For some couples, moving in together means an adjustment. For Nikki Douglas and David Barnette, it created a business opportunity.
“We realized we had two storage units, a house and an attic full of stuff,” Douglas says. “We said, we’ve got to do something with it.”
That something was Hi-Octane Vintage, a new store at 2160 Young Avenue that features what Douglas calls “cool, collectible junk.” Along with vintage clothes, home furnishings, rock and roll memorabilia, and a leopard-print couch that Steve Earle once sat on, Hi-Octane also sells vintage guitars.
The vintage store was actually a dream — “one of many,” Douglas says. Barnette, a bass player with The Dusters, has worked on guitars for 25 years. But the couple bonds over collecting.
“We both like to collect stuff,” Douglas says. “Not like hoarding, though. We just think it’s fun to go yard-saling. With the band, [Barnette]’s always traveling the country. He might be in Utah and he’ll stop into a junk store and pick something up.”
Not that everything in the store is something from the couple’s personal collection. Once they decided to open the shop, they needed product.
Clothing-wise, everything was my size. This opened up a whole new world,” Douglas says. Items date from the 1940s to the 1980s and most were made in America.
Every piece I sell has some special history,” she says. “But not so much that I can’t bear to let it go.”
Hi-Octane Vintage opened April 16th, but will have its grand opening May 31st.
–Mary Cashiola
