Some Of My Classic Retro Luggage
Any second-hand addict like myself will know that thrifted goodies can soon take over your home - our kitchen cupboards, my dressing room and all the little nooks & crannies around our house are taken up with my second-hand things. So it’s lucky that my collection of vintage suitcases and antique trunks, which take up lots of space, have multiple uses.
I have been wanting to feature these on Charity Chic for sometime and this is the first in a series of posts on why I love vintage luggage. I have quite a few old leather suitcases which are completely battered and in need of some TLC so this post features some of the ones I have which are in good nick. You’ll have to be patient to see the others.
Retro suitcases
Travel in style
With retro luggage you can travel from A to B in old-fashioned style. I use the dinky white airline case on top all the time, it fits just enough for a couple of nights away. It’s made by Airport – proudly labeled as ‘Flight Tested Luggage’. It was £6 from a British Heart Foundation charity shop in Birmingham. The two below are both Antler. The brown one belongs to my Mum and the blue one was my Grandpa’s. He used to travel all over Europe with that in the 1970′s.
Nowadays we cram our make-up and toiletries into our overnight hold-alls but ladies used to use vanity cases regularly. Here are a couple of my favourite. I use the Antler one lots – this is my most recent find from the retro section of the YMCA charity shop in Bromsgrove a few weeks ago for £4.49.
Antler vanity case
The below keeps my sewing things tidy and came from a junk shop called Link Antiques in Malvern which is a jumbled hoard of random things. Prepare to get dirty rummaging through their piles of (dirty) stuff. They do house clearance’s so hold everything from old sofas to ghetto blasters.
The perfect size for all my sewing bits n’ bobs
Statement storage solutions at home
Want to upcycle some of your old family suitcases? It doesn’t matter if the handle is missing. Here’s some inspiration on how you could make a unique statement rather than buy a new coffee or bed side table. I have plans to do something similar as soon as I have cleaned up some of mine. Watch this space!
Stacked Vintage Suitcases (Courtesty of homedit.com)
How About A Vintage Luggage Coffee Table? (Courtesy of http://www.globallygorgeous.com)
love the post mrs… I’m building my collection, ive got x3, one which housed my singer sewing machine.. love the pics of using them around the house.
xxx
ooh lovely, does the sewing machine work?
love the cases and the ideas for repurposing them. i’m fond of cases with travel stickers/tickets describing their journeys around the world.
Me too, they have such a strong sense of history.
This post makes me so happy – I’ve got a vintage picnic basket but I’d love to add a few suitcases and stack them up in the living room : )
Do it!
*sigh* I’ve just fallen in love with a suitcase. Love the coffee table idea. xx