• On a big wall, two people — one cutting in and one rolling immediately behind — solve the problem entirely.

Common mistakes

• Cutting in the whole room before opening the roller — It guarantees the fault. By the time the roller arrives at the first wall, the brushed edge is long past being able to blend.
• Adding another full coat to hide it — Applied the same way, the second coat frames in exactly the same place and the effect deepens.
• Leaving a wide brushed band because the roller might touch the ceiling — The wider the band, the more obvious the frame. Cut in narrow and take the roller close — a small roller makes this easy.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask