How It's Made

Every piece of furniture that leaves the Black Barn workshop is made by hand, from the frame up, using the same techniques that have been used by British upholsterers for over two hundred years. There are no shortcuts, no foam, and no flat-pack frames. What you receive is a piece built to last a lifetime — and in most cases, several.

Roy Coles has been making furniture in this way since 1988. What follows is an explanation of how a Black Barn piece is made, and why it matters.

The Frame

Every frame is constructed from kiln-dried beech — a hard, close-grained timber that holds tacks and staples without splitting and does not move significantly with changes in humidity. The joints are mortise and tenon, glued and blocked at every corner. There are no screws, no dowels, and no metal brackets. A well-made beech frame, properly jointed, will outlast any of the materials placed over it.

Frames are built to the exact dimensions of the piece being made — there are no standard sizes pulled from a rack. Each commission begins with a frame specification drawn up for that piece alone.

Webbing

The base of the seat is formed by interlaced jute webbing, stretched tight across the frame and tacked on both faces. Jute webbing is strong, slightly elastic, and breathes — it does not retain moisture in the way that synthetic alternatives can. It is also repairable: a broken web can be replaced without dismantling the piece.

The webbing is stretched using a webbing stretcher to a consistent tension across the seat, then interlaced so that each strip supports and is supported by its neighbours. Done correctly, the webbed base has a slight spring to it before a single coil is placed.

Springs

On sprung pieces — sofas, armchairs, dining chairs, and most seats — the webbing supports a layer of double-cone coil springs. These are the same springs that have been used in British upholstery since the Victorian era, and for good reason: they compress evenly under load, return to their original height when the load is removed, and do not fatigue in the way that modern pocket-spring systems can.

The springs are sewn to the webbing at their base using a curved needle and laid cord, then lashed together at the top with a series of knots that tie each spring to its neighbours and to the frame rail. This lashing — done in two directions across the seat — is what gives a traditionally sprung seat its characteristic resistance and rebound. It takes time to do well and is one of the things that most distinguishes a traditionally made piece from a modern one.

Hessian & Stitching

Once the springs are lashed, a layer of heavy jute hessian is stretched over them and tacked to the frame. The hessian holds the springs in place at the top and provides the base for the filling.

On seats that require an edge — a firm, defined front edge to sit against — this is built up using a bridle-stitched roll of hessian and filling along the front of the seat. The roll is formed with a series of blind stitches that compress the filling inward to create a firm edge, then top-stitched to define its profile. This process — edge-stitching — is one of the most time-consuming parts of traditional upholstery and one of the most important. It is what gives the front of the seat its shape and prevents the filling from working forward over time.

Filling

The primary filling on all Black Barn pieces is curled animal hair — traditionally referred to in the trade as curled hair or simply hair. It is sourced from the mane and tail of horses and cattle, cleaned, sterilised, and curled into a loose, springy mass that compresses under load and recovers when the load is removed.

Curled hair has several properties that make it the correct filling for a traditionally made piece. It does not compress permanently over time — a hair-filled seat used daily for twenty years will have lost little of its original depth. It breathes, regulating temperature and moisture in a way that foam cannot. And it improves with use: the individual fibres mesh together slightly as the piece is sat in, creating a filling that moulds gently to its user without losing its resilience.

Over the hair, a layer of cotton felt or skin wadding is laid to smooth the profile and prevent the hair from working through the cover fabric over time. On backs and arms, a lighter application of hair and felt is used, laid in bridle ties to hold it in position before covering.

The Cover

The fabric is the last thing to go on and the first thing anyone sees, but by the time it is applied the piece is already complete in structure and comfort. The cover is cut from the full width of the fabric, pattern-matched where required, and pulled tight over the filling before being tacked or stapled to the rebate of the frame.

Cushion covers — on pieces with loose cushions — are made separately, cut to the exact profile of the cushion pad with seam allowances calculated for the weight of the cloth. Piping, where specified, is cut on the bias and inserted at every seam. Zips are concealed in the back seam as standard.

The quality of the cut and fit of the cover is the final test of a well-made piece. On a traditionally upholstered sofa, the fabric should be under even tension across every panel, with no puckering at corners and no visible strain at seams. Getting this right requires the same skill and patience as everything that came before it.

Why It Matters

A traditionally made piece costs more than a modern equivalent and takes longer to make. In return, it will outlast almost anything produced today. The frame will not rack, the seat will not sag, and the springs will not fatigue. When the cover eventually wears — as all fabric does — the piece can be reupholstered rather than replaced, retaining the frame and the filling and receiving a new cover for a fraction of the cost of a new piece.

This is not a selling point invented for marketing purposes. It is simply how furniture used to be made, and how we still make it.

Come and See

If you would like to visit the workshop in Wiltshire and see a piece being made, you are welcome to. We are based in Manningford Abbots, near Pewsey. Call us on 01672 600006 or email hello@blackbarnsofas.com to arrange a visit.