Too Hip to be Square

I'm not sure how I stumbled across thisisnotikea.com, but I did and found it to be wonderful. The site, which sells retro and vintage furniture, is the brainchild of Angelenos, Alexis Hadjopulos and Tom Whitman. The two men roam around Los Angeles looking for unique pieces of retro and vintage furniture, buy them, and then resell the stuff on their site. Every piece of furniture is categorized and linked by type, color, and room. It's a simple, yet effective organization process that allows for easy perusal of hundreds of items. Hadjopulos and Whitman are constantly on the prowl for new items and update their site regularly.

The site seems to be attracting a lot of attention. Enough attention, in fact, that it is the subject of an article on the L.A. Times website. While this is great for the site, it's bad for me because I felt as if I had stumbled upon something special. Now, everyone and their vintage loving cousin will be looking at the site. I've never actually purchased anything from the TINI.com, but it felt like a secret find. It's like discovering a cool local restaurant just before everyone else does; before the foods becomes tasteless and the service turns slow. The good news, I guess, is that the Modernist aesthetic is being spread throughout the Southland and rare pieces are presumably going to deserving and saavy buyers. There's that, at least. Also, no one reads the paper anymore, so maybe the site will remain my little secret. I probably shouldn't have blogged about it, though. Oh well.