Featured Guest: Antiques + Guy Stuff = "Man"tiquing

My dear friend Trey has started collecting and selling vintage stuff - specifically, "guy stuff."  A 1950’s football helmet. A 1960’s slot care set ("With a red Ferrari Dino!" he exclaims - although I have no idea what that means). Straight razors, steel beer cans and the like. Trey calls it "mantiquing."

Trey's recent expedition focused on a unique piece for my bedroom. Chuck, my better half, has themed our room with travel-related decor. When Trey heard about this, his immediate idea: vintage luggage. Brilliant!

Below, Trey recounts the story of this find in his own words.

"My 'mantique' solution here was one part real vintage and one part new-but-vintage-looking additions.

"Functioning on the premise that if it looks cool it is cool, I occasionally buy things at estate sales. At one of these sales, two well-used leather luggage pieces came my way. They were too musty for actual use, but hey - they were cool. After a heated bidding war with a less-than-friendly competitive bidder, I won them for $4. Score!

"Outside of being old, nothing was particularly unique about these luggage pieces. However, one still had a lugglage tag from the 70's, which sparked an idea - an idea I took to Ebay.

This vintage suitcase was aged with some of Trey's "mantiquing"
techniques - and now sits proudly in my home decor!

"Ebay offered a wide variety of vintage travel labels. Many claimed to be originals from luxurious hotels of the past, but originals like these were pricey. Instead, I found interesting reproduction labels. I came across many nostalgic labels and settled on reproduction luggage labels of old Grand Hotels from New York to Europe to the Far East...interesting locations, nice graphics and bright colors. 

"When the labels arrived, I was surprised to find them printed on glossy paper. Not a match for the vintage look I was going for, I sped up time with a piece of high-grit sandpaper, lightly sanding off the shine. Then it occurred to me that aging the suitcase would also add to its charm, so I sanded over the seams and edges to show a normal wear pattern. 

"The result? A classic-looking piece of luggage, with great character, and a great story."

Trey has lots of great mantiquing adventures like these, and I look forward to sharing more of them with you - thanks, Trey!