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The Upholstery Process
BEFORE
DURING
AFTER
TESY OF FENDON'S
PHOTOS COUR
Family 60 Years in Furniture
Fabric
When selecting a new fabric for your piece, keep in mind
that thicker fabrics, like leather, are more durable – but tougher
to work with. You can keep the cost of reupholstering down by
thinking about the time and labor it will take to craft your piece.
If you’re trying to save money, think twice about patterns, skirts,
PHOTO©DANA NICHOLS
buttons, and extra pleats. If you do go with a pattern, a good
Jerry, Shirley and Randy Fendon in the Fendon’s Furniture showroom.
upholsterer will make sure it matches up at the seams but may
use more fabric to do so. Keep in mind that small patterns make
If the Fendon family doesn’t have heirlooms, I don’t know who would.
Jerry and Shirley Rae Fendon have operated their Bishop furniture business
a piece appear smaller and large prints make a piece stand out.
for 60 years. “Reupholstery is how we started but it’s about ten percent of
our business now,” said their son Randy. Randy manages the retail side of
Woodwork
the store, Jerry keeps an eye on the wood and upholstery shop, and Shirley
Think about the age and craftsmanship of your piece. If
telephones customers to make sure they’re happy with their product. “We
it’s old, more refurbishing work may be needed, raising the
have a great long-term experienced staff whom we are very proud of and

Fendon’s truly is a long-standing family business,” Randy said.
price but doubling the piece’s life. Find out if the upholsterer
As Shirley tells it, in the 1920s the people of Bishop decided their town
will simply recover your piece or if they’ll take it apart down
needed a hotel. After it was built a nice couple from Ohio, the Wilkinsons,
to the bare frame, replace the padding and retie the strings migrated to run the hotel. They brought their daughter, Kittie Lee, whom
that hold old-fashioned wire springs in place. These are worth
they named the Inn for, and a buckeye tree sapling, which they planted
refurbishing because wood furniture made before the 1970s is
out front. William and Mazie Whorff purchased the property in 1928
often of far superior quality than any pieces made today
and opened the Copper Kettle restaurant next door in the spring of 1950.
, with
Their daughter Shirley fell in love with the traveling upholstery salesman
thick hardwood, doweled and glued frames, and those spring
from Ontario, Calif., Jerry Fendon, and by the mid-50s that salesman had
coils that provide the best seating foundation, period. traded in the keys to his old Dodge and was reconstructing mattresses and
reupholstering furniture out of one of the Kittie Lee’s front north-wing
More Tips
rooms.
Other ways to update furniture without shelling out for
“As a child, I can remember going to Mammoth and June Lake after
school at least weekly in our flatbed furniture truck with my little brother
brand new pieces is to paint or refinish the wood and add
and my parents as my dad did estimates,” said Randy, son of Shirley and
new hardware. Also keep an eye out for nice fabrics to make
Jerry. “We’d often get home at nine or ten at night with a full truck of
throw pillows (sometimes a discarded scrap in the back of a furniture to repair.”
fabric store is enough). Spray newly upholstered furniture with
Jerry started selling new mattresses in 1964 and has continued to
Scotchguard to protect the work, and remember to snap “before”
operate what Randy calls “a very unique combination.” With a salesroom

photos for the fun of it.
downstairs and an upholstery/woodworking shop above, “Our people know

a lot about furniture,” he says. “They’re back there taking it apart, looking
Dana grew up near Pasadena, California and has lived in
at the insides and guts of it all the time. The businesses balance each other
Mammoth since 2003. When not writing or outdoors, she can out.”
be found serving up foamy lattes at the Looney Bean.
July | August 2009 Mammoth Sierra Magazine 19
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