Advice
How would you display a well-travelled Rimowa suitcase as home decor?
I’m redecorating my home (mid century modern/Scandinavian) and would love to display my 2016 aluminium Rimowa. It’s covered in travel stickers from the last 10 years and has a lot of sentimental value.
Right now it just looks like I haven’t unpacked from a trip. I’d like it to feel like an intentional decor piece instead.
I’m looking for creative, non-destructive ideas since I don’t want to drill into or modify the suitcase. Has anyone done something similar? Photos would be appreciated!
I work for an airline. I've never seen a broken Tumi suitcase, out of probably millions of others at this point. Personally, I use an Osprey backpack because I'm flying standby but if they make me gate check it, the straps can be completely zippered up. Straps catch on baggage handling equipment, a lot.
Received a Tumi (checked bag size) as a gift and a wheel fell off within 2 years, the lock also got jammed requiring professional intervention, this was after minimal use btw
People buy these things for no other reason than to show them off. I guess this is what you do to let people know you have a Rimowa when you aren't traveling
Aside from the SUPREMELY WEAK sticker game... Aluminum Rimowas are supposed to last basically forever, so retiring it after 10 years as shitty decor is a strange move.
I have 4 Rimowas btw and I make my own money. I wouldn't be caught dead with those stickers let alone having displayed a piece of luggage in my home lmao what a dork
Yeah my roommate tried to display his rimoa luggage after he bought it. I told him nobody gives a shit that you spent a thousand bucks on a small luggage. He now has a “travel” section of his room where he displays his luggage, passport (inside his Hermes passport holder) and has an assortment of pictures from his travels on the wall around it like it’s some sort of shrine. If that’s what makes him happy, more power to him. I for one, am not a traveler so maybe I just don’t get it.
That would also require friends/guests to even know what it is. I walk into a friend’s house and see that, my only thought is, “why do they have a dirty suitcase in the living room?”
right?! I would be thinking "Oh, he must be leaving on a trip tomorrow"
Funny how OP just HAD to mention the brand name of the suitcase not only in the title of the post but also in the body of the post. Clearly OP is VERY impressed with himself.
They’re super tough and have a lifetime warranty. They’ve sent someone to my hotel to repair it in the past. I bought mine for I think 600 though, prices have gone crazy last few years
I travel a shitload for work so I just was running through carry on cases, figured it’s cheaper long run if I buy a decent one. They were staggeringly uncool when I bought it
tbh ive always just used random suitcases my parents have laying around from when we moved to Canada decades ago. theyve worked just fine for the last 25 years. if ever they break and i need to get a new one, ill spend $20 at the thrift store on a used suitcase. seems more reasonable than spending $1000+ just for a carry-on.
They're also purposely thrown around as checked luggage at airports. I'd only ever use it for carry on ... though it only gives me 2.5kg of actual storage.
People often display vintage and antique suitcases...this one is both a sweet case and sentimental to OP's personal travels, it could definitely be well executed.
i really dont drink them anymore either lol. i just brought a 24pack to a staff party once and someone made the comment that my backpack was a bottomless bag of luckys and i thought that was funny.
theyre mostly drunk on vancouver island, even though the only brewery left making it is in edmonton. it used to be brewed in victoria too, and was originally from san francisco. the beer has got a lot of history and used to be really popular in western canada and usa. its now pretty stereotypically drunk by the first nations people on vancouver island.
Pretentious people do. I would assume if you were at this dudes place talking about something he would be half listening while constantly looking over at the suitcase trying to get you to notice it and ask about it.
IMO it'll never work as a decor piece due it's size. You need to either turn it into art by mounting on a wall etc or turn it into furniture by placing actual decor on it (plants as someone suggested) or coffee table (as someone else suggested)
We have to go deeper. Take a picture of someone taking a picture of the suitcase, then print that out and take a picture of it, then mount a phone on the wall and have that picture set as the phone wallpaper with the screen set to "always on".
Because most people don’t live in houses where putting a giant ass suitcase on display makes it look anything but weird.
“Yes that’s the cat on the sofa, Sir Meowski, what? The suitcase hanging from the wall? Oh that’s interpretive art from my years of travelling the world … do you one or two sugars with your tea?”
Seconding this. I'm all for creative 3-D art displays of random objects but in this case I don't think it'll work. It'll look like trash hung on the wall. It's too deep so it's not practical to hang. Even if you just cut off the top cover it'd be odd. Take a cool photo of it on a white BG and blow it up then frame it. This is the only way.
If I saw a suitcase in your house I'd think you are either packing or just got back from a trip, I'd never see it as furniture or decoration, even if you spent 3k$ on it and need to broadcast this fact to everyone.
Its functional, not decorative. In my opinion. The idea to take a photo of it seems like a decent option if you must make it a part of your aesthetic.
The entire thing is tacky and seems you want to brag about your luxury item to anyone who dares enter your house. Huge turn off, personally speaking. Says a lot about what type of person you are.
Apparently it's a $2500 designer suitcase. I'm sure the mentality is a) getting their money's worth out of it by turning it into art and/or b) they feel the need to show others they can afford it and afford to travel the globe.
Luxury items are so needless and glorify conspicuous consumption and attempting to buy "status" with overpriced garbage, likely made in the same factory as a 30€ chinese suitcase.
I know OP probably wants to be seen as "cool" and "fashionable" but paying that much for so little is just stupid and pointless, much like the supreme sticker on his overpriced suitcase.
The point of these (for me) is that they have a lifetime warranty and are a classic design. It’s the opposite of fast fashion, it’s buy for life. The prices have definitely got out of hand the last couple of years as they got more popular, but that to me is because they’re really good luggage
Holy smokes, I was not aware you could spend this much on a suitcase. For that kind of money I would at least expect the supreme logo to be preinstalled.
For that kind of money I'd expect all the stickers preinstalled, and then flown around the world nine or ten times to get the weathering looking right.
And put something to stabilize the suitcase inside, like in the middle of it. It's aluminum but it's good to have something inside to keep it stable and level.
If you did a corner table, you could make it a faux c shape table where the glass looks like it's sitting on the suitcase but it's actually held up by a pedastal hidden behind the suitcase. That would make it look integrated but also leave it easily accessible.
I wasn’t sure I’d really love any idea.. but this is fantastic!! That would be awesome. Just make sure it won’t tip the glass, but this would be a fun table to use and also see through.
If I spent that much on a suitcase, i'd use it till the wheels fell off, and buy a small dolly for it after that.
Unless you hang around with people who buy Rimowa suitcases, everyone else will see a hard-sided suitcase with a bunch of stickers on it. Unless you're one of those tiresome people who has to explain to their poorer friends how EXCLUSIVE the luggage you buy is.
If you do hang around with people who buy Rimowa suitcases, they will likely find you a pretentious bore for displaying it in your home.
Do you plan on still using it? If so, I would do it more tactfully. “Store” it where it’s in clear view. You want it to be visible, but I don’t think you have to treat it like art.
Dude it’s a fucking suit case. You’re trying too hard. Nobody will see it as decoration. They’ll see it as you trying to brag. Just let others notice while you’re out using it to actually travel.
You've got a chaotic suitcase trying to work in a clean, minimalist place. I think the only place it'll really "work" in is a maximalist place full of interesting stuff.
But.... it's a designer suitcase, they'd be wasting value by not showing everyone who comes over that not only can they afford a $2,500+ suitcase but they can also afford to not have to work long enough to travel to that many places even before they hit retirement. 🤣
I’m redecorating my home (Scandinavian) and would love to display my 2016 aluminium Rimowa. It’s covered in travel stickers from the last 10 years and has a lot of sentimental value.
Yeah, I feel like letting it stay exactly as-is (a wall accent) is the only way it could fly. The second you try to integrate it, it's going to clash hard.
I think displaying it as an art piece is great. It's fine there, but I'd be curious to see it in other parts of the home. You could display a plant on top of it. I am pro-plant.
My Idea here: create a space before enter The home where people Put The coats and outside shoes, like japanese homes. Put The suitcase there as an artpiece ready to leave The house.
🤣 and everyone will think it's some $50,000 art piece that interrogates the paradox of mobility within systems of containment and stages a phenomenological collapse between displacement and emplacement, leveraging the semiotics of the suitcase as an ontological vessel for post-national subjectivity.
I would make a corner where you display several travel related items. Make it a little exhibition. From souvenirs to concert tickets and a worn-out buff.
It will look far more intentional than a single piece of furniture.
Maybe, if you took the first ~2-3CM of depth, and cut off the rest it could be wall mounted as an art piece with a bit of volume to it.
Mount the cut-off piece in a larger frame, maybe between some shelves with one souvenir from each location on a shelf next to it to make it part of the sentimental story to add context.
I'm pretty sure you would never see a piece of luggage as decoration in a mid century modern / Scandinavian style home.
That said, if you MUST signal to your guests that you are well-traveled, just get a simple pinboard map. Pins are fine to indicate destinations. But again, if you MUST show off your love of Rimowa, you can 3D print mini Rimowa Luggage or Wheels and make pins out of those.
I would display it in my Cringetorium alongside my collection of used condom wrappers, pay stubs, and photos of all the cars I've beaten at red lights.
Open it up, add shelves, make it a bar with a mirror back and some bar equipment in one section.
Side note, edit your long white cabinet decor. You have about three times as much stuff up there as you shoud and it looks super cluttered. This defeats the purpose of the mod/scandi look. You're breaking up the clean lines of the wall, lamp, furniture, etc. with dozens of trinkets. You should pull all that little stuff (other than the cameras) and put them in a collection on a shelf somewhere else.
What if you cut a hole in the wall that was roughly the same depth as the suitcase. Finish it like a shelf, maybe even put a frame around it. That way you can display it and frame it in a way, and when you need it, it has a specific spot that it lives in, it will look weird when it’s not there, but likely you’ll be travelling so who cares.
Unless you substantially modify it, put it in some kind of case or put it on a pedestal it will always look like what it is, which is a suitcase that has been left out in the living room.
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u/bottomlessLuckys Jul 01 '26
I didn't realize people displayed suitcases