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FURNITURE Rebelle Home moves into former Larson's building The business is opening a second location to go with Phoenix store Comment By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness MailTribune.com By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Jun. 28, 2016 at 5:08 PM Updated Jun 28, 2016 at 6:01 PM By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Jun. 28, 2016 at 5:08 PM Updated Jun 28, 2016 at 6:01 PM » Social News The former Larson's Home Furnishing Gallery, idled when the longtime Medford business shuttered in 2014, is once again filled with sofas and dining-room sets. With business growing, Rebelle Home, which has operated in the Shoppes at Exit 24 for two years, is opening a second location on the southeast corner of 10th and Fir streets. "Because it was a furniture store in the past, it has a lot of gallery and vignette walls set up so you can make everything look nice," said owner Rebecca Hicks. "We felt really cramped. We needed more room for more lines. We jumped at the opportunity." The three-level, 24,000-square-foot store on the south edge of downtown provides space for Hicks to expand into those new lines. Rebelle Home has prospered at its 10,000-square-foot Phoenix location despite opening at the start of the Fern Valley interchange construction that created headaches for many businesses. "We started in Suite L and knocked out the wall the following year, allowing us to expand 30 percent," Hicks said. "We've been developing the idea to add more brands and unique furniture, with no place to put it." Last winter, the search for a new location began, and in April a lease was signed. Investing $500 into the contents of a storage shed and picking up odds and ends at estate sales, Hicks and Michael Menefee launched Estate Marketplace, a used-furniture business on Beatty Street, in July 2011, spreading the remainder of the storage unit stuff on tables and advertising their weekend sales online. Three months later, they needed more space, and Estate Marketplace moved to a 3,000-square-foot store on North Riverside Avenue. Before long, they outgrew that venue, set up shop in Phoenix and changed the name — Rebelle formed from the combination of Hicks' first and middle name, Michelle — to reflect the transition to new furniture made in America. While established furniture stores were leaving the scene, Rebelle Home kept plugging away. "Once we started to get better quality USA-made, we saw a lot of places going to imported furniture and that sort of thing," Hicks said. Hicks said the overall market has picked up, boosted by newcomers to the area. "There's a pretty good split among people moving in, people replacing their furniture and people having homes built, who bring their plans in. That's nice, because we can get involved in the early stages." Buyers are more likely to put in custom orders than in the past, she said, giving them more options. As a result, showroom furniture is less likely to be packed off the floor. "Some of the stuff you can take right away," Hicks said. "It used to be that you would have a sofa and you could pick brown, white and red. Now we have fabric swatches with hundreds of different fabrics, and you order pretty much whatever you want." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness , on Facebook at www.facebook.com/greg.stiles .31. By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness MailTribune.com By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Jun. 28, 2016 at 5:08 PM Updated Jun 28, 2016 at 6:01 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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