NEED TO KNOW
Gigi Bello is a content creator primarily known for baking with her beloved sourdough starter, Eloise
However, in October 2025, the 28-year-old accountant living alone in Brooklyn, N.Y., took it upon herself to fix the covered peephole in her front door
Never did she expect the DIY series to go viral and rack up millions of views
After two and a half years in her Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment, Gigi Bello had come to terms with what she jokingly called her “landlord special” front door – featuring a useless peephole that had long been painted shut.
Recently, however, the situation took a serious turn when the 28-year-old accountant living alone was surprised, on more than one occasion, by police officers standing at her door, searching for someone else.
“My apartment number is really similar to another unit in my building, so they always get confused,” Bello tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Not being able to see who was out there before opening the door didn’t exactly make me feel safe.”
Apart from safety, Bello was also generally curious about what was hiding underneath all those layers of white paint, so she took it upon herself to find out.
“I’m the type of person who never likes to ask for help – which usually gets me in trouble,” the content creator admits, recalling the time she became a plumber for the day and ended up breaking her drain.
Another instance was when she attempted to install her own AC unit – a project that resulted in a missing grounding wire.
“I just love learning how things work and fixing stuff myself, and my overly confident mind always convinces me I can do it,” Bello shares.
“I think that comes from growing up with an Italian dad and tagging along on his side jobs, laying brick and tile. It made me realize this kind of stuff isn’t as intimidating as it looks – it’s actually weirdly therapeutic.”
The hardest part, she admits, was trying not to destroy the door in the process — unlike her ill-fated drain. However, things got a lot messier before they got better.
After tackling the layers of paint that had essentially been glued onto the doorbell, Bello quickly discovered that the peephole wouldn’t budge no matter how hard she pulled.
As a result, she dismantled the entire doorbell and re-engineered the mechanism from the inside – using a hair scrunchie, of all things – to make it open and close properly.
That little victory was short-lived, though, when Bello realized the actual doorbell didn’t work properly and, in an attempt to appease viewers, she experimented with it until a dull chime turned into a sharp ding.
Midway through her triumph, a commenter also pointed out that the black mold she’d discovered inside the peephole “looked like asbestos,” sending her into a brief panic that thankfully turned out to be nothing serious.
“Live-posting every step and getting constructive criticism from people watching helped a ton too – some of the comments actually guided me in real time,” Bello reveals. “The most surprising part was just how satisfying it all was, like solving a puzzle that’s been bugging you for years.”
What began as one of her “classic ADHD projects,” sparked by curiosity and a simple desire to feel safer, quickly evolved into an online series that some commenters said rivaled anything streaming on HBO and Netflix.
“I figured maybe a few people would relate to dealing with ‘landlord specials,’ but I didn’t think the internet would get this deep into my peephole journey,” Bello admits.
Little did she know, each of her 10 videos about the DIY project would attract millions of views — with her second installment soaring past 17 million.
“It turned into this mini saga that everyone followed along with, which made it even more fun,” Bello tells PEOPLE. “I really think when you’re genuinely passionate about something – even if it’s as random as a painted-over peephole – people can feel that energy. It makes them excited, too.”
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Now that the peephole has been fixed and she’s restored it with a perfect golden stain — an equally captivating part of the project — Bello says she’s learned a lot about herself along the way.
“I’m more capable than I give myself credit for. I joke that these are my ADHD projects, but they really do teach me patience and problem-solving,” she tells PEOPLE.
“It’s cool to realize you can take something apart, figure it out, and put it back together – and now I’ve got a working peephole to show for it.”
Read the original article on People
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source nz.news.yahoo.com ’
