Last Updated on April 30, 2023 by Timothy Byron Smith
Holly Keyser, a former police officer from the UK, bought an old school bus for $800 and converted it into a coffee shop in Iceland.
She spent two years and $36,000 to renovate the bus to transform it into Skool Beans Cafe. Keyser moved to Iceland in 2017 to become a glacier guide, but she missed the coffee-shop culture she enjoyed in Australia. She decided to buy a school bus that had been sitting in a field for two years.
The bus’s previous owner told her that it was once used by an American airbase near Reykjavik and later by a river rafting company to shuttle passengers.
After buying the bus, Keyser left it parked in her driveway for two years while she renovated it. She began by cleaning the mud off the bus and ripping out the old seats.
She then used sandpaper to file off the rust before coating the interior walls with three layers of white paint. She sourced second-hand wood from junkyards and donations to build the counters, which her father, an engineer, helped build. The shop has a wood-burning fireplace, a library, and seats and tables.
Keyser wanted to open a coffee shop that had a unique feel and chose a school bus because she thought it would involve fewer obstacles than a brick-and-mortar shop. She wanted to keep the school bus exterior but fully redesigned the interior to resemble a cozy coffee shop. Keyser knew she wanted to fit chairs, tables, a serving counter, and a wood-burning fireplace in the eight-foot-wide space.
She and her father built shelves, a long wooden counter, and three tables where customers could sit and enjoy their coffee. They also built a serving counter out of scraps of wood taken from a local junkyard. The counter was decorated with rulers down its front and was placed in the back so customers could use the bus’s original entrance to enter the shop. They added a folding section to one side so that staff could walk in and out.
The Skool Beans Cafe is open since 2020, and customers can enjoy a cozy atmosphere in the converted school bus.
The bus has a wood-burning fireplace, which provides warmth and comfort during the cold Icelandic winters. The cafe also has a library, which provides customers with a place to read and relax while enjoying their coffee.
Customers can sit at one of the three tables while enjoying their coffee and the view of the beautiful Icelandic landscape.
In conclusion, Holly Keyser’s Skool Beans Cafe is an excellent example of entrepreneurship and creativity. She transformed an old, broken-down school bus into a cozy coffee shop, providing a unique and memorable experience for her customers.
Her cafe offers a glimpse of the creativity and resourcefulness required to start a business and demonstrates how with hard work and dedication, anyone can turn their dreams into a reality.
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A blogger and coffee Nomad, who loves to explore new coffee recipes and enjoy content writing. I like to share my experience and what I have learned through my blogs, social media, and forums.