Monday, August 9, 2010

Vintage Train Case Remake: Part 1

i love vintage train cases and vintage luggage. i only have a couple pieces of vintage luggage that i have gleamed from the family (or rather saved from being thrown away)...and i havent yet been lucky enough to find any good ones at the thrift stores. so i started looking around the interwebz to see if i could buy a vintage train case thats in good condition for cheap. bada-bing-bada-boom i found one on ebay...for cheap. it is a samsonite horizon series train case from the 60's/70's. the pictures that the seller put up made the case look like a bright turquoise-y blue....but when it got to me it was a darkish/dull/grey blue color...more blah than i had envisioned. so i decided to remake/up-cycle the case and make it look just the way i want it.



so with some blue painters tape, one can of "blue ocean breeze" Krylon spray paint, and some patients i repainted my train case.

intructs:
(1.) i put painters tape around the metal/chrome accent pieces as well as the handle.
(2.) i recommend turning it on its head and painting the bottom half first...since you dont see the bottom much it wont matter if the paint gets scratched while painting the top half. (by the way the bottom didnt get scratched when i painted the top)
(3.) once the body has been painted you can take the painters tape off and tape off the top and bottom sections so you can spray the mid portion (the small strip of vinyl in between the lid and the base)

tip: if you get some paint on the metal/chrome bits you can use nail polish remover with acetone and carefully wipe the areas of over-spray.

im not done with this case yet!! while looking for train cases i found a collection Etsy.com that were so cute...but i could not afford the $80 price tag attached to them.



the work is beautiful, but would be simple and easy for me to do myself. i can decoupage with the best of 'em...so thats what im going to do.

stay tuned for part 2 !!!

xoxo
-e

3 comments:

Karma Darling said...

Hey girly, who is the seller of those Etsy train cases? My mother has one in the garage. I wonder if she would notice if I stole it...
*Alli*

ezzi said...

hey alli,
the sellers name is "judythejazzcat". i love her work and am in no way trying to snake her business, but i just couldnt afford to buy it. i did something similar...i hope she doesnt mind. im glad that you are inspired to do something similar

-erin

Karma Darling said...

Yeah, it isn't "snaking her work" IMHO unless you copy it AND sell it. Mom is giving me hers, and I love the whimsy of the Etsy pics. Thanks for the name. I will check out her stuff.