Icelandic detailing garage

I am excited to share this charming garage from Reykjavik, Iceland. Brynjar Hartharson is a mechanic who works primarily on GM cars. He has created an impeccable detailing environment he uses to care for his cars and the cars of others. I have been a fan of his space since I first caught wind of it on his Instagram. It was instantly apparent that Brynjar and I have similar tastes in many regards. Like me, he is an avid hobbyist detailer, obsessively pampers his German car, and prides himself in maintaining a very neat and organized workspace. I am thankful he agreed to answer my questions about his garage story and I was extremely flattered he mentioned my garage as one of his design inspirations. I am confident you will be as impressed with his space as I am. So, off we go to Iceland!

The vitals

• Detached garage - in a row of 7 total
• Built in 1992
• Interior dimensions 11' x 24'
• Ceiling height 8' 5"
• The interior is designed with detailing in mind

The inspiration

I have always been passionate about cars, dreaming of one day buying my own house with a garage. After I stumbled upon The Garage Journal in 2011, I spent a lot of time looking at garage projects and getting inspiration for my own in the future, I had designed the basic layout and look in my mind long before I had a garage. 

The story

In 2015 when I was 27 years old, I was able to buy my first apartment that came with a small garage, both needed a lot of work and its been a great learning experience for me to fix up the apartment as well as the garage, hopefully creating more value to get a bigger place later, that is the plan anyway.

The first thing I did was to tear down the old and water damaged cabinets that where in the garage, then little by little over the next few years the garage took shape. After painting the garage I started measuring and sketching the cabinets I wanted and then went to my father's wood shop to build them myself, and yes I built the cabinets for my garage before redoing the kitchen cabinets... I have my priorities in order...

The garage door had no automatic opener, that got annoying fast, having to get out of the car every time to open or close the door, so one of the first things I bought was a Chamberlain ML1000EV garage door opener. Worth every penny.

At first I just painted my floor grey, but I knew early on that was not going to be good enough for my garage, I wanted what I had seen in other garage like Rick's RAD Garage and Dubber's single/double on The Garage Journal. I had to get RaceDeck tiles, it turned out to be really expensive to ship to Iceland but to me it was worth it and I don't regret now, a year later. 

The future

Today the garage is almost complete, I got what I designed in my mind and I really enjoy spending the weekends in my garage doing things like detailing my own cars and sometimes detailing cars for others, also finding and trying new waxes and coatings and seeing how well they last in the harsh Icelandic winter weather.

In 2019 I plan on upgrading the lighting to make paint correcting and detailing easier, my current setup is 6 old fluorescent lights that were in the garage when I bought it and two led spotlights I put up on either side of the garage to light up the sides of the car I'm working on.
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I would like to change the 6 fluorescent lights and set up 2 more spotlights at either end of the garage, I am still looking around for the best option for my garage. Upgrading my pressure washer setup is also on the to do list, whether I go full on Kranzle-Obsessed Garage style setup or not I don't know yet, but what I want is a wall mounted pressure washer with a hose reel to free up the floor space and not have the hose laying on the floor to trip over it when not in use.

Hopefully in the not too distant future I will have the opportunity to buy my self a larger apartment/house with a larger garage to play with, until then this one has been great fun to work on and I will continue to make changes and upgrading it.

Huge thanks to Brynjar for agreeing to share his garage story on my blog and I wish him all the best in the future as he continues to enhance his amazing garage. Be sure to follow him on his Instagram account. 

If you or someone you know is interested in having their garage story featured on my blog, click here to contact me. ​