Joseph Garistina, founder of Garistina Upholstery LLC, is no stranger to handling custom upholstery orders. One of his favorite stories is the time a panicked customer asked him to "fix" a new sofa that was too bulky to fit through doorway.

"The customer could not return the sofa so we had to figure out a way to help her," according to Joseph.

His solution? Redesign the sofa so that it could be moved in two pieces and fit back together into one. "Carefully, we took off the fabric and stuffing, cut the sofa into two pieces and designed a way to lock the two pieces together so that the sofa retained its original "one-piece look".

When we delivered the sofa, the customer was ecstatic," he says. "We made a customer for life."

Those lifetime customers often refer their children. "It's not unusual for parents to recommend us to their children, or even their grandchildren,"says Tony Garistina, Joseph's youngest son, and business partner.

We once had a local radio personality who was interested in having us reupholster his grandmother's couch. The label on the couch indicated we'd done the work 30 years before, when we were located in Camden,"explains Tony. "He asked his listeners if anyone knew where we had relocated, and one of his listeners called his show to tell him we were in Mount Laurel.

"We wound up doing the couch, additional upholstery and his draperies, as well as work for the people who heard about us on the air," he says.

Joseph founded the business in 1965. He moved the business from its original location in Camden, NJ, to Mt. Laurel, NJ, in 1974, and has overseen its growth since then. The business has a showroom which features an extensive collection of samples representing most major textile companies. "Our customers are amazed at the selection," explains Tony. "They tell us we have the best fabric collection in the area."

The Garistina family invites customers to call or stop by Monday through Friday, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Saturday hours are 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, except for Saturdays in July and August when the store is closed.