Old, Moldy luggage/ trunk turning into a Be.A.U.Ti.Ful French~inspired coffee table

I was lucky enough to find this "beautiful" vintage luggage piece! Isn't she lovely?! HA! But I have a vision......

She was looking pretty rugged with rusty hardware, scratches, rips, stickers, etc. And I have no idea what she is made of. I do know the trim is not metal - some sort of "fabric".

Since Annie Sloan Chalk Paint adheres to almost anything, I knew that was the way to go. And since I couldn't clean up that hardware, I decided to go with an allover paint look.

The next step was to come up with some designs I wanted to "paint" onto her to get that French look. I decided to do all of the painting with my stain technique. I did this on my French Clock accent table and some other pieces. I like the look of the stain painting much more than when I use the acrylics (especially when doing distressed projects).

So here she is and needing another somethin somethin in the lower left corner. I had a few ideas.

At this point I need to decide which way to go with the piece. I can keep her intact as one coffee table or split her apart and get TWO coffee tables out of one piece. Here is my inspiration piece of one that just uses half of the luggage:

After going back and forth, I decided to keep the piece intact. Maybe I can find a smaller piece to split in two and use as end tables??

So now that I had made that decision, I finished the top design and started the "distressing" with stain. I started this on one side before adding the Annie Sloan wax and I liked the look of it, but decided maybe I better wax first. BAD DECISION... I personally liked the look of the stain distressing BEFORE the wax better; however, since I had gotten started with the wax, I kept going in that direction. There wasn't much difference, and probably no one would know the difference but me. At any rate, these next pictures are of the design all finished and the wax and stain distressing done...

As you can see in the one picture, I had attached the legs. But before I did... I painted them with flat black acrylic paint, then drybrushed with linen chalk paint and finally rubbed two different colors of stain onto them.

Now for the inside.. YUK! I forgot to take the before picture until I was already into the process a little

Also, before I added the legs, I cut out a piece of 1/4" plywood to fit inside. I found some materials I had on hand to finish off the inside. Then I screwed down through the plywood into the legs.

The pictures that follow are the finished product inside my great room. The colors are not great due to the lighting. But I think you will get the gist of it. I did finish off the inside with an old belt to keep it open and trim around the edges. I also added a "luggage tag".

After I get done with a project, I always think to myself.. "this is my favorite". And then the next idea comes along and that becomes my favorite. haha But I will say that I will definitely do another of these with a different design. Although very time consuming, this was a fun project -- especially when I go back and look at the before pictures! Hope you enjoy and as always, I welcome feedback!

The kitties gave me their approval ;)