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Painting a ceiling looks like the easy part of a decorating job, right up until you're halfway through with a stiff neck, a speckled floor and a patch you somehow missed directly above your head. It's one of those tasks that rewards a bit of planning far more than it rewards effort. Get the preparation and technique right, and a ceiling can be one of the quickest, most satisfying surfaces in the house to transform. Get them wrong, and you'll be spotting drips for months.

Choose the right roller and pile depth

The single most common mistake is reaching for whatever roller happens to be in the toolbox. Ceilings need a roller that holds plenty of paint without throwing it around, and that means a wider sleeve than you'd use on a wall.

• Width: a 230mm or 300mm sleeve covers more ground per stroke and reduces the number of laps you make across the ceiling. Fewer laps means fewer joins and less fatigue.
• Pile: a medium pile is the sensible default for most smooth and lightly textured ceilings. Use a short pile on newly skimmed surfaces, and a longer pile only if the ceiling is genuinely rough or heavily stippled.
• Frame: a roller frame with a screw-in extension pole is worth the small outlay. It keeps your shoulders lower and your feet on the floor, which makes a real difference on a large room.

Cheap sleeves shed fibres and flatten quickly. A decent microfibre or woven sleeve will hold its shape for a whole ceiling and give you a more even finish.

Protect the room before you open a tin

Paint on a ceiling travels in ways you don't expect. Spatter from a loaded roller drifts sideways and downwards, and gravity does the rest. Ten minutes with a dust sheet saves an hour with a scraper.

• Cover the floor fully. Overlap cotton dust sheets with plastic sheeting beneath, taped at the edges. Cotton alone lets drips soak through to carpets.
• Mask the tops of walls and any coving joints with low-tack tape, pressed down firmly. Pressing it down matters more than the tape itself.
• Take down or wrap fittings. Light shades, smoke alarms, ceiling roses and curtain rails all collect spatter. Remove what you can and mask what you can't.
• Move furniture out, or if that's not possible, push it to the centre and cover it completely.

Wear a cap or a hat you don't care about. Even careful rolling produces a fine mist, and it lands on you first.

Work in sections, not in a panic

The biggest cause of visible lap marks and missed patches is trying to paint the whole ceiling in one continuous rush. Cut the ceiling into manageable sections roughly a metre and a half square, and finish each one before moving on.

Start in a corner furthest from the door and work in a systematic pattern. Roll a "W" or zigzag shape within the section, then fill in over it with parallel strokes to even out the coverage. Keep a wet edge at all times: if the paint on the edge of your last section has started to dry, you'll see a ridge where the two meet. That's why sections need to be small enough to complete in a few minutes.

Don't over-load the roller. Dip it, then roll off the excess on the ramp of the tray until the sleeve stops dripping. A roller that's too wet is the main source of both drips and spatter.

Deal with the eyeline properly

This is the mistake almost everyone makes. When you're standing under a ceiling, the area directly above your head is hard to see clearly, and it's easy to leave thin patches there while over-working the edges you can see. Add in changing light as you move, and you can finish a ceiling convinced it's perfect, only to spot banding the following morning.

• Stop and step back. After each section, walk to the far side of the room and look at the ceiling from a low angle. Flaws show up from a distance that are invisible from underneath.
• Use a work light angled across the surface rather than lighting from directly below. Raking light reveals ridges, misses and thin spots immediately.
• Plan for two coats and treat the second as your quality check. Most ceilings need two, especially over a colour change or a stained surface.
• Check in daylight before you put the furniture back. Artificial light hides a multitude of sins.

Cut in first, then roll while it's still wet

Cutting in around the edges with a brush before you roll is standard practice, and it's correct. The trick is not to cut in the entire room and then start rolling. If the brushed edge has dried by the time the roller reaches it, you'll get a visible picture-frame line around the ceiling.

Cut in one or two walls' worth of edge, then roll that section straight away. Feather the brushed paint out slightly beyond the tape line so the roller blends into it. On textured or artex ceilings, use a brush with a bit more spring and don't press hard, or you'll flatten the pattern unevenly.

Look after your body as well as the ceiling

Ceiling work is awkward, and fatigue causes sloppy strokes. Set up properly and you'll do a better job.

• Use the right platform. A proper hop-up or a small platform stepladder is far safer and less tiring than stretching from a chair. Never stand on the top steps of a domestic stepladder.
• Keep your shoulders below the ceiling where you can. The extension pole is your friend here.
• Take breaks every twenty minutes or so. Put the roller down, straighten your neck, and look at what you've done.
• Clean up while the paint is still wet. Drips on tape and sheeting wipe away in seconds now and take an age once cured.

Do these things and a ceiling stops being the job you dread. It becomes a straightforward afternoon's work with a finish that looks flat, even and genuinely professional.