New SLO County home and garden store sells kitchen goods too: ‘A special space for all of us’
A new Cambria home and garden store seeks to fill the retail gap left when a 2020 fire destroyed the popular A Matter of Taste kitchen shop.
Jacqueline (Hogan) Norgan grew up in Cambria, and returned to San Luis Obispo County earlier this summer to launch her dream enterprise in the town she loves.
Terracotta Home and Garden celebrated its grand opening at 4070 Burton Drive on Sept. 2. It’s located in the former space of Moonstones Gallery, which closed in 2017 after 35 years in business.
Now the large, L-shaped space is tastefully filled with vases, pillows, sculptures, baskets, plants, kitchen utensils, pottery and more. The new store carries everything from tongs and towels to table lamps and truffle oil.
Terracotta owner Jacqueline (Hogan) Norgan grew up in Cambria. She returned to San Luis Obispo County earlier this summer to launch her dream enterprise in the town she loves.
The store’s name reflects her love of terracotta — both the fired clay that get its name from the Italian for “cooked earth” and also the “gorgeous, burnt-orange color,” she wrote via email. “Terracotta has been around for centuries, used in many forms such as art, craft, construction and architecture.”
“I love that it is a sustainable substance, which is big for me!” Norgan added.
New Cambria store specializes in home, garden and kitchen items
Born in Orange County, Norgan moved to Cambria with her family in 1979, attending school there through middle school.
Then her family moved to Visalia, where Norgan attended college before moving back to Orange County.
Norgan stayed in Southern California for 34 years “to raise my two daughters and build a family business,” she said, specifically an accounting firm specializing in tax services.
She was the firm’s administrator and trained their accounting interns. She also had a medical device sales distributorship in Phoenix for four years.
But her passions were elsewhere. “I’m an avid gardener, landscaper and part-time decorator,” Norgan said.
Norgan originally planned to open a store focusing solely on home and garden goods, she said, but the scope of the shop “changed when I overheard numerous people talking about how much they missed having Matter of Taste to shop in … including me.”
At Norgan’s request, her mom, Sandi Sellew of Cambria, contacted A Matter of Taste owner Gayle Jenkins.
Norgan said that Jenkins “confirmed that she would not reopen, but she would be there to help me get the kitchen stop started … a good sign, and I couldn’t pass it up!”
Norgan had already started compiling a vendor at an “overwhelming” gift show in Las Vegas.
Jenkins and her husband Mark Morris were “so helpful by providing their favorite vendors and products,” Norgan said, so that list expanded considerably.
Norgan signed the lease for Terracotta in July and began renovating the large space — cleaning, painting and installing shelving units, then ordering and finding places for a whole lot of stock.
Community members expressed delight that the space has been been filled by a new business.
“I’m so glad it’s not empty anymore!” Lorienne Schwenk, executive director of the Cambria Chamber of Commerce, said after the Sept. 2 ribbon cutting ceremony.
What does Terracotta Home and Garden sell?
Terracotta is described on the Cambria Chamber of Commerce website as “the ultimate home, garden and kitchen store (specializing) in decorative accent pieces, small plants and kitchen essentials.”
“The benefits of (having) healthy living plants are always a must when redecorating,” Norgan said. “There are so many options when choosing plants.”
As Norgan searches for ideal items for the shop, she said, “I’m looking for beautiful items to help accent an area that might need a little refreshing. I’m a big believer in saving family heirlooms while reincorporating them into your space.”
The shop owner said she is constantly on the lookout for “new or improved gadgets for cooking and entertaining, in addition to specialty foods, sauces and spices.”
That’s “an exciting benefit to having a larger space,” she said.
“I’m really looking forward to expanding and creating a special space for all of us,” Norgan said. “Opening this new shop is so much more for me (than just a business or a job). It’s independence, freedom to create and the ability to take risks. These are all things that weren’t possible in my past life.”
“I would like to have an online shop available for selected specialty items from my shop,” she said.
That would benefit Norgan’s friends in Southern California, who had hoped she’d open Terracotta there instead of San Luis Obispo County.
“I needed to move back to a place that I love,” she said.
She’s currently living with Sellew, who is retired now after 40-plus years in banking, but hopes to find a place of her own to rent soon.
Norgan is still working on the store’s website, .terracottahomeandgarden.com. “I hope to have it completed in a few weeks,” she said
Terracotta Home and Garden iis currently 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.
For more information, follow Terracotta Home and Garden on Instagram at @terracotta_homeandgarden.
