The Tiny Department Store

Thoughts about dreaming and an update on my tiny concept store

Dreamy Parisian concept store

We all have dreams, in fact most of us have many. Some come true, the dream of a perfect night’s sleep without interruption or a steaming cup of coffee on a cold winter’s morning. Others are huge and elaborate, often feeling out of grasp and insurmountable. Dreams can be fleeting, ebbing and flowing, evolving as we grow and then there are the other dreams. The ones that exist deep within our psyche, the golden strands as intrinsic as the spirals of our DNA. The dream of having my own store sits definitively within this camp, parked neatly inside, stubbornly refusing to budge.

The dreamy store inside my head has had many guises over the years, stocking a wide variety of products, from jewellery to flowers to tiny cakes and art supplies. I struggled to settle on just one vision, that is until I visited Merci in Paris many years ago. As I walked around, feeling both energised and inspired, the fragments of ideas that had existed since childhood sparking and swirling before fusing into a complete image. I wanted to create a concept store, a miniature Merci, all of my own. Small collections of carefully chosen products coming together to create a collection and tell a story. From that moment on I have sought out concept and lifestyle stores in every city and country that I have visited, keeping detailed notebooks to capture my many ideas for ‘the day’ when my time would come.

One of my favourite lifestyle stores in London that has sadly closed

Of course to open any kind of physical store brings with it many challenges, predominantly financial and as we are currently living a nomadic lifestyle across the pond in California without permanent residence, this adds an extra layer of complexity. I have to admit that I had pretty much given up on the idea of opening my own store at least for this period of time with two young children and without a clear road map ahead for the coming years. That is until one sunny morning when I looked at my shiny new bicycle with its neat wooden box on the front. Could I create an impossibly small shop, just the dimensions of the box? Could I divide this small box into four tiny departments, popping-up once a month in my home town? Suddenly my ‘one day’ dream seemed like perhaps it could exist outside the confines of my dreams.

A close up of the small wooden box that will house The Tiny Department Store

Creativity often thrives within constraints and clearly the extremely limited size of my ‘store’ meant that I could only make and sell small items in tiny quantities, but the upside meant that I didn’t need to worry about the logistics of production and also wouldn’t need a huge investment. It would also allow me to experiment and find out which products I loved to make as well as exploring what would be popular. I could interact and engage with my customers and pivot as things proved to be successful or not. I was reminded of a treasured book The Pocket Bakery, which documents the journey of author Rose Prince, who (along with her teenage son and daughter) opened up her Battersea home each Saturday morning to sell freshly made bread. This small homespun project, leading to a thriving bakery and beautiful cookbook.

The most exciting prospect of creating The Tiny Department Store is the ability to play with the concept and theme each month. Just like a chef might look at the seasonal produce available before creating a recipe and menu, I could be inspired by the colours and textures of my surroundings before designing a collection. As I travel near or far, I can adapt to my surroundings and create according. The small wooden box could also be removed and added to another bicycle in another city or indeed country, making The Tiny Department Store portable, perfect for our current nomadic lifestyle. My long term goal is to take my tiny concept store on tour, popping up in different cities and collaborating with existing bricks and mortar stores.

I am currently working on my first monthly offering, and if you read last week’s post you will know that I have just finished making a small collection of wreaths for the Homewares Department. I am now in the process of making a series of tiny beaded bracelets for the Accessories Department before moving on to the Children’s Department and Stationery Department in the coming weeks.

I hope this update has given you a little more insight into my journey as I take small daily steps to making my dream creative business a reality.

As always I would love to hear your comments or answer any questions.

Until next week x