Business Spotlight on Renaissance Upholstery

Kathleen and Raul Cardenas

When Raul Cardenas was a 15 year-old kid in Santa Barbara, he began working part time in a furniture factory where his father and uncle both worked. Although he started in the framing department, his interest soon turned to the upholstery side of the furniture business. “I’d wander around the plant and watch in amazement as the upholsterers worked their magic with fabric,” he recalls with a beaming smile on his face.

“I never really had a mentor or teacher and basically taught myself by watching and paying attention…really close attention.”  A few years later, Raul began working in a family-owned upholstery shop where he worked to hone his furniture skills but also learned to upholster boats and cars. “By 1983, I knew it was time to go it alone and so I opened my own firm in Santa Barbara, working out of a small, rented warehouse.”

In 1998, with a growing reputation for excellent design and craftsmanship and a large client base to boot, Raul moved his business to a small historic building in the heart of Santa Barbara with high visibility.

“It was at that time that Kathleen came into my life. She was an Interior Designer working for a design firm for whom I was the main upholsterer. It wasn’t long before we were a couple and Kathleen joined the business.”  They married in 2001 and have five children between them.

Renaissance Upholstery

Kathleen recalls, “Within a year, the business more than tripled and it continued this way for the next 10 years.”

 Although business was booming, Raul and Kathleen became disenchanted with Santa Barbara and longed to relocate somewhere less congested with a slower pace. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)

Raul reflects, “In 2009, after moving our daughter, Amanda, to the University of Oregon in Eugene, we were driving back to Santa Barbara and stumbled across Jacksonville. It was at that time we spotted the white house for rent at the corner of 5th and California Streets. After breakfast at the Jacksonville Inn, we took a walk around and instantly fell in love with the town. We really had no plans to move for another year or so, but took down the phone number on the rental sign, anyway.”

Back in Santa Barbara, Kathleen recalls speaking with the property owners, Marilyn & Don Wilson, who encouraged her to take a “Leap of Faith.”  Shortly thereafter, on August 1, 2009, Renaissance Upholstery opened for business in Jacksonville!

Raul reflected, “We have been embraced by a community of wonderful people who sincerely appreciate our work… we’ve never regretted our move for a moment and are now true Oregonians and Jacksonville is HOME.” To reach the Raul and Kathleen at Renaissance Upholstery, call 541-899-9178.