Congratulations on becoming a homeowner! Embarking on this journey marks a significant milestone in your life. As you step into your new abode, it’s essential to lay down the groundwork for a smooth transition and a happy home. To help you navigate this exciting time, we’ve curated a comprehensive checklist of essential first steps for settling into your new home.
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Change the Locks
Your home’s security should be a top priority. Change all exterior door locks and consider installing a smart lock system for added convenience and peace of mind.
Update Address and Utilities
Notify relevant parties, including the post office, banks, subscription services, and utility companies, of your new address. Set up new accounts or transfer existing ones for essential utilities like electricity, water, gas, internet, and cable. Make sure to receive the key to your community mailbox to access your mail if needed.
Inspect and Clean
Before moving in your belongings, conduct a thorough inspection of your new home. Look for any damages or issues that need immediate attention. Plan a deep cleaning session to ensure a fresh start in your new space.
Familiarize Yourself with Safety Features
Locate fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and emergency exits. Test each device to ensure they are in proper working condition. If your home lacks these safety features, consider installing them as soon as possible.
Organize Important Documents
Keep all essential documents, including mortgage papers, insurance policies, warranties, and home improvement receipts, in a safe and easily accessible place. This ensures that they don’t get lost during your move-in and that they are always there when you need them.
Set Up Home Maintenance Schedule
Create a schedule for routine home maintenance tasks such as HVAC servicing, gutter cleaning, and lawn care. Staying on top of maintenance will help prevent costly repairs down the line.
Get to Know Your Neighborhood
Take some time to explore your new neighbourhood. Locate nearby amenities such as grocery stores, schools, hospitals, and recreational facilities. Introduce yourself to your neighbours and start building connections within the community.
Make It Your Own
Personalize your space by unpacking and arranging your belongings to reflect your style and preferences. Consider adding a fresh coat of paint, hanging artwork, or incorporating decorative elements to make your house feel like home.
Plan for Emergency Preparedness
Develop an emergency plan for your household, including evacuation routes and designated meeting points. Stock up on emergency supplies such as non-perishable food, water, first aid kits, and flashlights.
Celebrate Your New Home
Finally, take a moment to celebrate this significant milestone in your life. Host a housewarming party to share the joy with friends and family, or simply enjoy a quiet evening in your new home, savouring the sense of accomplishment and the beginning of a new chapter.
Are you looking to own a home this spring? Give us a call today! Our real estate agents are more than happy to help you move into your new home!
We all know about the marvels of Washi Tape. The once cult-followed and nearly impossible to find Japanese tape is now ubiquitous in the blogging world. It is the DIYer’s dream.
And while it’s been well-documented that I am not DIY friendly, this is an idea that I might actually steal: Washi Tape frames! We’ve all probably seen a version of washi tape frames floating around the blogosphere. But there are three specific things I love about this one.
First – the mix of colors. The peach is the perfect pop against the black & white photos. The second is the various sizes of the prints. It creates a perfectly balanced vignette.
That balance is further enhanced by the use of the washi tape to create geometric patterns. That’s way more interesting and fun than a regular old square! I’ve got those unframed pieces hanging in the Apartment 34 office.
There’s something fabulous about the casual ease of a disheveled light fixture. It gives a stylish yet unpretentious twist to a space. That’s why this DIY light is this week’s Idea to Steal.
I’d love to drop something like this from a high height over an end table as an alternative to a lamp or make one a focal point over my dining table. Sure, there’s some debate among electricians as to their safety, but no one can argue with their seriously cool style!
We are obsessed with today’s Idea to Steal. You may remember our growing love for copper and this DIY just solidified it. Copper is the metal of the moment to work with and I love the almost rose gold tone it has. It’s a little bit flirty and looks gorgeous in this fabulously styled room!
Jeanette from BY FRYD has come up with a simple DIY to cover an ugly mirror frame with copper tape. I’ve never used copper tape myself, but from the image it looks like it has a lovely gold leaf quality and texture. It’s apparent we’ve been bit by the DIY bug and might have to just try this idea in the office! What about you?! Have a mirror or something that could use a beautiful copper tape transformation?
Sound the alarm. Alert the people! Apartment 34 dove head first into the realm of DIY this week!! This is a big deal for a self professed DI-buy girl. I’ve tended to take the “lazy” way out, convinced that my creations could never be as good as anything in a store. But with help from my team, I broke out of my comfort zone and I hate to toot the ol’ horn but…, we DIY’d something that turned out so many different forms of amazing, I can hardly believe it!
I must first start with a little confession: things haven’t been as organized around here as we may have led you to believe. From hopping on a plane every week to juggling meetings and projects, let’s just say it’s a miracle I’ve even remembered to eat. Things have been shoved behind closed bathroom doors, crammed into cabinets and buried at the bottom of closets – anything to hide the growing mess.
The office closet has suffered the most. You may remember seeing it here and here, always with the doors tightly closed!! I decided it was time to practice what I preach and get back to basics with a good ol’ clean out and DIY upgrade. Here’s how it went down:
We began with the purge. Everything was cleared out and laid aside to be sorted. Hours of shredding and trips to Goodwill over the weekend and it’s like a breath of fresh air!. We went so far as to take out the closet shelves in order to give it a fresh coat of white paint, immediately making her look a million times better. However, that was just the beginning. Your closet is actually a great place to have a little fun with design. We wanted to really bring some fun personality by adding pattern so we set out on Pinterest looking for inspiration.
We came across this and loved the bold statement a stripe makes. We just decided to take it a step or two further. We sketched out our plan of doing one big 4” stripe surrounded by asymmetrical smaller ones, one 2” and 1”, on either side for a little riff on a sporty look!
Once we had our supplies in hand: ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape, paint, a handful of brushes and measuring tools, we were set! We wanted a subtle color palette so we chose Chalkboard White as our base and Benjamin Moore’s Sail Cloth as our accent with a little gold craft paint thrown in for a glam touch!
We started by finding the middle of the cabinet and marked off every six inches from top to bottom, setting where our big stripe was going to be. Starting from the top, we followed our marks, taping off the middle section. We found it easiest to just use one big piece of ScotchBlue Painters Tape. Trust your eye, if you see your line going a little crooked, double check your measuring and just lift up the tape and rework it. It’s so easy! Then simply paint inside your ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape column.
When the paint is dry to the touch about 30 mins for a single coat, lift up the tape. You’ll have a perfect stripe!
A key to making asymmetrical patterns work is to make sure you’re working with the same spacing on both sides of the middle stripe for balance. So we taped off our most outward stripe of the pattern and worked our way back in towards the middle.
During the creative process we felt like challenging ourselves even more. DIY is all about improvisation, right? So, we strayed from our original sketch a little. Thinking another gold painted stripe would be too heavy, we called an audible and used gold striped Washi tape instead!
We also decided to paint the face of each shelf to give an often overlooked detail a touch of shine and glam! We used Martha Stewart’s Metallics line in gold and really liked the reflective quality it has.
Et voila! There you have it. The perfect backdrop for a beautiful cabinet, closet, wall, dresser…the possibilities of where this look can work are endless.
Here’s a little sneak peek of the finished office supply closet! We’re so excited how the entire project turned out. You’ll just have to stay tuned for the full reveal – we promise it’s coming soon!!
organizational items from The Container Store, Dwell Studio and Muji
And of course we had to do a little happy dance when we were done!!
This post is a collaboration with ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape. To join the creative community, visit www.facebook.com/ScotchBlue.All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting posts that keep Apartment 34 doors open!
original photography for apartment 34 by aubrie pick // styling and art direction by erin hiemstra
DIY’s don’t have to be humongous projects that require tons of planning and take even more time to execute. In fact, a small and quick DIY can prove to be that extra facelift needed to take something from good to gorgeous! Case in point: our 10-minute candle makeover perfect for the level one DIY’er such as ourselves!!
For the holiday scene we created for Martha Stewart Living, the fresh garland on the fireplace was really the centerpiece of the room. It is the focal point after all. We knew we wanted to keep the rest of the vignette relatively clean, so we decided to simply dot pillar candles along the mantel, just for that added dose of ambiance. We picked up super inexpensive gray and white tapers sold individually as well! from CB2. They looked nice at different heights due to the varying antique brass candlesticks and a couple of modern candleholders that we used, but the candles ended up feeling plain. Compared with the rest of the scene they fell a little short on the amazing scale.
So, we went into our growing! craft drawer and pulled out the two magic DIY makeover tools that can instantly upgrade what seems to be anything in the world: metallic craft paint and Washi tape.
Here’s how we created our look:
Step 1: For the sporty chic looking candles, apply washi tape to create stripes, reminiscent of baseball tees or varisty jackets. Wrap your tape towards the top of the candlestick about 1/2 inch to an inch down.
Step 2: For more holiday inspired candles, start your washi tape at an angle at the top of the candle and twirl all the way down, making candy cane like swirls.
Step 3: For the ombre effect, take a copper paint we love this metallic paint that we also used here! and apply a thick coat around the base of the candle.
Step 4: Paint upwards towards the wick until the brush has no more wet paint. Try not to continually add more paint. The key is to apply indiviual long strokes that achieve a really smooth and gradual fade effect. They dry in minutes! Simply start from the opposite end of the candle to create an ombre effect from the wick down.
And voila, you’re done!
This is a seriously quick makeover that you can create, even right before your holiday guests come over. It personalizes ordinary candles and just adds that extra layer of gorge to your holiday decor!
original photography for apartment 34 by Aubrie Pick, original concept & styling by team apartment 34
After we got our feet wet with our first DIY remember my office closet makeover?, we knew there was no stopping us! Sure, I’m light years away from becoming a mini-Martha, but I’m currently having a lot more fun perusing the craft aisle now. And since I’m package obsessed yes, I’ll buy that $8 chocolate bar because it has a cute label!, I thought why not try a more modern take on gift wrapping this Christmas!
While there are great shimmery gift wrap options at the stores, sometimes they feel a bit repetitive, right? We wanted something unique. A present that involves a little bit more love to put together, but is totally worth it. So get a-goin’ to the craft store because this year, we’re color-blocking our gifts and you should too!
We wanted to pick a singular color palette that had a nod to traditional Christmas colors but felt a little more sophisticated and that could be used all year round. So, we picked green as our starting point in the paper aisle. We chose a rich forest green, added in a light minty-green and mixed in slate grey and black to add a touch of glamour. You’ll want a palette that will compliment your tree or decor this palette is a great neutral one! but have fun with it- Christmas no longer has to be red, grass green and white!
Once you choose your paper, all you’ll need is pretty ribbon options we went for a thin gold wire, black and white twine and a thick green ribbon with a metallic border, scissors and tape! The easiest way to achieve the color block look is by wrapping the gift 50/50- one side one color, the other side another. But you can get creative- try using three colors or our favorite: setting colors on a diagonal line!
Your friends will seriously be impressed with your gift wrapping skills this giving season if you present them with a present that looks this good. But just be careful because you know when a package is too pretty to rip open? Yeah…that might happen!
Happy wrapping!!
original photography for apartment 34 by Emily Scott | art direction and styling by apartment 34
As with many things in life these days, it all started with an episode of the Peter Attia podcast.
In this edition, our nation’s most Badass Doctor was interviewing a guest I initially dismissed as not overly applicable to my own lifestyle. A young,excessively handsome dude who happened to be a writer with a new book out. But the headline of the episode was just intriguing enough to get me to click.
“The Comfort Crisis”
Wow, what an amazing turn of phrase, and what a concise summary of the core of this whole Mustachianism thing I’ve been trying to express for the past dozen years.
While the news headlines cry constantly about our nationwide personal debt crisis or health crisis or any other number of things that suggest that life is so hard these days, I have always seen the opposite: on average, we Americans seem to have a problem of ridiculous overindulgence and easiness in our lives, and our main problem is not recognizing it, and the damage it does to us.
So of course I had to click, and then listen to the whole two hour episode, and then buy the book, and then spend the past month reading and digesting it in small, meaningful chunks like the modern-day chunk of scripture-like wisdom that it is. And wow, am I glad I did so.
The author is Michael Easter, a former writer for Men’s Health magazine was also once catastrophically addicted to alcohol – and descended from a long family line of ancestors with the same affliction.
He was lucky to catch himself from that fall in time to save his own life, and that story alone makes the book worth reading as someone who has stood by helplessly as loved ones battled with addiction. But I think his history with overindulgence in the hollow comforts of alcohol also gives him an edge on writing about the battle between comfort and hardship on the bigger stage of life in general.
So what is The Comfort Crisis about, and how can it make all of our lives better?
The best part about this book is just what a damned good writer this Easter guy is. Like many of the most fun popular science books*, it follows a split narrative which jumps back and forth to interweave the story of an insanely difficult caribou hunting trip he joined in a remote pocket of Alaska, with the appropriate bits of science, psychology and cultural commentary that help us explain and learn from each chapter of the epic shit he had just endured. This allows us to process and apply the lessons in our own lives.
For example, have you ever wondered why the type of bored, rich suburbanites who populate the board of your local Homeowner Association and whine about unacceptably tall weeds or unauthorized skateboarding on Nextdoor are so insufferable?
Why can’t they do something better with their time?
It turns out that there’s a scientific explanation for these unfortunate people, along with most of our other problems:
The tendency of humans to always scan our environment for problems, regardless of how safe and perfect that environment is.
The book cited a study in which researchers told people to look for danger, in an environment which gradually became safer and safer:
“When they ran out of stuff to find they would start looking for a wider range of stuff, even if this was not conscious or intentional, because their job was to look for threats.”
“With that in mind, Levari recently conducted a series of studies to find out if the human brain searches for problems even when problems become infrequent or don’t exist.“
“As we experience fewer problems, we don’t become more satisfied. We just lower our threshold for what we consider a problem.“
In other words, even when our lives are virtually problem free, instead of appreciating our good fortune we just start making up shit that we can complain about instead.
And then our politicians cock their greasy, finely-tuned ears in our direction and make up policies to appease our mostly-insubstantial concerns. And they invent their own trivial “wedge” issues to get us to all bicker about our different cultures and religions, suddenly caring about things that would not have even been problems if nobody told us they were.
And there’s America’s weakness in a nutshell, and meanwhile our strength comes entirely from the times we choose not to waste our time stooping to this level.
Meanwhile, the opposite effect holds true: people who survive in rougher environments than us end up more resilient and less prone to complaining.
In a series of recent interviews, Ukrainian people living in the war zones of their occupied country were asked “is it safe to live where you live?” and a strangely high percentage still said “Yes” – not all that different from the responses of US residents when asked the same question about their own cities.
This adaptation principle also explains why some first generation immigrants tend to build businesses and wealth while their own offspring in second and third generations are more likely to become complacent and spend it down. As an immigrant myself, I can see why this is: conditions were just slightly more harsh and less comfortable and wealthy where I grew up, so I adapted to those conditions as “normal” which made the United States seem posh and easy by comparison. Which made it easier to spend less money and accumulate more.
Tree Therapy
The trap of pointless worry is just one of the many revelations of The Comfort Crisis. It also gives insightful explanations for why spending time in Nature boosts our mental and physical health, while cubicles and car driving grind us down.
There’s something in our biological wiring that responds instantly and powerfully to everything natural, in ways that you can’t get anywhere else.
Even placing a single plant into a hospital room will measurably improve the recovery of almost all patients from almost all ailments. So can you imagine the power of the medicine you are inhaling if you step into a real, living forest? And what if you spent several hours there, or even several days?
Later, we get lessons on our human adaptation towards the ratio of effort to reward:
It’s proven the harder you work for something, the happier you’ll be about it,”
And our bizarre natural aversion to physical exertion:
A figure that shows just how predisposed humans are to default to comfort:
2 (two).
That’s the percent of people who take the stairs when they also have the option to take an escalator.
Which is remarkable, given the absolutely insane cost this tendency imposes upon us.
Moving your body, even a bit, has enormous benefits – again to almost all people towards reducing the probability and severity of almost all diseases. So can you imagine the benefit of moving your body for several hours per day in a natural environment, and including heavy load bearing and bits of extreme exertion?
These things are not speculative pieces of alternative medicine. They are known, easily and reproducibly tested, and proven to be the most effective things we can possibly do with our time.
So why, the actual fuck, are people still sitting inside, watching Netflix, driving to work, and then driving to the doctor’s office to get deeper and deeper analysis of a neverending series of exotic and mysterious and unsolvable problems with their physical and mental health?
We should at least start with the stuff we know is essential – maximum outdoor time every day, heavy exertion including with weights, minimal time spent sitting and driving, and minimum junk food, sugar, and alcohol. You definitely don’t have to be perfect, but just understand that these are the big levers for physical and mental health.
Only then, once you reach these minimum basic things for human survival, should you expect that more exotic and niche medicines and treatments are the only course of action.
By all means, follow your doctor’s orders and don’t just dump all of your medications down the sink because of this MMM rant. But at the same time, realize that the stuff that is hard and uncomfortable is very likely to be the stuff that improves your life the most.
It’s all the stuff that Mr. Money Mustache has been telling you since 2012, but with more detail and less distraction. This book is a concentrated packet of advice for solid living.
Real Life Inspiration from the Good Book
In a happy coincidence, I happened to be in the middle of some hard stuff** of my own as I worked my way through The Comfort Crisis and I found the perspective quite useful and transformative to apply hot off the press.
Normally somewhat of a homebody, I had embarked on a solo journey for some Carpentourism deep in the mountains of Southwestern Colorado. I had my whole life shrunk down into the new Model Y including food, bed, and the necessary tools and materials to tackle a pretty long laundry list of tasks on two different construction projects (fixing up a mini-resort property in Salida, and starting construction on a small cabin in Durango)
The trip immediately took a turn towards the dramatic as I climbed into the mountains and drove straight into the most torrential rainstorm I have ever seen, then accidentally broke a traffic law in a remote mountain town right in front of both of the local police officers ($115 fine and two points off my license), then five minutes after that had a small pebble hit my brand-new windshield which instantly spread into a crack that spans the whole thing, all before finally limping into Salida to unpack and get started on the work.
“Big deal”, I can already hear you saying, “Retired man experiences two minor incidents while taking a vacation in his luxury car.”
And you’re right, and that is exactly my point.
My life is so stable and comfortable that even these two miniature challenges threw me off balance, and I arrived in a slightly bummed and stressed-out state. But I still knew that in the bigger picture, they are good for me if I accept them as I accept them as the lessons they are rather than choosing to continue to worry about them.
As the trip went on, more things happened, almost as if The Comfort Crisis book were trying to prove a point. I drove three hours deeper into the mountains and up the steep dirt road to arrive at my second friend’s piece of land – a plot of forest in the mountains just outside of Durango.
My work days in that high desert environment in the peak of summer were hot and physically demanding. It was hard to keep my tools, and my food supply in the cooler, and myself protected from the scorching sun (and a strange neverending blizzard of tree pollen) while still getting the job done. There was no indoor plumbing and we had to be very careful with our limited water supply. And then at the end of each day I had to reshuffle everything and set my car back up as a bedroom and crawl in for the night. Alone and far from home.
But instead of feeling depressed as I experienced this constant hardship, the opposite thing was happening: I felt more alive and more badass with each passing day. I got better at being a feral forest man.
One day, my co-builder and I decided to take the afternoon off and head to the wild, remote Lemon Reservoir for some paddleboarding. We didn’t bring our phones or any other conveniences or amenities – just two boards and the minimal clothing required for swimming. And we headed out into a stiff headwind and little whitecap waves, laughing at the freedom of the experience.
It was hard, and slightly scary, as we got further and further from the shore. Progress was slow even with serious paddling, and we didn’t have any particular plan beyond the spirit of “let’s GO!”
But again Michael Easter was there whispering in my ear, saying,
“Is this difficult, Mustache? GOOOOoood! Then you’d better keep going!”
So we did. And we got way out into that lake, to a point where the water was shielded from the wind by the mountains on the other side. And it was awesome.
We cruised over to the shore to explore a particularly scenic meadow, coated with the softest green mossy grass and exuberantly colored wildflowers, and set at an impossibly steep angle. And damn I wished that I could have taken pictures, but in a strange way this forced me to burn that spot more thoroughly into my memories using my own senses instead.
Then we headed back out into the center of the lake, set down the paddles, and just laid down on our boards to let the wind and the waves take us back towards the far end of the lake where we had started. And what a strange, serene feeling it was, floating on just a tube of air over two hundred feet of cold blue water, feeling like a jungle man with no cares and no plans and no material possessions. It could have been scary, but instead it was one of the best and most relaxed moments of my life.
Eventually, this week of forest living and exertion had to come to an end so I could get back to my own town to be a Dad again. But it ended with a final reminder of the principles of the Comfort Crisis – after so many days relatively extreme work and a relatively sparse food supply, I had grown used to a healthy background hunger. Which is yet another thing that we are meant to experience as humans – being satisfied and free from hunger all the time is neither normal nor healthy.
But when my hosts took me out on the town for a final night thank you dinner at the Mexican restaurant, the immense Burrito platter I consumed turned out to be the most delicious meal of my life.
Purposeful Hardship vs. Purposeful Spending
There has been a lot of talk directed at the FIRE community recently about how bad we are at spending our money, and how we all need to loosen up. And there’s a small amount of truth to it, as my local friends Carl and Mindy recently admitted during a grilling on the Ramit Sethi podcast.
But we also need to keep this whole idea of excessive comfort in mind, and the damage it does to the natural human condition.
It’s great to spend money on adventures and improving yourself, being generous to others, and making the world a better place.
But it’s also way too easy to fool yourself into thinking you “want” things that just make your life easier and easier.
So your job is to catch yourself before this happens, and learn to keep things challenging, even as you upgrade the rest of your life experience.
In other words: buy yourself better tools, not softer chairs.
—-
* Another great book that follows this style is Wired for Love by neruroscientist Stephanie Cacioppo – highly recommended for reading in parallel with a lover, whether new or old.
** not actually hard by reasonable human standards, but it seemed hard by my comfort addicted first world standards
Disclaimer: We are getting con-fi-dent in this creative DIY world. It’s like a semi-addiction- once you successfully conquer one DIY, you can’t stop. We can’t lie, our latest project makes us a little giddy inside- we consider it our most genius DIY yet. Brace yourselves!
Even though the office isn’t quite complete yet, we decided to share one of our favorite makeover projects that we’ve tackled thus far. We’d been searching high and low for a gold-speckled rug for the office ever since we laid eyes on the one in Freda Salvador’s San Francsico boutique. Unfortunately, theirs was from Spain no thanks, shipping costs!. We bookmarked a couple of other options online that were ok, but finding the right color hide with the added gold accents we loved was a challenge and not to mention, they were running close to $800!
Determined to do this on the cheap, we dug a little deeper and found this DIY that inspired us to gold speckle our own rug. We bought a super affordable one under $300! on Amazon and put our skills to the test- woot!
Have no fear, we’re not pulling your leg when we say that this is the easiest DIY you’ll ever tackle- the results are ah-mazing! All you need is your favorite gold spray paint we love Design Master’s in 24kt or 12kt gold! and a cowhide Amazon, Ikea, Overstock all have great, affordable options!.
Step 1: In a well ventilated space, spray paint into side of cap, in a heavy, concentrated stream. You’ll want a small puddle of wet paint in the cap.
Step 2: From about 12 inches from the rug, drip paint quickly. You’ll start seeing a pretty even amount of big and small splatters.
Step 3: To achieve smaller drips and splatters, stand up and “throw” the paint onto the rug. This technique creates nice movement on the piece.
Step 4: Step back and take a look at your handy work! Go into areas that need specific gold spots and drop paint closer to rug, about 4-6 inches above. You should achieve bigger spots with this technique. Remember: the more paint in the cap, the bigger the gold spot.
We found the “drop” technique was our favorite in order to achieve the look we wanted. Take a few minutes prior to starting, practicing all three techniques on a scrap cloth to see which you like best!
And 10 minutes later you move fast when working with wet paint! you have your finished product! We LOVE the way the rug came out, but you’ll have to wait for the full reveal in the office to see it all. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, is there a spot in your house that could use a little update? You have to try this DIY for yourself- for less than $300 you can achieve a look of a high end rug that would have cost three times the price. It looks like we’re slowly leaving the “DI-buy” team for the DIY team!
original photography for apartment 34 by Aubrie Pick
Today we have a little holiday miracle to share with you – a pretty little package tied up with a perfect bow – no tape, cuts or twisted knots required. Ok – so I didn’t say it was a big miracle but I get such joy out of these little details.
Did you know you can tie a ribbon without having to use tape? Without it having to have a bump or twits on the back? Call me crazy, but that always drives me nuts when my gifts won’t lay flat. Thankfully, there is a secret ribbon tying technique that will leave discerning gift wrappers saying, how did you do that??
Step 1: Measure out your ribbon to make sure it’ll go around your box twice. Lay your cut piece of ribbon out on a flat surface
Step 2: Set your box on top of the ribbon. Make sure there’s plenty of ribbon sticking out on both ends. Make a loop on the left end no need to tie anything, just make a little circle – the end of the ribbon will be point back toward your body
Step 3: Slip your loop over the left corner of the box furtherest from your body. It’ll just rest there – don’t worry it might fall off – you might have to hold it in place
Step 4: The tail of your loop will stretch across the underside of the box back towards you, making a flat! cross
Step 5: Bring the ribbon from the right side and pull it under your corner loop
Step 6: Bring the second tail up from the underside
Step 7: Tie the two pieces in your first knot
Step 8: Tie your bow. Big, small or over-the-top huge – let your creativity be your guide!
Et voila!
Even if you’re the only one to appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into your gift wrapping skills, there’s something so satisfying about tying your packages up in perfectly wrapped string!
original photography for apartment 34 by Emily Scott // custome 34 paper c/o Zazzle.com