Hancock & Moore · Taylorsville, North Carolina

Built by hand since 1981

The maker

A factory that never switched to shortcuts

Hancock & Moore has been building upholstered furniture in the foothills of North Carolina since 1981. Two factories, more than four hundred people, fifty weeks a year. Nothing is built to stock a warehouse — each piece is made to the order it was written for, in the leather, finish and trim that order specifies.

What makes the difference is not one feature but the refusal to drop any of them. Coils are still tied by hand in eight directions. Wood is still sanded seven times before it is stained. Finishes still run to twenty-one steps. Every one of those choices costs time, and Hancock & Moore has kept paying for them while most of the industry stopped.

Each piece carries a hangtag, and as every stage is finished the artisan responsible signs it. The furniture arrives at your house with their names on it.

Shop Hancock & Moore See the catalog

1981: Building in Taylorsville, North Carolina, ever since
80: Hours of hand work in a single piece, at the top end
17: Craftspeople who may touch one order before it ships
300: Leathers in the gallery — top-grain, embossed, exotic
50: Wood finishes, from near-glass sheen to time-worn antique
21: Steps in the finishing process, at its longest

How a piece is built

Eight stages, eight signatures

This is the order the work happens in, and the people who sign off at each stage. The eight named below have a hundred and eighty-five years at Hancock & Moore between them.

A Hancock & Moore wood specialist assembling a maple chair frame at the bench

David Barnes Wood Specialist · 22 years

Stage 01

The frame

Everything rests on this. Frames are cut from clear maple or layered Baltic birch and joined so the piece stays square for a lifetime rather than a warranty period.

Clear maple frame or layered Baltic birch
Steel corner brackets at every load-bearing joint
Legs are either extensions of the frame itself or double-doweled into it — never screwed on

A Hancock & Moore artisan hand-sanding the exposed wood of a chair frame

Laura White Sanding Buff · 27 years

Stage 02

Sanding

Sanding here is about character, not just smoothness. The wood is worked by hand more than seven times before any stain touches it, until the surface is close to silk.

Only clear maple and walnut are used for exposed wood
Hand-sanded seven-plus times, including surfaces nobody will ever see
Planing, routing and carving are done by hand to a pattern — the small variations are the point

A Hancock & Moore craftsman hand-tying seat coils with heavy cord

Michael Day Spring Up Authority · 36 years

Stage 03

Eight-way hand-tied springs

The detail people come looking for. Every seat coil is tied by hand with heavy cord, knotted in at least eight directions and anchored to the frame. It is slow, it cannot be automated, and it is why the seat still feels right decades later. Hancock & Moore is one of very few manufacturers who never stopped doing it.

Each coil knotted in eight or more directions and tied down to the frame
A technique carried over from antique chair-making, in continuous use here since 1981
Firm support that does not go soft in the middle of the seat

A Hancock & Moore cushion maker fitting a high-density foam core into a sewn jacket

Mike Gull Cushion Ace · 37 years

Stage 04

Cushions

The standard cushion is high-density 2.5 lb foam — harder to work with than the polyurethane most manufacturers use, and far slower to break down. You can also specify a spring-down core if you want a softer sit that still holds its shape.

Qualux (standard) — high-density urethane core wrapped in polyester fiber, in a sewn jacket
Spring Down — a Marshall unit of individually pocketed coils, wrapped in down and fiber
The sewn jacket is what gives the cushion its tailored edge instead of a pillowy slump

Top-grain leather hides in Hancock & Moore's leather gallery showing natural markings and varied texture

Robby MacRae Leather Connoisseur · 4 years

Stage 05

Leather selection

More than three hundred leathers, sourced from tanneries worldwide — top-grain hides, embossed and metallic finishes, exotic skins. They are chosen to look natural rather than corrected, which means you will see the animal's history in them.

Healed barbed-wire scratches and ranch brands are left visible — they are proof the hide is real, not engineered
No two hides take dye identically, so no two pieces are exactly alike
Burnished leathers are hand-waxed and oiled to an almost antique patina that deepens with use

Leather glossary

A Hancock & Moore sewer running decorative top-stitching on a heavy-duty upholstery machine

Sabrina Tilley Accomplished Sewer · 32 years

Stage 06

Sewing

Sewers apprentice for a long time before they are trusted with a whole chair or sofa. Stitch choice is not cosmetic — it changes how emphatic the lines of the piece read across a room.

Standard and designer stitching patterns, from nearly invisible to deliberately prominent
Decorative top-stitching worked on heavy-duty upholstery machines
Seams are planned to the specific pattern of the hide being used

A Hancock & Moore finishing artist applying stain to exposed wood

Lisa Steele Finishing Artist · 19 years

Stage 07

Finishing

Over fifty finishes across the Standard and Premium collections, from a sheen close to glass to something that looks like it has been in the family for eighty years. The longest of them run to twenty-one separate steps.

Standard — Ebony, Espresso, Chestnut, Walnut, Nordic White, Smoke, Pebble and more
Premium — Antique Bronze, Antique Silver, Belgian Chocolate, Driftwood, Ebony High Sheen
The same finish reads differently on maple than on walnut — worth seeing in the room it is going to

Matthew Holland Upholstery Technician · 8 years

Stage 08

Upholstery

Where the frame meets the covering. Every piece is measured, padded and stitched to its own frame the way a suit is cut to one person — which is the reason two chairs of the same model in different hides are not interchangeable.

Fitted to the individual frame, not to a pattern average
Tufting, nail trim and lacing are applied at this stage by their own specialists
A final inspector signs the hangtag before the piece leaves the building

Made to your order

The part most furniture doesn't let you decide

A Hancock & Moore order is specified, not picked off a shelf. Frame, depth, arm, back, leather, finish and every piece of trim is a separate decision. These are the embellishments available — several of them are done by hand by one person who does only that.

Tufting

Each pleat gauged by hand so the tufts stay proportioned across the whole panel — a method unchanged since 1981.

Blind · Biscuit · Diamond

Nail head trim

Applied one at a time along the line of the frame, in a range of sizes, finishes and textures.

Hancock · Moore · Old Gold · Antique Bronze · Gunsmoke · Nickel · Black Pearl · Truscan

Hand lacing

Slits measured and cut into the cover, then leather lace woven through by hand.

Explorer · Jennifer · Virtual · Williams

Quilting

Originally a fabric technique, worked here on leather. The extra fill makes for a notably deep seat.

Diamond · Double Diamond · Vertical Channel · Horizontal Channel

Burnishing

Hand sanding, then layers of wax, dye and oil worked into the crevices and folds to pull out the highs and lows. No two results match.

Patina deepens with use

Branding

Authentic irons from a blacksmith's shop in southwest Texas, heated over open flame and applied to the hide, then sealed.

Customer's own brand available

Hand painting

The hide is buffed and the design painted on by an artist, then treated. Custom designs are quoted individually.

Ross Peak · Old Glory · Ancient Thunder · Derby

Gimp

Decorative trim along the welt line, folded and sewn — worked in the finish side of the leather, the flesh side, or fabric.

Three material faces

Bullion fringe

Traditionally made from cord; Hancock & Moore cuts it from leather instead, for a frayed edge you will not find elsewhere.

Leather-cut

Build your own Wood finishes Nail head trims

Ordering through Retreat

A custom order is worth placing with someone who has done it before

Three hundred leathers and fifty finishes is a wonderful problem to have and a genuinely hard one to solve from a screen. We have been specifying Hancock & Moore orders for twenty years — which arm suits which frame, how a burnished hide will settle, which finish reads warm in a room that faces north.

Tell us the piece and the room, and we will work the specification through with you before anything is committed to the factory.

Shop Hancock & Moore Talk through an order

American made
Built in Taylorsville, North Carolina — one of the brands in our range that makes that claim without qualification.
Order with a deposit
Custom orders are placed with a 50% deposit, and Shop Pay Installments is available at checkout.
Handled in person, not guessed at
Many Hancock & Moore styles are on our showroom floor, alongside the full leather library and a selected assortment of fabric samples — so the hide is a decision you make with the material in your hand.
Delivered nationwide
We ship anywhere in the country. Delivery options and current rates are on our Shipping & Delivery page.

The full Hancock & Moore catalog

Every frame in the line, with model numbers and full dimensions — overall height, width and depth, inside width and depth, seat height and arm height. Occasional and wing chairs, executive seating, bar stools, benches and ottomans, sofas, reclining seating, sleepers, and the Your Way custom program.

PDF · 408 pages · 14.5 MB

Download the catalog

Common questions

Before you order

Where is Hancock & Moore furniture made?

In Taylorsville, North Carolina, at two factories, by a workforce of more than four hundred people. The company has built there since 1981.

What does "eight-way hand-tied" actually mean?

Each spring coil in the seat is tied by hand with heavy cord, knotted in at least eight directions and anchored down to the frame. It is a slow technique that cannot be done by machine, and it stops the seat from sagging unevenly over years of use. Very few manufacturers still do it.

How long does a custom order take?

Because every piece is built to the order rather than pulled from stock, lead times vary by model and by the options specified. The current estimate for any given piece is shown on its product page.

Can I see the leather before I order?

Yes. We hold a sample of every Hancock & Moore leather in the store, plus a selected assortment of fabrics — not the full fabric line. Come in and handle them, or call and we will talk you through the options.

Why do the hides have marks in them?

Because they have not been sanded and pigmented flat. Healed barbed-wire scratches and ranch brands are characteristic of genuine top-grain leather that has been left in its natural state. They are a sign of the grade of hide, not a defect, and no two pieces will carry the same ones.

Do you deliver outside Wisconsin?

Yes — Hancock & Moore ships nationwide. Delivery options and current rates are listed on our Shipping & Delivery page.