This TikTok Hack Lets Renters Create Crown Molding with Command Strips

TikTok creator @prettyinthepines transformed her New York City apartment with these simple renter-friendly tricks you’ll be itching to try.

Command strips, known for their versatility and long-lasting stick, are saving the day once again—but probably in a way you'd never guess. Some savvy renters are taking the adhesives to the ceiling, decking out their rental homes in a style reminiscent to crown molding. The results are gorgeous, and it’s clear: There’s no quicker way to turn a plain, empty apartment into a pretty Parisian chateau.

But does the trend—and the Command strips’ stick—really hold out? Can you bring Command strip crown molding to your own rental’s ceiling? We got the intel from Shelby Vanhoy, known as @prettyinthepines on TikTok, who went viral on the platform for her Command strip crown molding, which she installed in the bedroom and living room of her rented New York City apartment with truly stunning results (the original video has racked up over 2.5 million views). She shared suggestions for more spruce-ups that will transform your space without jeopardizing your security deposit—or irking your landlord.

Vanhoy and her family moved from North Carolina to New York City in the beginning of 2020, and she says she was “dreading” leaving the home they owned there. She was already sharing DIY tips and tricks online before the move and quickly found ways to transform her new space into a comfortable, personalized home—read on for her secrets.

Q: How did you get into sharing renter-friendly home renovation projects?

Everything we looked at was a white box, and I wasn’t really excited about living in a white box. I just thought about different ways that we could give every room a little bit more character, and that’s kind of how I got started sharing more renter-friendly projects.

Q: What has the reaction to your viral crown molding Tiktok video been like?

I think it was encouraging for people to see that you could take a big, basic ceiling and add decorative detailing to it. I was always inspired by those Parisian ceilings that have ornate molding on it, and I kind of just wanted to experiment with this and see how realistic it could look and what it could do for the ceiling. Since our ceilings are kind of low, it was just a lot of ceiling, so I wanted to add something special to it.

Q: Have you ever run into problems with the Command strips—either attaching them to the ceiling or taking them down?

I’ve never had any issues with them removing off the walls, but I have had issues with them attaching to the piece of molding. This past weekend, I did the exact same thing in our bedroom, but with a different style of molding. I had to superglue the Command strip to the molding and then attach it the normal sticky way up to the ceiling.

I haven’t had any issues with them ripping off walls or anything like that—I just pull them off pretty slowly. It made a huge difference in this room.

Related: How to Hang Pictures and Paintings Securely on Any Wall Surface

Q: Is adding molding to your ceiling budget-friendly, for the most part?

Depending on the size of your space, yes. Adding the ceiling molding in our bedroom was pretty budget-friendly. I just found the pieces off of Wayfair. The living room is a bigger space, so it was a little more costly, but for the length of time that we’ve lived here and may live here, I feel like it’s worth it to me. We’re already paying so much to live in New York City, I might as well really love where we live.

Q: Where do you get inspiration for these creative projects, and how do you make them work in a smaller space?

I find a lot of inspiration in European design magazines—a lot of the decorative molding, and all of that. If I see something that’s inspiring to me, I think, ‘How can I make that in a removable way, or in a way that can be transported somewhere, wherever we move in the future?’ With all of our fireplaces, they’re something that we can literally just remove off the wall and take with us. We have IKEA shelves in my son’s nursery that we added panels of molding on—we can just take that whole wardrobe system with us.

Q: Do you have any advice on what might be an easy entryway into renter-friendly renovations for someone who’s not as experienced?

Peel-and-stick wallpaper—if you want to use wallpaper in a space, finding something that has a lot going on in the pattern kind of disguises any mistakes. I also would tell people not to get intimidated by any kind of molding projects, because they make these miter shears now that make it so easy to cut wood. You don’t need any power tools—we don’t have any power tools at all.

And not to be scared of paint. I think painting is renter friendly because you can literally just paint it back, but everyone’s renting situation or lease is a little bit different. Adding light fixtures—a lot of times you’ll rent a big, wide, open space without any overhead lighting, and I've found ways to set up a plug-in light to make it look like a light existed in that room.

Q: What should people keep in mind when sprucing up their space to make sure they don’t run into problems with their landlords or security deposits?

When something says peel-and-stick, it doesn’t mean removable. I have a recent project I did—we added tile to the back of a faux fireplace surround. That product was marketed as peel-and-stick, but I knew that it was definitely not removable, so we actually added it to a foam poster board. And we also added that as the backsplash area in our kitchen space, but we had to add a barrier of foam poster board between the product and the tile in the wall because I knew that it would be impossible to take off the walls. So that’s something that I would recommend doing—adding some sort of barrier between the wall and any products that you’re adding to it.

The Command strip also helps a lot. For smaller picture frames, use Command strips. And there’s a lot of hooks that now have suction cups. Our bathrooms have fully tiled walls, so we can’t really do much with that, but they make a lot of light suction cup items that you can add storage or hooks to.

Related: We Put 29 of the Best Removable Wallpapers to the Test, and These 9 Won't Damage Your Walls

Q: What are you working on now?

Brightening up our dining room—that’s the first time that I posted a project on the internet that got a lot of negativity about it being too dark, and that’s the first time where I agree with the negative comments. So I’m gonna lighten up the dining room a bit.

And we just, this past weekend, added the ceiling molding to the bedroom, so we’re going to paint the ceiling. There’s always something going on.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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