who wants to win this vintage brass trunk?

It’s a mantel styling contest. And some lucky person is going to take home one of my favorite things.

So, I never enter giveaways and I’ve been thinking about why. I think I don’t like the randomness involved, I guess probably because not winning is annoying and the chance of you randomly winning is not high. But readers seem to love giveaways, so I was trying to think of what I could giveaway that would make me enter a contest. Then I looked around at my excess amount of vintage things and thought, well there’s a start. I have lots of awesome stuff, stuff I would want really bad — stuff that is very hard to let go of, and I’m going to start giving them away to readers.

Furthermore, what if it wasn’t random? What if you could actual control your chances of winning?

Well now you can.

So here’s the story, all you have to do is style your mantel for the holidays (which you probably already have done) and take a picture of it.  Then ‘like’ my facebook page and upload the picture into the contest.  Then tweet it out, facebook, email it, do whatever you can to get people to vote for your photo. I’ll be promoting it too, but in order for you to win you need the most vote

Here’s the direct link to the promotion:  Holiday Styling Contest

Even if you don’t want to win this piece this time and you don’t feel like entering, you have no idea what I’ll give away in the future. Maybe it will be that vintage teal kilim rug you’ve been looking for for years. Share this around so other people enter and I can continue doing this because I’ll be so very sad to give this piece up for 10 new facebook “likers.” What a weird world we live in.

Why am i doing this? I truly want to engage more with you guys and responding to comments isn’t enough.  But seeing what you are doing, how you are styling is going to be terribly fun. And promoting you as readers (or bloggers, if you are bloggers) is obviously only good for the blog.

The contest starts today and ends New Year’s Eve at 11:59pm. The winner of the brass trunk will go to the mantel with the most votes , BUTTTTTTTTTT what if that mantel isn’t really the best? What if that mantel is not that great and there are many others that are way better?

Well, just in case I’m ALSO going to pick MY favorite mantel and that person will win another vintage side table. I haven’t decided which one yet, maybe a lucite stool that I LOVE or maybe a wicker stool that I love … this is VERY HARD.

In addition, three more mantels will win vintage accessories of my choosing — all stuff I love and I think you will too. These three will be determined by me and might be that they did an amazing job of promoting it, it might be that they clearly put in SOOOO much effort and I really want them to have something. It’s kinda up in the air and up to me. I’m getting drunk on this power …

That is five winners total. FIVE. C’mon, you have such good chances of winning — just get people to vote for you! I’ll choose the pieces this week from my inventory and leak sneak peeks, so be sure to follow me on Instagram (emhenderson) and Twitter (em_henderson).

 Have I made everything clear enough? TELL YOUR FRIENDS! If you don’t want to try to win this, then please vote for the one you like most. Go HERE for the promo page. It’s so funny because as bloggers we get paid often to promote companies that we like (and this is a good thing, since it helps us afford to make original posts with original photography) to help grow their brand and their audience. But I never do this for me and my brand. So this is my attempt. I used Easypromos on Facebook (It cost $100! Which is nuts!) and since this is my first time, there might be some hiccups, but I’ll try to fix it.

Meanwhile, here are some keys and tips to styling mantels:

1. Every mantel needs something to soften it — greenery, a garland, or cotton/snow.

2. Every mantel needs something above it — a wreath, mirror, or something holiday-ish.

3. Every mantel needs something vertical to add height; horizontal to help it feel more grounded; and sculptural to break up those two.

If you don’t do this and your mantel still looks awesome, good for you. Go for it. And please embrace your style, don’t try to mimic mine so you’ll win. 🙂 I truly love good versions of every style.

Avoid it looking like a catalogue, the more reflection of your personality the better. Obvs.

If you don’t have a mantel, you can style a credenza or some equivalent piece of furniture. And if you have two mantels, you can certainly enter twice for better chances. You can enter as many mantels as you want.

Tips for shooting: Shoot straight on at the mantel. Shoot during the day with natural light or at night with candles if you have some camera skills.

May the best mantel win. Enter HERE