A few months ago we began hearing about an interesting concept taking shape in southern Orange County. The second floor of a long-closed Macys department store in Laguna Hills was being transformed into a multi-shop marketplace. Using classic fixtures like heavy glass shelves and keeping its 1970s core essentially intact, owner Ian Winterbotham took on the daunting task of luring some of the area’s best artists and artisans to rent a space there.

We were looking for our new gallery space at the same time and were lucky to hear about the space before many others did. A few weeks after giving She Shed Living a lease on about 400 square feet of retail and office space, Open Market OC had run out of spaces and started a waitlist.

Grand Opening October 2019

This weekend marks the official opening of Open Market OC. All of the 200+ vendors have been preparing for weeks, painting, cleaning, building display fixtures, merchandising and getting to know their neighboring artists. Here at She Shed Living, we faced the not-insignificant task of taking our beloved show shed off its trailer and installing it right in our booth.

At 8 ft. x 10 ft., the shed takes up a good deal of space, but we want visitors to be able to experience life in a gorgeous shed first hand.

Decorative painter Shari Tiptich has added amazing color and depth to our area with a dazzling autumnal scene on one of the walls. She also created fanciful embellishment on the fine hardwood floor we put down for the shed.

This weekend is a big deal. Besides an impressive array of handmade and unique merchandise, the marketplace will have live music, food and drink, and multiple giveaways. We hear that several local news outlets will be sending film crews. It’s hard to say exactly how many visitors to expect, but since about 3,000 came through on the day of the soft launch, then we’ll no doubt have a merry crowd!