Founder and CEO of REHAUS, the circular designer furniture platform.
He writes on iconic 20th-century design, circular ownership, and the economics of designer furniture. Twenty years building marketplaces. Four years sourcing and authenticating original pieces at REHAUS.
Tom writes on iconic 20th-century furniture design, circular ownership, and the authentication of original designer pieces. The basis is four years running REHAUS: sourcing, authenticating and restoring originals from Ligne Roset, B&B Italia, Cassina, Vitra and Knoll, and overseeing the team that vets every piece before it ships. Every claim on the site is informed by real inventory, real provenance, and real customer outcomes.
REHAUS is the circular designer furniture platform. Tom co-founded it in 2021 with interiors specialist Daphne Vassiliades and ecommerce veteran Will Cochrane. The platform soft-launched in August 2021 and has since grown into the UK's most-trusted destination for pre-owned designer furniture, rated 4.6 / 5 on Trustpilot across more than 7,000 customers and featured in House & Garden, Elle Decoration, Monocle, the Financial Times and The Independent. Every piece comes with the Forever Guarantee: live with it for 30 days and return it, or keep it for years and trade it back for what you paid.
Before REHAUS, Tom spent two decades building marketplaces in industries that needed reinventing. He founded eCourier, an early technology-led same-day courier network later acquired by Royal Mail. He then founded Shutl in 2008, the delivery platform that connected retailers to a national network of couriers. Shutl was acquired by eBay in 2013 and went on to power eBay's delivery platform. He is also founder of Residently, a vertical operating system for institutional residential landlords and their property managers.
His writing on rehaus.co focuses on the pieces that define modern living. What makes them iconic, why they hold their value, and how circular ownership is changing the way design-conscious buyers think about furniture. The aim is not to lecture. It is to reveal what most people don't know exists, and to do it with the calm confidence of someone who has spent years inside this world.
Don't underestimate someone's willingness to engage so long as you make the effort to connect.Tom Allason. Authority Magazine, May 2021
From the Togo to the LC4 to the Egg. Why specific pieces became cultural artefacts, who designed them, when, and how to recognise an original. Tom has spent four years sourcing, authenticating and restoring these pieces full-time.
The mechanics of the Forever Guarantee. How a piece of furniture becomes a liquid asset rather than a sunk cost, why the secondary market behaves the way it does, and what circular ownership means for design-conscious buyers.
What the REHAUS authentication process actually checks for. Manufacturer markings, materials, construction, provenance trails. And why so much of what is sold as "designer-inspired" online is not what buyers think it is.
The numbers behind ownership: lead times, depreciation curves, the gap between new retail and the secondary market, and why pre-owned designer behaves more like the luxury car market than the second-hand sofa market.
Co-founded the circular designer furniture platform with Daphne Vassiliades and Will Cochrane. Authenticated, restored, original design icons, delivered in days. Featured in House & Garden, Monocle, FT, Elle Decoration, and The Independent.
A vertical operating system for institutional residential landlords and their property managers. Backed by institutional investors. Read TechCrunch on the £7m Series A.
Built the delivery marketplace connecting retailers to a national courier network. Acquired by eBay in October 2013 and went on to power eBay's delivery platform.
One of the UK's first technology-led same-day courier networks. Acquired by Royal Mail.
REHAUS and Tom's earlier ventures have been featured in design, business and trade press in the UK and abroad. Selected below.
Michel Ducaroy designed the Togo for Ligne Roset in 1973. Half a century on, it remains in production and continues to appreciate on the secondary market. Here is why.
ReadHow REHAUS turns a furniture purchase into a liquid asset. What trade-back actually means, how the maths works, and why this is closer to the luxury car market than to traditional resale.
ReadThe pieces that inspired the showroom you've been browsing. What they cost new, what they cost through REHAUS, and why owning the original is a smarter trade than owning the copy.
ReadThe only places Tom is active online. If a message claiming to be from Tom doesn't come from one of these channels, it isn't from him.
Tom Allason is the founder and CEO of REHAUS, the circular designer furniture platform. He is a marketplace entrepreneur with 20 years of experience. He previously founded eCourier (acquired by Royal Mail) and Shutl (acquired by eBay in 2013), and is also founder of Residently, a vertical operating system for institutional residential landlords and their property managers.
Tom writes on iconic 20th-century furniture design, the economics of designer furniture ownership, circular commerce, and the authentication of original designer pieces. His writing is grounded in four years of running REHAUS: sourcing, authenticating and restoring pieces from Ligne Roset, B&B Italia, Cassina, Vitra, Knoll, Fritz Hansen, Roche Bobois and Poltrona Frau.
Since 2021, Tom has co-led REHAUS, the UK's most-trusted destination for authenticated pre-owned designer furniture, rated 4.6/5 on Trustpilot across 7,000+ customers. He works directly with the authentication, restoration and sourcing teams. His perspective is operator-led, not journalistic. Every claim on the site is informed by real inventory, real provenance, and real customer outcomes.
No. The REHAUS journal is written by Tom and a small editorial team. Articles authored by Tom appear under his byline and link to this page. All editorial content is reviewed for factual accuracy by the REHAUS authentication and sourcing teams before publication.
Yes. Tom and REHAUS have been featured in House & Garden, Monocle, the Financial Times, Elle Decoration, and The Independent. His earlier ventures, Shutl and Residently, were covered in TechCrunch, Retail Week, Authority Magazine and InternetRetailing. A selected list is in the Press section above.
REHAUS is the Design Exchange. We curate, authenticate and restore the world's most sought-after furniture. Then deliver it in days, not months. Live with it for 30 days. Trade it back whenever. Never lose value.
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