Paint pens are my art friends

Ode to Paint Pens…or How I Transformed a Boring Away Suitcase (DIY FTW!)

My partner bought an Away suitcase. When he saw I was traveling more for work, he offered it to me. I’m a reluctant convert to roller bags but the Away did make traveling easier.

The only problem was the suitcase was a bit, well, basic. And ubiquitous. A sea of nondescript black luggage began to be replaced by the unmistakably branded (or blanded?) cases.

The Away suitcase, pre-makeover

I decided to make the luggage less likely to be mixed up during a forced bag check and claim. I had a simple solution — paint pens! I had bought a set of medium point Uni-Paint PX-20 oil-based paint markers to make over a pair of chipped wood-paneled boot heels. I ended up pleased with the results.

What a little sanding and some paint marker-ing can do

I was confident the paint pens could work their magic again. So I picked two colors to complement the luggage and got to work.

Painter’s tape!

I knew the existing grooves would help me make (mostly) straight lines so that inspired me to use painter’s tape to keep those lines. It was easy from there to fill in the colors.

Note the plastic on the floor — even paint marker pens can get messy!

Two layers of the paint marker later and I felt ready to reveal the design.

The finished product!

The change isn’t as bold of a design as I’d like. In fact, it is still a bit boring for my taste. That said, it’s different enough to not worry about luggage mix-ups.

This post is part of my WriteMarch series, a commitment to write daily for a month.