little red suitcase...

Who says a suitcase is only for travel? 
They're so great for storage... I have a bunch of vintage travel cases that I use in my studio. But as I'm sure you've already discovered- there is NEVER enough storage. or money. Those vintage cases were beginning to get a lot more expensive than when I bought my first one years ago. What could I do? I had a little stack of chipboard suitcases shoved in a closet because they were ugly. And not red.
I'm a sucker for just about anything that is red. 

Unfortunately, the suitcases I had looked like this. UGH.

Out came the chalk paint. This color is called Red Wagon. The instructions on many of these chalk paints tell you that there is no prep necessary. They lie. A 'roughed up' surface definitely helps the paint stick to it. All I needed was a little piece of sandpaper and I quickly went over the whole thing before painting the first coat.

This is after one coat- it took two to completely cover the floral design. 

Once it was completely dry (I actually waited until the next morning) I painted on a little creme wax, waited for it to dry and then buffed it out with a soft cloth.

There was no way for me to capture the great red color in my photo but trust me, it's a deep vintage red- just like the name says, 'red wagon'. 

One suitcase down... now on to the rest of the set!

xo,