Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Fernelius.
Hi Joshua, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
In March 2018 I got a job at the long standing vintage store, Lounge Lizard as their in house painter. I spent the next nearly eight years doing everything from painting/refinishing furniture, designing lamp shades, turning out home decor canvas paintings, and staging walls, along with many other odd jobs I was, by happenstance sometimes, uniquely qualified to pull off. Then in May of 2025, my wife, Hayley and I got married. A little bit after that it started to look like my place of employment would be going through some changes that made my future there unclear. Between that and finally having a small amount of money from our wedding (and with lots of advice and help) my wife and I decided to dive into the deep end and open our own shop. We found a place in our neighborhood and collected the keys September 1st, 2025. A week into October we were already soft launched and officially grand opened October 21st with a big party. The Foster-Powell/Mt. Scott-Arletta communities have been really great to us and super supportive. Between the local community, the support of friends and family we’ve been able to get through the first year relatively unscathed and still standing.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Oh In some small ways it’s been as smooth as any road could be and then in some other major ways, it’s been a daily struggle. The amount of serendipity that surrounded our decision to go about doing this is mind boggling. Countless small things that just fit so snug and perfectly that if hadn’t could have created so many small, annoying headaches. I feel like, by some grace, we avoided nearly all those things. However, running a business is not cheap and we don’t come from money. Trial and error has ironed out a way ahead for us recently but momentum has been hard to build. Getting people to just know that we’re here is hard enough. We’re also not throwing our hands up confused about reality. We opened a vintage store in a vintage saturated city during a terrible economy. But as we keep saying. If we just keep doing the right things the right way, it has to work out.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Fern & Wolf?
We are a highly curated vintage furniture store and modern art gallery mashup. A boutique without boutique prices. We’re maximalist at heart. Our core aesthetic is the coolest grandma on the block. Our target customer is 25-40, new apartments-first homes on a budget. People who love small tchotchkes and floral couches. People who love animals and iridescent dish ware. My wife and I, have similar aesthetics but differ in some things but are both passionate about what we do like and want to bring it to others. For a vintage store, we’re also not that wedded to “vintage”. Or at least era specific. Some people walk in and immediately chalk us up to MCM and decide we aren’t for them. But we actually don’t wear too much of that on our sleeves. You’ll find a lot more 80s and 90s influence. But at the end of the day, its just about that we like and want to share. When we started this place I knew right away I wanted it to feature local artists. So we made our good friend, Bobby Willis our Art Curator and together we have packed the walls with dozens of local artists. Many showing/selling their art for the first time in our shop. We have a monthly artist in residence. We change all the furniture around at the end of the month and pull everything off the walls and put everything back with their art as the main focus. Our layout is modular with anywhere from 8 to 11 little set-ups that make up the space so for the artist and customer its a way to see the art in the same context they would see it in their own homes. We support well over a couple dozen artists and artisans. And we strive really hard for all of this to be affordable to the average customer walking through the door. We believe everyone should be able to start an art collection. That you should feel extra comfortable in your couch because you know it didn’t break your bank. Beauty and comfort are not exclusive to the well off.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
This whole venture is a major risk. There is no plan B. This is it or bust. As someone that was never handed anything in life and honestly didn’t care much for school, I realized early on that putting myself in the right spot through hard work and jumping at every opportunity that seemed too good to be true was the only way I was ever going to “make it”. Combine that with meeting my now wife and her family and learning that you can rely on some help when it’s offered, well that’s what’s gotten us this far. But everyday is a risk and im sure it will continue to be. You just have to make sure to only handle what you can when you can. Solving problems one step at a time is the only way to do it in my opinion.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sites.google.com/view/fernwolfpdx
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fernwolfpdx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581284563807
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@fernwolfpdx
