DIY : Vintage Suitcase Dog Bed

For our pup, life is all about sleeping. He spends at least 90% of his day taking naps, and nothing is more exciting then bed time at the end of the day. So, naturally, he has beds all over the house, so that he can keep an eye on us, and get his rest at the same time.

Back before I got married he had a suitcase for a bed, but somehow that suitcase disappeared. But last week I was given this adorable one for free and decided it was time to make him a cute bed to sleep in, instead of a pile of blankets.

The outside of the suitcase was in pretty good condition, no major dents or scratches. But the inside was stained all over, and had a major odor problem that just wouldn’t go away. So I knew I had to gut it.

You can kind of get a picture of how badly stained it was, since the stains had seeped all the way through the lining into the wood of the suitcase. Taking the lining out was easy since it was all just held in there with some glue.

I do wish I had gotten some more photos of me working on it, but it was really quite simple! I started with the lining around the inside of the suitcase, cutting a long rectangular strip a few inches wider and longer then the actual size. Since I knew you would never see the bottom of the suitcase I hot-glued the raw edge of the fabric right along the bottom and when I got to the end I folded the end over to hide the raw edge from view. I folded over the top and carefully ran the hot glue right at the base of the painted wood, doing small sections at a time.

For the pillow portion (which, sadly, is kind of hidden under his blanket!) all I did was place plenty of stuffing in the bottom and glue the large rectangle around it, careful to keep edges and glue hidden. The trickiest part was definitely the top, since it’s just a rounded edge rectangle, but I took my time and went slowly and I’m pretty happy with how it came out:)

The project is actually pretty simple, it just takes plenty of patience so that everything looks nice a neat.I definitely would love to do this again if I come across another suitcase where the interior is un-savable!

Plus, I’m pretty sure little mister Krammer is pretty happy with his new bed:)