Vibrant Colours For The Nasty Icelandic Winter Weather — Journalist & Photographer Iceland

By Yanshu Li

The sun came up soon after 10:00 a.m. in Reykjavík on a November Saturday. Slowly, the sky was dressing up with otherworld colors. A good day began in the still weather.

Jóhanna Tomasdóttir picked up her down jacket and walked to her car. Her footsteps on the snow crushed the silence in the crisp air. The rouge eyeshadow tinted a soft warmness on her face, while the dimming skyline of Kópavogur was still in the shade of blue. She was heading to Bazaar Reykjavík, the shop she opened in 2013.

11:00 a.m. The sounds of engines were on and off in the parking lot outside the shop. The first customer purchased a France-made tablecloth, one of the most popular items in her store, hanging on the hook on the oak plank that was originally made for a wine bucket.

Bazaar Reykjavík is a 143-square-meter store featuring durable products for the home. There are more than 15 brands displayed in the cabinets and the shelves. Most of them were from France, Germany, Italy, and Belgium. The designs and colors were distinctive from what one can see in the shops on Laugavegur, the main shopping street in downtown Reykjavík.

A large dining table in the back covered with a tablecloth of waterproof fabric led the customers to the kitchenware section. Lamps lined up on the stand near the front window: ceiling lamps that resemble paper art; desk lamps that cast clear shadows on the wall when the Nordic sun shining in.

As the styles of the consumer design adapted and evolved in the culture of each country, Icelandic design shared the common ground with the Scandinavian norm. They prefer functional simplicity presented in the scale of gray. Saturation was muted.

Jóhanna did not like that.

When she was traveling in Europe, Jóhanna found herself fell in love with Southern France: the vibrant colors passionately exuding joy, the azure glistening on the ocean blinding the eyes, and the crowds and noisiness speaking of life. All the vividness inspired her in a warm weather of the south.

First for one month then for one year, she lived in Nice, France, and discovered more about the designs, the styles, and the market. Her Daughter, Marta Palsdottir, who was studying Interior and Industrial design in Milan, Italy, joined Jóhanna in the journey of exploration after she graduated in 2010.

Before 2012 Christmas, they invited friends to their home in Iceland for a pop-up sale to test the idea of bringing the products to Iceland. The praises received from this sale motivated Jóhanna to open up a store for Icelanders with more options as a getaway to escape the ubiquitous gray.

“We always try to find quality products but also colorful. Especially during the winter, you need light in the houses, you need a little bit of color because it’s gonna be a lot of snow, it’s going to be very dark and ugly weather outside, you just need a little bit of colors inside,” said Marta.

Later they picked up a spacious location in Kópavogur where it attached a large parking space.

“It’s very important for people in Iceland to go around the city with their cars. Some of our products are bigger, so it’s not easy to handle them without having your own car,” said Marta.

The commercial rental price in downtown Reykjavík was too expensive for a sizable space. Also, finding a parking space in downtown was hard.

“We wanted to be able to have the product range and the prices of products similar to those which are standard in Europe,” Marta added.

Locating in Kópavogur, the second largest municipality in Iceland with a population of 31 thousand, it provided adequate customer traffic, according to Marta.

Selling the brands that were never sold in Iceland was tricky. Marta said that the trust from customers began with touching of the products.

“The customers need to touch the item before they buy it,” she said.

It is hard to resist buying something in the shop once you touch or take a look at them. A firmly woven tablecloth will lift up the holiday spirit. A rosy scented soap fills the space with a romantic aroma. Especially for the holiday season, when the household wanted something different from most of the on sale items in the area, they will find it at Bazaar Reykjavík.

Bazaar Reykjavík had its online presence only for product displaying. Since the business has been continuously growing, Jóhanna planned to launch the online shop soon.

In recent years, the booming tourism industry in Iceland contributed a significant economic growth. The alleys and streets in downtown Reykjavík were bustling during holiday seasons, making the northernmost capital of the world a hearty place to sojourn.

“Now in Iceland, you can see different people from everywhere,” Jóhanna said with a smile. "And they buy the puffin toys in downtown."

Although the shop didn’t target at tourists market, it surely wanted to expand the customer varieties. While the tourists can go horse-riding and fishing tours in the area, picking up one thing or two in a not-so-Icelandic shop can be on the to-do-list too.

Jóhanna Tomasdóttir, owner of Bazaar Reykjavík, 2015. [Photo by Yanshu Li]

Jóhanna and Marta visited Paris twice a year for a major trade fair named Maison & Objet to expose themselves to the innovative interior design world. They also walked around Paris in seek of inspirations, ideas and new products. Their persistence made Bazaar Reykjavík the hidden treasure in Iceland capital area.

Besides managing the shop, Jóhanna was also an accountant, and Marta has started to study Marketing. While the fickle weather in Iceland went on, which was “a little too much” for them, they finally started to like it.

The turquoise ocean in Southern France resided in Jóhanna’s mind, as she looked around in her shop and wondered if she had brought a piece back.

“Color means everything to me,” said Jóhanna.

But for her Bazaar Reykjavík, as Marta put it, being colorful means to offer “something that can sparkle some joy in their homes.”