***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!***
After an incredible response that crashed comment capacity on our first post, we finally finished counting entries and have a winner for our biggest giveaway to date. We received a combined total of 18,018 entries across two posts (the first post reached its comment limit at 10,680, which is why we opened a second one). To pick the winner fairly, we used random.org to generate a number between 1 and 18,018 and matched it to the corresponding comment across both posts. We also verified on our end that the winning entry did not include duplicate submissions. Now for the happy news: the winner of the $500 West Elm gift card is CATHERINE — congrats, Catherine, and happy shopping!
We know the form crash raised questions, so here’s a clear account of what happened and how things were handled. When our initial giveaway post hit its comment limit, it stopped accepting new entries automatically. All comments that had already been submitted on that original post remained intact and were counted toward the giveaway, but the post could no longer accept additional comments. To make sure everyone had a fair chance to enter, we opened this second post to collect new entries from people who hadn’t yet participated. If you entered the original post, please don’t enter again on the second one — duplicate entries would be invalidated. We took extra care to check for duplicates before confirming the winner.
To recap how the continuation worked: this follow-up post accepted new comments until the giveaway closed at 8pm EST on Wednesday, September 21st or until this post reached 10,000 comments, whichever came first. All entries that were submitted in accordance with the rules were included in the random draw. The entire process was transparent and based on random.org so the outcome was impartial and verifiable.
- PRIZE: A $500 gift card to West Elm (courtesy of West Elm’s Front & Main blog)
- HOW TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “WEST ME”
- BONUS QUESTION: Since we’re celebrating four years of blogging, tell us how your life has changed since 2007. Are you living somewhere new? Working a different job? In a new relationship? Or did you just change your hairstyle or get a new tattoo?
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, September 21st at 8pm EST
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
- WHERE THE PRIZE SHIPS: The 50 United States
- RULES/DETAILS: One entry per email address. The winner was chosen using random.org and announced as an update to this post. We checked entries for duplicates and confirmed the single valid winner.
We hosted this giveaway to thank readers for four years of support and to celebrate our blogiversary — we weren’t paid or perked to run it. As always, the photos and product images are courtesy of West Elm. If you entered, thank you for taking part; with a response this large we’re incredibly grateful to everyone who commented, shared, and joined the conversation.
If you missed this giveaway, don’t worry: we try to run more giveaways and collaborations throughout the year, and we do our best to include international opportunities when possible. For now, congrats again to Catherine — and thanks to everyone who helped make this our most successful giveaway yet.