DIY Repurposed Vintage Suitcase Side Table

Hi guys! Today I am very excited to share my suitcase table with you! This is a diy idea I have seen all over Pinterest, and it has been on my to-do list for quite a while now.  This past summer I found the cutest red Lady Baltimore suitcase set at the Vintage Village in Raleigh. I have spent months looking for the right legs, an originally wanted to find some mid-century wood legs to use, but could not find anything that I could afford. A few weeks ago I was super lucky and picked up a free mid century couch and chair off of craigslist. I am currently working on upholstering them, and will hopefully be posting the results sometime soon. When I picked up the set, there was also a plain wooden bar stool up for grabs as well, and I immediately knew it would make a good base for my suitcase table. This little project was super fun and I was able to make it in just a few hours.

Here’s What You Need:

*Vintage Suitcase

*Wooden Bar stool

*Hand saw

*Ruler

*Primer and Paint

*Wood Screws

*Drill

Instructions:

The first thing you need to do is decide the height of your table. Once you know how tall you want it to be you need to take the measurement of the thickness of your suitcase and subtract it from the overall measurement. So for example, if you want your table to sit at 26″ tall, and your suitcase is 8″ wide, then you would subtract the 8 from the 26″ to give you a height of 18″ for the legs. So mark 18″ up from the bottom of each leg on your stool. Mark them with a straight edge to make where you cut even. Cut your stool with the hand saw where you marked on the legs. Now you are ready to paint your stool. Use primer first and then paint with your favorite color. Once the paint is dry you can attach your stool legs to your suitcase. Measure the width of the suitcase bottom and the top of the stool legs. Once you have the measurements you need to find the centers and then mark out from the center of the suitcase to where the legs will go. For example, if your suitcase is 24×18″ wide and your stool width at the top is 10×10″, you would mark the center of the suitcase at 12″ from the length of the bottom and 9″ from the height. Then mark out from the center 5″ out and over to each corner to mark the legs. Find the centers of the legs and mark the center on each leg. Then mark in from the marks you made for the legs on the suitcase for where the centers would be on the legs. For example, if your legs are 2″x2″, you would need to mark in from the edges 1″, then you would need to mark from the leg mars on the bottom of the suitcase 1″ in towards the center of the suitcase. Pre-drill the holes in the bottom of the suitcase and the tops of the legs. Load up a washer on your screws and then screw down the wood screws through the holes in the suitcase to the stool legs. And that’s it. Of course if you did not want to have holes in your suitcase, you can always just fill the suitcase with some heavy books and lay it on top of the stool legs. It would not be as stable obviously, but would still work as a table.

I LOVE my suitcase table! It is perfect in my sewing room/guest room! I love that I can store stuff in it as well. I love vintage suitcases and I know that I will definitely have to make another one again sometime. You can definitely shell out some dough to make one of these awesome side tables. Mine cost me only thirty dollars to make. Isn’t thrifting awesome! I hope some of you guys will give this one a try! So next time you come across a cute vintage suitcase at a good price, don’t hesitate to pick it up! I’ll be back Thursday with another fun diy. Until then…

Happy Crafting!