This Is Not Ikea

You know the saying, "Get rich in a niche"? Well, they may not be rich yet, but a couple of Los Angelenos are on their way in the reuse, repurpose, resale niche.

Meet Alexis Hadjopulos and Tom Whitman. Dumpster divers, yard sale aficionados. Entrepreneurs. 

Recently, The Los Angeles Times wrote an article about their resale business, TINI (aka This Is Not Ikea) located in the Miracle Mile area of LA. The article created so much traffic to their site, none of the photos would load so I've been waiting for all to be fixed before sharing the info with you. (You're welcome.)

Back to Alexis and Tom, who scour more than 100 estate sales, auctions, garage sales, flea markets and online outlets each week to find unique items. They "spend their weekends scavenging yard and estate sales for the likes of yellow vinyl chairs, retro Coca-Cola coolers, Danish credenzas and fire-orange lamps."

"We don't buy your grandmother's antiques," Whitman says, "unless your grandma was really cool."

So they've created a new business reselling reused, repurposed items thus avoiding landfills and adding lots of character to new found homes. I love it!

Like I always say, style is not about the amount you spend, it's the way you put it all together.

Check out their site and read the LA Times article. Then ask yourself, what's in your cool grandma's attic?