How to Make a Vintage Suitcase Table

There are so many old vintage suitcases floating around at the moment. Every thrift store you go into has them and they make great home decor. I found this one in the garage of my daughter's new house and knew straight away I wanted to turn it into a table. I build all my DIY projects using recycled materials that I strip down from furniture I can not restore. This is a great way to get all your DIY material for free.

This was the vintage suitcase that I started with, and the legs were from an old piece of furniture. The scrap plywood will be used to make the table more stable. Because I make my projects up as I go along they don't always work out the first time and this project was no different. So I have shown where I went wrong and what the consequences were, so you don't do the same mistakes as me. I started by washing the suitcase to remove all the dirt and dust.

A few years back I saw this poster of a world map and it was love at first sight. I ordered two from China and they have sat in the cupboard ever since waiting for a suitable project to come along. I knew they would be perfect for this project.

Remove any creases in the poster using a hot iron with no steam and iron the back. I used mod podge to stick the map to the suitcase. I found it easier to do small sections at a time, then smoothed the map down with my hand. I also found it better to add the mod podge to the suitcase instead of the map to prevent the map from getting soggy.

My map was a couple of centimetres too small for the suitcase, so make sure you have any joins at the back out of sight. I patched up the back using offcuts of the map. Use a sharp knife to cut away the excess paper around the latches and handles. These were the bits I used to patch up the back.

As hard as I tried to prevent any bubbles in the map I still had a couple. To stick them back down I used a syringe and needle and injected some mod podge into the bubbles and pushed the bubbles flat again. This works greats.

You can use a mod podge to seal the map to make it more durable. I felt the suitcase was too big and the mod podge is not that cheap so I used water-based polyurethane. I use a small foam paint roller and applied two coats to the surface. I kept the latches and handles as they were because I wanted to keep the old look.

I tried a few ways to add the legs but this was the only way that worked for me. My first idea to make the stand was to cut a piece of wood the size of the base and just attach the legs which I did. But this did not work, the table was so wobbly, it bounced around at the slightest touch. My second attempt was to put the base inside the suitcase, but this was not much better.

What finally worked was to add extra wood to the bottom before I added the base. This allows the legs to be screwed deeper into the wood giving more stability to the table.

A few years back I made a chaise lounge using world map fabric and had some leftover. It was not a perfect match because it was a lighter world map fabric but it would be inside the suitcase. All the fabric was attached using a hot glue gun. Start at the top and add glue along the seam, fold the fabric under and smooth out onto the glue. This will keep all the seams tidy or you can iron the seams before you glue them. Next, you can glue the fabric to the sides of the suitcase.

You can now add the base to the bottom of the suitcase using the hot glue gun.

Cut the last piece of fabric to size and glue the front seam first, add some hot glue at the bottom and push the fabric into the glue. Repeat this step across the bottom and back up to the other side. Cut the last piece of fabric to size and glue the front seam first, add some hot glue at the bottom and push the fabric into the glue. Repeat this step across the bottom and back up to the other side.

These are the legs I repurpose from an old dresser that was beyond repair. You can use an orbital sander to remove all the old paint. I painted the legs using white chalk paint and applied 2 coats. To age the legs to blend in with the suitcase I used some dark wax, which I rubbed over the surface.

To fit the legs I drilled a hole making sure to only go through the first planks that I added. If you drill too far you can risk snagging the fabric around the drill bit and destroying all your hard work. When you add the screws it will hold all the wood in place that was installed using hot glue.

Next, screw the legs in place with screws long enough to go into both pieces of wood inside. This will also keep the wood inside from moving if the hot glue does not hold over time. You can see the difference in the colour of the legs with and without the dark wax in this image. Just pretend my workshop is tidy. lol

This is the suitcase table completed. The inside of the table can be used for storage or even as a small bar.

This one of a kind sandpit table was made from an old study desk.

Wall-mounted pallet bar made from a pallet and personalised or old kitchen cupboard repurposed into a headboard. More unique ideas can be found on my website Unique Creations By Anita