Huldan Huvila - Crafts Life Style Shop

From fashion to crafts. Last summer me and my friend Pia visited in Huldan huvila crafts store (http://www.huldanhuvila.fi/index.html), which is located in Korkeakoski in Kotka. To me, Huldan huvila represents the slow kind of living, of which I have written earlier in this blog. So in a way, this can be seen as a "Finnish slow life style store".

The Store

Huldan huvila is located in a yellow wooden 2-store single family house. The store is situated in the first floor, and on the second floor there was a small painting exhibition.

The yellow theme from the facade continued in the interiors enriched with orange tones e.g in walls and curtains. It brought a very energetic and retro atmosphere to the interior. The whole store was like a trip back to childhood summers, to grandmum's place back at 60's (not that I have any experience from that decade). But of course Huldan huvila is a commercial space instead of being a museum.

The store was decorated mostly with old furniture which offered an authentic background to the product displays. Some of the old furniture were also for sale. In the displays I saw similar ideas that I had seen on design markets (e.g. putting the products on display on an old suitcase), but the interior made the display ideas a more authentic. Here are some examples of the displays:

Like in a proper life style store, also in Huldan huvila there are slight hints about the origins of the building and it's use as a housung purpose. Old itmes placed here and there tell the story of the house and build the atmosphere in their own part. Like old wooden skies in the corner, or the basket of woods (which is also a necessity in the wintertime, of course).

Another unique thing is that Huldan huvila offers their customers home made buns and coffee that is slowly boiled in an old fashioned coffee pan. You can pay for the servings according to your own councious. Another statement for the slow way of life!

The Products

The idea of Huldan huvila is to rent shelf space for crafts makers and to sell their products in return. Because of this, the assortment in the store is not very solid, there are many kinds of product ranges.

Here some of my picks from the assortment:

Wilmariina's products are illustrated with old images from different local places. I love the fact how the products have a stong sence of place and time in them.

Today I'm happy... I can't believe I waited so long!

  Leena Pousi's ceramic products are very beautiful: strong and sensitive at the same time.

The same idea as in these earrings was also used by one company on Lasipalatsi design markets. Old playing cards are also often used as product labels. 

These were the products I found to be some of the best in Huldan huvila's product range. There were also some not-so-attractive products to be sold there. Still the over all look of the products managed to be appeeling. However for a lifestyle store like this, a solid product range would be an asset in the small market, though it is a bit difficult to achieve if there are not many crafts makers to rent the space. Hopefully in the future Huldan huvila can develop their assortment to a more unified way for a more specific target group.

The events in Huldan huvila

Huldan huvila also arranges different kinds of events around the year. They have many different kinds of crafts courses where customers can get together and learn new carfts techiques. E.g. we heard that a Finnish tv show "Sisustusmatkalla Minnan kanssa" had been to Huldan huvila to shoot an episode where they dyed yarns in plant colours. I'm looking forward to see the episode once it comes out. Huldan huvila has also spent it's 2-years birthday party, had a yard flea market, and an opening of an art exhibition. Events are an important way to keep the store lively and vivid. And crafts courses are an important social event that can be also a part of slower lifestyle.

Second Foor

Some of the space on the second floor was unbuilt and ready to be renovated, but some was already free for use. There was a small painting exhibition by some amateur artists, but I'm sorry to say it was not too impessive.

I can see the potential in the second floor to be turned into use. It might be used e.g. as a place for a library and/or a book store with crafts books? Or there could be displayed materials for different kinds of crafts and a peaceful place to make crafts by yourself? Or maybe it could be used for an accommodation during the courses, or even as an Bed and Breakfast kind of quarters?

Development suggestions

What I would develop in Huldan huvila was first of all the entrance and the yard. The entrance should always be well taken care of since it is the place where the first impression is been made. In Huldan huvila I think the lawn could have been a bit more tidy and what instantly caught my eye was that the flowers were all dead. It's better to have no flowers that dead flowers. And of course beautiful lively fresh yellow flowers would have made the entrance more appealing. The yellow flowers were seen on the "Open" ("Avoinna") sign on the door, so I think it would be nice to see then on the yard,too!

Also the entrance byt the door could be highlighted with plants, flowers or something that attracts customers.

Another thing that I noticed was that the products were sometimes a bit "hidden" inside the fixtures in the displays, they were not visible enough. And a customer cannot buy what he/she cannot see. In some places in the store I would pay more attention on the commerciality of the displays so the products could be better perceived by the customers.  I think it's OK to use more effective display methods alongside with the more attarctive display methods to gain more profits. All in all, I think that there were many excellent display ideas, but some of the displays still need a little clarification.

Dispite of these few small development suggestions, I think Huldan huvila was a great concept with lots of potential to grow. The interior, old furniture, location, events and the assortment all together make this an attractice slow life style store.