Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » 2008 D*S DIY contest!

i’m thrilled to announce the start of the 2008 D*S DIY contest, sponsored by 2Modern.com. it’s been a while since the last contest so i thought it would about time to get things going again. this year, thanks to 2modern and our friends at sparkability and growmodern, we’ll be giving away $1500 in prizes- that’s a lot of diy supply money!

because DIY projects generally take a while to do, we wanted to give everyone time to work on their projects, so we won’t be closing the submission gates until sunday, march 2nd. that gives everyone three full weeks to put on their diy hats and start opening up their tool boxes and craft kits. your project can be anything (furniture, decoration, etc.) that you’ve created by yourself for the home (sorry, no jewelry or fashion-based projects this year).

this year we’ll be awarding four prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and an honorable mention.

1st place will receive a $500 gift certificate to 2Modern and a check for $150
2nd place will receive a check for $450
3rd place will receive a check for $300
and our honorable mention will receive a check for $100 toward future diy projects (or something else fun)

we’ll open up the polls to voting on wednesday, march 5th and will accept votes through that sunday, march 9th- with winners announced on monday, march 10th. and of course- we’ll give you a preview of the submissions as we go along.

here are the guidelines:

all entries should be emailed to designsponge [at] gmail [dot] com no later than 7pm EST on sunday, march 2nd. all entries received after the deadline will gladly be considered for our regular diy wednesday posts.
all entries should have the words “diy contest entry” in the subject line and include well-styled photos of the final diy project. if past contests are any indication you guys like to vote for photos that look as pretty as the project so please keep that in mind when taking pictures.
please note: we whole-heartedly welcome multiple submissions. if your project has appeared on another website or publication please note that in your entry. please do not send photos you do not want to run on design*sponge.

thank you to the incredible julia rothman for designing this year’s diy contest logo- you can check out her site right here and shop her new card collection from hello! lucky right here.

and thank you again to our generous sponsors: 2modern.com, sparkability and growmodern. you can visit their sites by clicking on their banners below.

Angie

Absolutely- just to clarify though- all payments will be sent in US Dollars and if someone out of the country wins first place they’ll need to consider the shipping costs on their $500 worth of goods from 2Modern ;)

Grace

I have a question about the definition of “DIY” in the contest - does the project have to be made from scratch, like building a piece of furniture with planks of lumber, or would a revamp project of a piece of existing furniture count?

Would it be okay to take one of the projects from your DIY posts, replicate it and submit it for the contest? Or should the project be more original than that? Just asking. When will you start posting submissions for viewing?

victoria

if it somehow ends up looking very different that might be ok but my gut reaction is that voters won’t be as interested in something they’ve already seen before on the site- unless there’s an interesting spin on it.

grace

No, I meant can I submit MY DIY project (the canisters) - not a redo of someone else’s project - as a contest submission. Or does that still fall under the “seen it before” category (or non-eligible because of other publication)? Thanks!

hsp,
I had the same question you had
(I wanted to submit my table/door DIY from 1.30). Grace encouraged that I try a new project. Since it falls under “seen it before”, it may not get enough votes. But I think you can still submit your previous DIY project. Grace, is this right? Julia

michael

answers to your questions are in the comments above, but to reitterate:

anyone can enter, this isn’t a girls-only contest.

the only rules are in the post above. must be hand-made by you, that’s pretty much it.

we’d prefer that it’s a project that hasn’t already appeared on d*s unless your result is different enough to stand out from what we’ve already posted.

a before and after is not required, but it is helpful.

england- if the table is refurbished in a way that looks dramatically different than yes, absolutely. i’m worried that with the level of competition a simple repainting job may not win enough reader votes. but something unique would definitely stand a chance.

I’m a bit confused by one of the answers above. The question by joe was whether or not before and after pictures are required. Your answer said yes they are necessary. But sounded as if you meant to say not necessary but helpful. Could you clarify please? Sorry if i’m being redundant!

Hello, i have submitted and entry and i sent a b4 and after pic but i was wondering if we need to send “lots” of photos and a blow by blow of how the project was done.
i did sort of a pictorial step by step.
should i send that in or wait til i win! LOL Thanks

alexandra

i will narrow down the entries to a top 10 (or 20, we’ll see how far i can get it down) and then you guys get to vote on winners.

i’ll be sharing some of the entries that didn’t make the finals as well, because i think we’ll have a lot to choose from ;)

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