To paint the stripes we first snapped a chalk line all around the top of the room about 6 inches from the ceiling. We then painted blue up to the line (roughly). After that we masked off the blue area under the area to be striped. Then we painted the whole area a bright white. After the white paint dried, we took 2" masking tape and placed vertical strips (2) every 3" to 5". We didn't bother to measure (this is a Dr. Seuss room after all), but I wish we would have planned better, because the stripes get a little too close together in the corners. Once the vertical tape stripes were in place, we painted red over the exposed areas...and vi-ola, red and white stripes. We experienced a lot of bleed through that took us a long time to touch up. I found a tip later: if you paint over the edge of the masking tape with a satin finish clear coat before you paint, it seals the edge of tape and you don't get as much bleed through... wish we would've known that before we started!