photo by J. Sinclair

When Mac and Nancy Moore inherited period furniture from a family estate nearly 40 years ago, little did they know the power those pieces from the past would have on their lives. As appreciation for their new surroundings grew, Nancy redirected her husband’s hobby of repairing vintage cars into a shared passion for antiques and Americana - and together they were on their way.
Curious to learn more about these treasured finds, the couple enrolled in a class taught by Ridley Tyler Smith, a local antiques dealer who was instructing enthusiasts in the finer points of furniture construction, wood identification, and restoration techniques.

Soon, the Moores were peering up under their furniture with flashlights to see what they had - and what they didn’t. It wasn’t long before the couple’s enthusiasm spurred them on their first buying trip to southeastern Pennsylvania where, much to their surprise, they discovered the world of fine handcrafted reproductions.

In a shop called The Saltbox, the Moores encountered the work of artisans from across the country who were employing the methods of their forebears, using the same materials, and producing objects that in many ways challenged the most discriminating eye. Nancy was so impressed with what she saw that she offered to open a store in Greensboro if the owners ever decided to expand south. Two years later the folks at The Saltbox called, and the way of life Nancy had just recently embraced became a budding business.
Back home, the long but satisfying journey of renovating their 1960s 10-room Dutch Colonial promised to provide an ideal setting for the Moores’ growing collection. And so, drawing on the timeless qualities of old abodes, the couple began to create a space that evoked another place and time.

Transforming the exterior of the house, Nancy and Mac replaced an aging roof with cedar shakes and standing-seam copper. Stonemasons were enlisted to set large stepping-stones into the landscape and to build a dry-stack wall of moss-covered fieldstone, ensuring the authentic feeling of age that the Moores sought to capture across their property.

Inside, the house exudes the kind of comfort one would expect to find in a country home. The den’s paneled walls and brick floor provide the perfect backdrop for a mix of sturdy country furniture that is moved with the seasons. In the spring and summer, the furniture shimmies up to a box window Mac installed while Nancy was out of town. She returned to find the home’s original sliding glass doors replaced by 32 panes of restoration glass - literally changing the way the couple viewed their backyard.

The home’s latest transformation is the kitchen, off the dining room, where Mac replaced the original flooring with wide-plank yellow pine - another project he surprised Nancy with while she was away. Tiger-maple countertops add character and warmth while a farm-style copper sink, which has oxidized to a beautiful caramel brown, is the perfect complement to a turn-of-the-century butcher block that serves as a work station.

In another corner of the kitchen, a soldier-blue hanging cupboard accents a bank of cabinets crowned by a Greg Shooner jug with the family’s names inscribed in its lead glaze. When Nancy invited the country’s premier redware potter to The Saltbox as a guest artist, Shooner made the personalized jug for her to commemorate his visit. “Greg got so excited when he saw the Carolina red mud we had here,” Nancy says. “He and his wife literally filled a bunch of buckets and took it back to Ohio with them.”

With access to many of the finest craftsmen across the country, some of the best work inevitably makes its way into the Moores’ collection. When one artisan was unable to fill an order for eight handcrafted copper lanterns that Nancy had already paid for, Mac put his mechanical skills to work and rescued her from the dilemma. As a result, a new business - McLean Lighting Works -  was born, and a new artisan devoted to his craft emerged.

For both husband and wife, new businesses blossomed from a way of life based on object lessons learned long ago. And while attention to detail isn’t commonly considered a family trait, it certainly was a contributing factor to the Moores’ success in providing and producing authentic, handcrafted objects for customers and collectors.