Ever used 3M Command strips to hang a picture? Well, the DIY creators on TikTok will do you one better. This week, creators and their audiences are exploring the surprisingly strong adhesive’s utility in creating faux crown molding. Like much of what goes viral on the platform, the DIY hack has proven quite polarizing.
The star of the trend is Shelby Vanhoy of Pretty in the Pines’s apartment reno TikTok, which has stacked one million views since it was posted yesterday. The video has spawned plenty of tweets, too, with Twitter user @cottonturtle9 getting 36,500 likes for remarking that the look of Vanhoy’s apartment proves that “minimalism is finally over.” Other TikTok users have been posting their Command strip home creations as well, like @nevergonnabejello who employed the 3M product to mount a pendant light and surrounding ceiling medallion (a specific type of decorative crown molding) in her rented home. The Command strips tag itself has gained over 51.9 million views, featuring all types of ways to use ’em.
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It’s too early to call if this is another DIY disaster in the making, but some people on the internet pointed out that the use of Command strips for replicating architectural details is nothing new. Twitter users on @cottonturtle9’s thread cited Amber Scholl, who documented her creation of “DIY Castle Walls” on YouTube in 2018, and Ashley Rous, who once created a faux painted brick wall in her bedroom with painted styrofoam and sticky tack (she wanted to avoid the relatively expensive Command strips) in the same year, specifically. Vanhoy herself has been using the method to create crown molding in apartments for three years. “When we moved to New York, I knew I loved the historic moldings of the prewar apartments but noticed that some were lacking some of those details. I never know how long we’ll be renting for so I knew a removable process was needed,” she tells AD in an email.
Though some commenters detest the faux historical look, it’s hard to take issue with renters finding crafty solutions to make their spaces feel more aligned with their tastes. As already exorbitant rent prices continue to rise across the country, a relatively low cost, low impact idea to make a space more aesthetically pleasing—whatever that might look like for an individual—is empowering for many, as proven by the comments under Vanhoy’s video.
The drawbacks must be considered, though. As several commenters have remarked, the stickiness of Command strips can wear off over time and can be exacerbated by the humidity in your region, causing whatever you’ve mounted with it to fall off. Since this DIY is especially alluring for renters as a simple, no damage amendment to a temporary space, the fact that it isn’t likely to endure isn’t a major problem for dwellers who will likely move on in a year or two at most after installation. As for Vanhoy herself, she added a nail to each corner piece as a low effort precaution. “We’ll simply refill those holes when we leave,” she says. Easy as that.
