Looking to upgrade your curb appeal? Martha Stewart learned this exterior paint technique from someone who worked on St Patrick's Cathedral

If there's ever a time to upgrade your porch, it's now. Thankfully for us, the most effective paint tips are also the simplest, and they come courtesy of the original influencer, Martha Stewart.

The best decorating advice doesn't have an expiry date, and Martha's porch paint technique is one of the most timeless lessons of all. She learned it from her father's cousin (who worked on St Patrick's Cathedral) and shared it in an archival clip we recently discovered while browsing YouTube.

'I learned all these techniques from Chester Culpa, who was my father's cousin and a great fine painter from Poland. He painted cathedrals, and he even worked on Saint Patrick's in New York City, where he did wonderful, wonderful painting, always with a brush,' Martha says in the footage.

'He didn't know about rollers; always with his fine bristle brushes, he would paint decoratively and plainly like this.'

So, what does her technique involve? First, you need to invest in the right brush.

Shop Martha Stewart's painting essentials

'I'm using a natural bristle brush for this job, and this is a 3-inch brush [like this one from Amazon]. If you like, just take the top of the can and with the brush, clean it off so that you don't have any drips of paint, and then place your top in a dust-free area,' Martha demonstrates.

In the footage, she demonstrates how she holds her brush for the best painting results. 'Hold it like that and only dip your brush in halfway up the bristles. That way, you're not going to have paint dripping down the handle and down your arm, and always wear protective gloves when you're painting,' she says. Martha uses disposable surgeons' gloves, but you can opt for whatever you may already have in your house.

'Start up on the top level, if you're doing stairs. Start and do the deck first, and then come down and finish on the bottom stair. Work from the top down,' she says.

As Martha also demonstrates, it's beneficial to use a rubber pad (like this one on Amazon) to make the process more comfortable.

'I'm using a little rubber pad to protect my knees when I have to kneel. This is a good thing to have,' she says.

'The first strokes of the brush are done in a crisscross fashion to cover the entire surface area. Then you do your long, even strokes in one direction to smooth out the paint, so you don't get any strange lines in your paint.'

It's never a bad idea to upgrade your curb appeal, but with Martha's tips, the process is so much more straightforward. Plus, they've already stood the test of time, so you can follow her method with confidence.