How To Upgrade Your Vintage Suitcase to a Side Table

I found a gorgeous mustardy yellow vintage suitcase, which I upcycled into a fabulous side table. Not only that, I added extra character to the case with some vintage luggage labels. You can download these vintage luggage labels on my blog for free. This vintage suitcase looks great either as a bedside table or a coffee table. It’s also really useful for storage of stuff like magazines.

Skill Level: Easy
Time Required: 2 hours
Project Cost: $30

• Old Suitcase
• 4″ Hairpin legs
• Wallpaper scraps (optional)
• Luggage labels and stickers (these can be downloaded for free on my blog)
• Wallpaper glue
• Plyboard

Tools

• Drill & Screws

1. Part of the charm of this particular case was its color and aged look, so I didn’t want to do too much to the outside of it. I just gave it a good clean with some leather cleaner. I used wire wool to scrape away an excess rust from the hinges and lock.
2. However the lining of the suitcase was not great so I just ripped it out. I then relined it with wallpaper using wallpaper paste. I did this one section at a time cutting the wallpaper pieces to size.
3. To provide a firm anchor for the hairpin legs, I cut a piece of plywood to fit the base of the suitcase. I covered this in wallpaper and inserted it into the case.
4. To attach the legs I turned the suitcase over and drilled holes into the underside. Using these holes I fixed the hairpin legs to the base of the suitcase by screwing them to the plyboard.
5. I scanned in my collection of luggage stickers and labels and printed them off. These were then simply decoupaged to outside to add character and hide any bad blemishes.

Thanks, Claire! You can see more on Claire’s blog Pillar Box Blue.

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