My sweet husband and I.

My sweet husband and I.
Leah Bess Photography.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Upcycling Vintage: my customer's creative ideas

So when Lupe & I started Lucky Lightning , we were really trying our hand out at different creative projects. We especially have fallen in love with our suitcase dog beds , made out of vintage suitcases. We love to create these and pooches around the world have fallen in love with them!

Check out Odie, from IL, in a red suitcase pet bed. 



Now, though, our store has more of a Vintage vibe to it, and it's starting to become a collection of lovely vintage treasures we find here & there. It's so much fun, the thrill of a great vintage find! And thank heavens for Etsy, where we have an outlet to share our obsession.

Often we find neat items that we have a few uses in mind for, but our customers often turn out to be way smarter & more creative when it comes to upcycling! I wanted to give you an insight to their ideas.

We found these great vintage, wooden, 70's - esque cups that I thought were fantastic. One of our customers turned them into the perfect game companion. 

His exact words were, "exactly what I was looking for." I do love hearing that! 


We found this vintage case that was actually a holder for a vintage travel coffee set. It was great, it had a coffee maker, cups, filters, & more. But we stripped it of that, and one of our customers used it as a costume piece for a comic con she was attending. Very different! (and later down the line, we ended up finding an identical one of these, very random!)


I nearly died when I found this pink luggage set. It's very hard to find hot pink luggage in the vintage luggage realm. I was even luckier to have a super sweet customer from Canada snag these, and she was really excited to have them. I love when customers are stoked about what they're purchasing! She used them to hold her sketchbooks & supplies, and she mentioned that she actually already has a hot pink train case she's using for a supply holder! Lucky gal. 

We have recently become hoarders of Vintage brass figures. We seriously are starting to get a zoo in our apartment, but I find them so unique and different. I advertised these little mice as decoration or as jewelry holders. I think they make adorable ring holders, myself. 


I loved this set of nesting suitcases, they zip open on the top-which is very different from most normal suitcases. I was lucky to have a super sweet, Austin based seller purchase these. You can find her unique shop Pressedufour on Etsy. She sells beautiful paper products, and uses these nifty suitcases to tote them around. I think that's such a unique idea, and a very pretty element to add to your business. 


We sold this triple set of vintage blue luggage to a customer who intends to make two end tables and a cat bed out of them. End tables will be neat made from these! I can't wait to see pics of their finished product. 


And I'm always talking about our dog beds, but I think it's great when kittens around the globe get to use them as well! Here's some happy pets & pet owners



Both of these kitty cat momma's were so sweet and wonderful to work with. The blue one was a custom order, and she made it so much fun to make. I swear, we get lucky with great customers.


One of our customers is a photographer, you can find her business, La La Clicks, here. She asked if we could do a custom bed for her to use as a prop in her photography! I thought that was such a unique idea, and of course obliged! 

Overall, we've been so lucky to have sweet, friendly, & creative customers! I can't wait to see what our future customers have in mind for our products. I do love that about recycling/upcycling, there is hope for items that get tossed to the way side! We personally use suitcases to hold our shoes, magazines, and more. We are constantly scooping up things and using them for new, innovative purposes. Keep the creativity going, all :)

We have lots of new goodies to add to the store, so hopefully they will be shipped off to new, and better uses. 

<3 Ashley 

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