Glad to help. Matching hides. The way this works is they might have 500 hides of Document Harness in a new shipment, and there might be three to eight shade variances within that particular batch. When an order comes in from a dealer (who should mark it "MATCH HIDES ON ALL" on his purchase order), then order entry notes that as such. For the Austin sofa, they may need close to ten to twelve hides, four or five for the chair and two for the ottoman. So if they're pulling sixteen to eighteen hides for your project, they have to go through the stack and get the sixteen/eighteen that match closely, within a shade or two of one another. Those hides are then bundled with your specific order and carted over to the pattern cutters, who will mark and cut the panels, and tag them with your order number The hide selector at H&M pays particular attention to dye lot variances and its important to get them all in one batch. Once he selects them, they are all rolled together and banded to keep them together as a group. At this point, if you have a mixed order of motion and stationary furniture, it may go to different plants. The main plant is stationary furniture and the motion plant is about five miles down the road. This is why you *might* see a difference in a few days ship from one another, but 99% of the time an order written by a dealer ships complete if all done in the same leather, on the same purchase order for the same customer. I declined an order last week for a customer (silly me!) who wanted to order a Miller Recliner immediately, and then an Austin Sofa and a Austin Chair/Ottoman, but wanted to wait a month for the latter pieces. I told him quite honestly that they're not going to match and not to do it. I told him to get them all in one shot whether its from me or another dealer. I've seen too many 'match hide' issues over the years to do it any other way. H&M makes its own frames so there is no backorder issue there, and I can't see how that dealer can claim with utmost certainty that all the hides will match when there is 60-day gap from the chair/ottoman shipping and the sofa. The H&M production system is not designed to operate that way. Document is a tri-tone hide that does have some variance from batch to batch. If its not too bad, don't worry about it, as no telling how long you would have to wait to re-order. Place the furniture in the room and look at the hide match there, rather then side by side in direct sunlight in the driveway. Your home interior will not be as critical in lighting as out in the driveway. I'd guess you have a 50/50 or better chance with Document Harness for a satisfactory match on two pieces made at a different time. Seven months is just wrong. The Austin series is one of the top sellers at H&M, and I've never had to wait past 10 weeks for a complete Austin set, even with an out-of-stock hide its never gone beyond 16 weeks. When I request Quick Ships in Austin, they are made in 6 weeks or less. I think the fact that the dealer refuses to give you the H&M Acknowledgment number is indicative of where the problem lies with your order. I would be more than happy to give out that information to any customer of mine along with the name of the person to call at H&M, but have never had to do that as I watch over all my H&M open orders like a mother hen over her chicks. Hope it all works out for you. Duane Collie

14 yards of fabric. Average reupholstery cost for that chair and ottoman (labor) about $ 500. Why does your leather need replacing on an 8-year-old piece? If you cleaned the hide periodically, it should last 20 years......

I'm a Hancock and Moore dealer. Leather thickness on a sample has nothing to do with the hide thickness on the leather used on your piece made at H&M, don't go by thickness. Every leather in the line has some protection on it, even the 'unprotected' leathers. Choose the hide you want based on your lifestyle. If you want to eat meals and be able to spill drinks on your sofa, then one of the more serviceable leathers is preferable to ones marked 'unprotected'. Most people buying a sofa in this price range know how to take care of things, I have very few issues with customers unhappy with their unprotected leather choices. One thing else to note is fading. Direct sunlight ruins more leathers than spills. Keep aniline leathers out of direct sun or they will lose color rapidly. A little know fast about H&M. They are the only ones that will repair ANY of their upholstery no matter how old, for only the cost of materials. They never charge labor on repairs. Should you happen to ruin the facing deck panel, for example (cat claws, cuts, spills, etc) that's a $ 90 piece of leather, however every other company will put a $ 300 labor charge on top of it. Customer has to pay shipping of course, or otherwise get the piece to them in North Carolina. Hancock and Moore is also discontinuing their "Married Cover" promotion on June 1st. Anyone looking at these promotional hides in specific frames should order soon.

The leather on the back cushions has been stretched. To me it looks like kids have been jumping or sitting on the back cushions or perhaps the family dog sitting on top of the back cushions or they ended up on floor and were used as pillows. This is perhaps an example of where a 40 lb kid, jumping on cushions can stretch and ruin the leather of a sofa. You could also try heating up the back cushion casings with a hot hair dryer holding it about 6" away and moving it around. This may help a little. You may have to bring these to an upholsterer and ask them to recut the back cushion casings. If they are down blend filled back cushions you might try unzipping the back cushions, grabbing the back cushion cores and shaking them up. In my opinion this is a stretched leather issue and not a collapsing cushion core problem. Otherwise the sofa looks quite good. If you just add fill to the backs it will just end up bunching up and moving around and you won't be happy. You could show this to a local upholsterer and see what they say. You might also send these pictures to Hancock and Moore and see what they say. Perhaps they would recut the casings. They may only do this for an original owner. I am not sure. You could also ask Hancock and Moore if they would sell you new cushion cores or even provide them for free. I think they will replace cores for an original owner for free (which I guess you are not). I would send them these pictures. Another possibility is to purchased new back cushion cores which are overfilled (from an online cushion company of which their are several--you can google this), which if properly made could fill up the loose casings. I suppose you could experiment by adding some fiberfill to the existing cushion casings to see how this would look.