I moved to LA when I was twenty one, and my first and only stop to furnish my place was… you guessed it… IKEA. At the time, I thought it was so cheap and stylish! I didn’t care how long it would last, and assembling the furniture myself sounded like a fun little challenge. But every time I assembled something from IKEA, there were always those 4 little screws left over. I never figured out exactly where they were supposed to go. My bedroom was page 22 of the IKEA catalog. (minus 4 little screws)

Then, one day, I realized that many of my friend’s bedrooms also reminded me of page 22 of the IKEA catalog. And suddenly, my “stylish” room seemed a little generic. And unoriginal.

I started going to high end design stores (and quickly realized that they were a little out of my price range) and then consignment stores and estate sales and I started learning all these fascinating new words like "vintage" and "retro" and “mid-century modern.”

I realized that my grandma had better taste than I gave her credit for. That dinette set that she kept for 3 decades was now amazing to me, a beautiful piece of furniture that was as stylish now as it was then. She had chairs, tables, lamps she had kept since i was born, and now they were classics of design – and worth a fortune.

I began to replace my IKEA furniture with amazing vintage pieces of furniture. Eventually my place was furnished, but i kept finding cool stuff that I couldn’t pass up. Soon, all of my friend's places were also furnished.

When friends of friends began to ask about the pieces I bought, I knew that I had an opportunity in front of me. An opportunity to create an online store where I can showcase my latest finds. An opportunity to use my love of good design, vintage furniture, and unique home furnishings. An opportunity to create a business out of something that I love.

And ThisIsNotIKEA.com was born.

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What We Buy

Our goal is to provide cool, unique, and vintage furniture for people on an IKEA budget.
It is as simple as that. And we have been doing this now for five years!

Why do people buy our pieces?
Because for the same amount of money as a piece of disposable furniture from IKEA, you can own a beautiful unique piece of vintage furniture that will stand the test of time as well as the tests of design and style. When you buy something from us, not only will you love your unique piece of furniture, you won’t walk into a friend’s house and realize you have the same lamp or dresser that they have.

Where do we find our pieces?
We scour over 50 estate sales and auctions every single week to find the stuff that we buy. We also take select consigment pieces from people.

What kind of pieces do we buy?
Every piece we purchase speaks to us. As you go through our website, you will see a variety of styles, ranging from mid-century modern and retro styles to shabby chic and unique art pieces, but they all share a “this is not ikea” look. We look for pieces that are unique, interesting, classic, artistic – pieces with personality. We look for pieces that we would put in our own homes, or the house of a close friend.