Every season of The New Yankee Workshop ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best seasons of The New Yankee Workshop!

After a tour of The New Yankee Workshop to preview the collection of furniture he will build in the first season, Norm visits a "retiring room" at the Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts to find a model for a handcrafted medicine cabinet. Drawing inspiration from a looking glass and cabinet, Norm uses durable red oak and oak plywood to construct a medicine chest of his own design featuring box-joint joinery

Medicine Cabinet

A good workshop begins with a well-equipped workbench, and master woodworker Norm uses one from his own shop as a model for the conveniently-sized and affordable workbench he builds in this episode. After a look at a workbench used 100 years ago by the craftsmen at Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts, Norm builds a workbench featuring an oak-edged hardwood top, a bench vice, a recessed tool storage area on top and a shelf beneath.

Workbench

Norm uses ash, a durable hardwood, to fashion a drop-leaf table featuring turned legs, a top and leaves made from glued up stock. Norm shows how to turn the table legs on a duplicating lathe and reveals a few tricks for making mortise and tenons joints. Using a router and two special bits, he shows how the drop-leaf joint is made.

Drop Leaf Table

Norm travels to the island of Nantucket off the Massachusetts coast to look at a handmade blanket chest in a sea captain's house dating from 1790. Incorporating elements of this antique in his own design, Norm builds a blanket chest of pine, lined with aromatic cedar panels.

Blanket Chest

Norm constructs a bedside table inspired by one found at the Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts. Norm's design, made from pine, features a shallow drawer, table legs tapered on the inner sides and a table top with a breadboard design (glued boards edged with wood on two ends).

Bedside Table

Norm demonstrates how to build a bathroom vanity with dovetailed joints. He uses oak and a laminate top with double doors and a flat panel outside and raised panel inside mimicking the Shaker style. The vanity dimensions are 34" high x 38" wide x 23" deep.  Inspired by a dry sink he found at a 1790 Shaker house in Harvard, Norm's oak unit features dovetailed joints and a high-pressure laminate top.

Oak Bathroom Vanity

After a look at a pine trestle table in a Shaker house on the island of Nantucket off the Massachusetts coast, Norm constructs his own easily-disassembled trestle table of cherry, a hardwood which, if kiln-dried, resists twisting or shrinking over time. Norm shows how to glue up the boards that comprise the expansive table top and demonstrates how to make the two trestles and the stretcher which connects them.

Trestle Table

Norm builds a free standing bookcase with a cornice detail, adjustable shelves, and a removable base. He uses pine for the base and birch plywood for the rest. The bookcase dimensions are 80" high x 36" wide x 12 1/2" deep.

Bookcase

Norm demonstrates how to build a chest of drawers using Ponderosa pine. He cuts and planes the wood, glues the boards fro the top and sides. He also illustrates how to build the drawers including the drawer case, the frames, and the base. The chest measures 42" high x 41 1/2" wide x 19" deep.

Norm makes his own design from Ponderosa pine, showing how to cut and plane the wood, glue the boards and build the drawers, frame and base.

Chest of Drawers

Norm travels to the Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts to gather ideas for his own design for a candle stand. Returning to his workshop, Norm shows home woodworkers how to build an exact replica using power tools, including a lathe, router and band saw.

Candle Stand

Norm demonstrates how to build a hutch using knotty pine. The hutch consists of a base cabinet that has raised panel doors and an open shelf section. It measures 81 1/2" high x 56" wide x 18" deep.

In the kitchen of the Fitch house at Old Stourbridge, Norm shows us an early American `hutch' then builds his own pine version back at the workshop.

Hutch

Norm builds a writing desk with a slanted top that is constructed mostly of maple. The desk features a shallow drawer, a nest of small drawers, and a open bins in the top. The dimensions are 42" high x 36" wide x 20" deep.

Made mostly of maple, this desk is one of the more complicated projects ever tackled by Norm.

Writing Desk

Norm constructs a corner cupboard of pine and plywood. His design employees a top section that is enclosed by glass paned doors and a base cabinet with raised panel doors. The cupboard dimensions are 86 1/2" high x 42" wide x 30" deep.

Norm makes his own corner cupboard from pine and plywood, incorporating a top section with glass doors and a base cabinet with raised panel doors.

Corner Cupboard

After a look at a collection of wooden toys at Old Sturbridge Village, a "living history" museum in central Massachusetts, Norm builds a child's rocking horse from ash- a durable hardwood.

Rocking Horse

Norm designs his own version of the rustic Adirondack chair out of cypress, an excellent wood that needs no preservatives or treatment.

Adirondack Chair

Norm visits Kingscote, an elegant Gothic Revival house in Newport, Rhode Island, for a look at a mahogany butler's table with four leaves that fold down on solid brass hinges. For his version of this stylish antique, Norm demonstrates the technique of biscuit joinery to glue together the boards for the tray, crafts mortise-and-tenon joints to connect the rails of the base, uses a molding head cutter on his table saw to add a decorative bead to the rails, and shows how to mount the tray's special hinges.

Butler's Table

After a look at an early 18th-century kitchen cupboard at Old Sturbridge Village, a "living history" museum in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, Norm constructs his own version from pine featuring open shelves above a base cabinet whose door sports an antique-style hinge. He shows a pattern to draw the curved outline of the side pieces, then uses a hand-held saber saw to make the cut, saving the cut-out portions to make shelves. Using a molding head cutter on his table saw, Norm demonstrates how to add a decorative bead to the shelves.

Kitchen Dresser

Norm travels to the Massachusetts harbor of Gloucester to look at a high-backed, curved hearthside settle at Beauport, the home of tarry 20th-century interior decorator and antiquarian Henry Sleeper. The house is now a museum run by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Norm's version of this pine piece closes in the area beneath the seat to create a storage space and adds an access hatch in the seat. Norm shows how to cut the settle's curved cross-members and shaped side pieces, how to join the back boards with tongue-and-groove joints, and how to bend the back base board along the bottom of the frame.

Hearthside Settle

Norm visits the Shelbourne Museum in Burlington, Vermont to examine an antique pencil-post bed with a rope support system and a hay-filled mattress. Norm then adapts this design to accommodate a standard full-size mattress and box spring, and builds his pencil-post bed of poplar featuring mortise and tenon joints in the construction. The bedposts are tapered on the two inner sides, then beveled on all four corners to produce eight-sided, asymmetrically tapered posts.

Pencil-Post Bed

Norm drops in on the Fitch House in Old Sturbridge Village, central Massachusetts' "living history" museum, to look at a chair table, with a tabletop that pivots back to form a back rest and a seat with a drawer underneath. Norm's version of this unusual but comfortable and serviceable piece features hardwood (maple) where needed - on the tabletop, arms and feet - and poplar for the sides, seat and drawer front. Norm cuts the shaped side pieces and curved arms and feet on the band saw, shows how to create a sliding dovetail joint to attach the seat and drawer support to the sides, and demonstrates a trick for cutting the large circular tabletop by mounting a specially made jig on the band saw.

Chair Table

Norm constructs a kitchen table that functions equally well as a dining table or a worktable. Built of pine, the table features tapered legs and storage drawers, with a center rail joining the pairs of legs. Norm employs a specially made tapering jig to fashion the legs and uses mortise-and-tenon joints to put the table together.

Kitchen Worktable

In a departure from the traditional New England-style furniture usually featured on The New Yankee Workshop, Norm draws inspiration from the furniture craftsmen of the southwestern United States to constructs mission-style sofa whose signature simple lines and oak frame allow for cushions. Despite its distinctive regional flavor, Norm's design for this project features the same woodworking techniques - including mortise-and-tenon joinery - he employs in creating his other pieces.

Mission Style Sofa

In a change of pace, Norm shows how to build picture and mirror frames, emphasizing tools and clamps designed specifically for this purpose. Norm uses a mitre box and a table saw outfitted with a jig to cut frames and demonstrates a variety of techniques to fasten corners.

Chippendale Mirror

With this eight-drawer, cherry chest-on-chest Norm simplifies a complicated project that may, at first glance, seem daunting to the home woodworker. Norm demonstrates techniques of biscuit joinery on the side panels and dovetail joinery on the drawers and cross-rails, then shows how to craft sculpted, contoured feet for the base using a band saw, table saw, template and router.

Chest on Chest

Norm leaves his trademark plaid shirt and jeans at home and dons a stylish suit and derby when he visits London for a look at an authentic English garden bench. Norm constructs his version from teak. The bench is assembled entirely with mortise and tenon joinery and pegs to ensure its strength and durability. Norm shows how to shape the bench's many curved pieces on the band saw, demonstrates how to create tenons with a tenoning jig mounted on the table saw, and reveals a trick for cutting angled mortises on the drill press.

English Garden Bench

Norm winds up The New Yankee Workshop's second season with an armoire based on classic designs but adapted to contemporary use: it can double as a home entertainment center. Norm's version is constructed largely of veneer plywood and features raised panel doors. In building the project, Norm demonstrates many of the joinery techniques he's employed throughout the season, including dado, dovetail and mortise-and-tenon joints - and shows how to use a shaper to create moldings for the piece.

Armoire (Entertainment Center)

Norm builds a three-step version of the classic Shaker step stool and a more elaborate two-step version of it. He uses hand held power tools and hand tools to build the three-step stool form Pine. He uses a sophisticated dovetail jig to craft the joinery for the two-step stool, which is made of Cherry. The two-step stool is 25 1/4" high x 16" wide x 11 5/8" deep. The three-step stool is 25 1/4" high x 17 3/4" wide x 13 1/2" deep.

Shaker Step Stools

Norm builds a basic sawhorse crafted Spruce and Plywood and a one-piece picnic table. The sawhorse dimensions are 26" high x 20 1/2" wide x 36" long and the picnic table dimensions are 29 3/4" high x 68" wide x 71" long.

Picnic Table and Saw Horses

Norm builds a Shaker style blanket chest using pine. He uses an acrylic latex paint to finish the outside and clear urethane on the inside. He adds two storage drawers to the chest base. The chest measures 36 1/4" high x 41 1/2" wide x 19" deep.

Shaker Two Drawer Blanket Chest

Norm uses Pine to build a classic Shaker washstand with dovetail joinery in the flared top section, a drawer, and raised panel doors in the lower section. The washstand measures 37 1/2" high x 27" wide x 19 1/2" deep.

Shaker Washstand

Based on a clock built by Shaker craftsman, Isaac Young, Norm crafts a wall clock from Walnut and adds a modern-day quartz timepiece to it. The clock dimensions are 33 3/16" high x 11 1/8" wide x 4 5/16" deep.

Shaker Wall Clock

Norm builds a sandbox modeled after one built for his sister and him by their father. He uses Cedar and pressure-treated lumber to construct it and adds an awning made from weather-resistant cloth. The sandbox measures 55" high x 49 1/2" wide x 49 1/2" deep.

Sandbox

Norm builds a harvest table from Cherry. It has turned legs and a hand-rubbed Danish oil finish. The drop leaves allow chairs to be pushed under the table when they are in the down position. The table dimensions are 30" high x 39" wide x 71 3/4" long.

Harvest Table

Norm builds a wood box with storage space for kindling in an upper section and firewood in the lower section. The fireplace tools are stored on pegs mounted to the sides. He uses milk paint to seal the Pine box. The box dimensions are 33 1/4" high x 22 3/4" wide x 17 1/2" deep.

Shaker Woodbox

Norm crafts a Cherry library table. He demonstrates how to match the grain on the front of the two overlaid drawers. The table measures 30" high x 16" wide x 48" long.

Library Table

Norm builds a two-seat swing using Redwood and a swinging mechanism that uses common off-the-shelf hardware. The swing dimensions are 92 1/2" high x 83 1/2" wide x 85" deep.

Garden Swing

Norm's hardwood cricket table is crafted with complex angled mortise and tenon joinery. He uses a set of jigs to ensure that the pieces fit together properly. The table is 27" high with a 29" diameter top.

Cricket Table

Norm's two-door pie safe has multiple shelves and is put together using mortise and tenon joints. He uses a punched-tin front that he fabricates in the workshop. The pie safe measures 60" high x 38 3/4" wide x 17 3/8" deep.

Pie Safe with Punched Tin Front

Norm uses a band saw to aid his in constructing a Mahogany frame for a full-length standing mirror. He uses a router to give the piece a softer edge. The frame measures 68 1/4" high x 27 1/4" wide x 20" deep.

Standing Mirror

Norm builds a rolling shop cabinet using several construction techniques and materials he hasn't used previously. He chooses veneer plywood with a high-pressure laminate top and lockable swivel casters. It measures 34 1/2" high x 32" wide x 26 1/2" deep

Rolling Shop Cabinet

Norm fashions an outdoor lidded bench from Cypress. The bench measurements are 55 1/4" high x 36" wide x 18 1/4" deep.

Outdoor Lidded Bench

Norm builds a child's wagon with threaded rod axles with aluminum braces. He uses non toxic fire-engine red enamel paint for the finish and steel wheels with rubber tires. The wagon measures 19" high x 16" wide x 42" long.

Child's Wagon

Norm uses recycled pallet wood to build a unique and rustic coffee table. He demonstrates how to prepare the slats by planing them. The table dimensions are 16 1/4" high x 19" wide x 40" long.

Coffee Table

Norm's gardener's workbench is constructed of Redwood. It has open shelves for pot storage and the potting surface is an overlay top that is moisture resistant. It also features storage for stakes, markers, and gardening tools. The bench dimensions are 72" high x 37 1/4" wide x 34" deep.

Gardener's Workbench

Norm designs a tall Shaker style chest modeled after one he viewed at Hancock Shaker Village. The chest measures 78 3/4" high x 45 1/4" wide x 18 5/8" deep.

Shaker Tall Chest

Norm demonstrates how to build four versions of a fence. He uses Eastern White Cedar to build a 6' garden, a 4' 4" flame, a 3' 6" diamond, and a 3' 2" mortised fence.

Colonial Fences

Norm builds a simple, yet elegant, console table with a half-round top using knotty Pine. He crafts curved legs using a band saw. The table measures 29 1/2" high x 44 3/8" wide x 22 1/2" deep.

Console Table

Norm uses Oak to build a wheelbarrow. It features a pneumatic tire, removable sides and a medium density plywood bed. The wheelbarrow measures 25" high x 25" wide x 60" long.

Wheelbarrow

Norm's umbrella stand is built from light Oak and features a mirror and clay pot holders to catch the water from umbrellas. He achieves the "burnt" effect by fuming the piece in an airtight chamber he fashioned for this purpose. The stand measures 80 1/2" high x 35" wide x 11 1/8" deep.

Umbrella Stand

Norm uses Maple and Pine to build a four-poster single bed. It features robust turnings on the posts and the headboard is decorated with scrolled and serpentine cut-outs. The bed measures 54" high x 46" wide x 81" long.

Turned Post Bed

Norm builds a dovecote modeled after an elaborate one found in Colonial Williamsburg. Smaller than the original, it measures 60" high x 54" wide x 42" deep.

Dove Cote

Norm builds a ladder-back chair using Cherry and demonstrates how to weave the seat. The chair measures 42" high x 19" wide x 14" deep.

Ladder-back Chair

Norm builds his version of a perennial favorite, the Victorian kitchen table, using a design that combines the best features of three tables he studied in Britain.  Made of century-old "sinker" pine salvaged from river bottoms in the southeastern United States, the table has a deep storage drawer that extends halfway under the table.  Norm demonstrates how to incorporate this drawer into the table's design and how to turn the table's sturdy legs on a lathe.

Victorian Kitchen Table

This tall English country plant stand is perfect for a temperamental fern. The trick to this relatively-simple project is tapering its long thin legs. Norm demonstrates how to make a jig to do just that. This straight-grained sugar pine stand protects ferns, ivies or other delicate plants that resent touching.

Plant Stand

Norm visits a private collection in an English castle and discovers a Delft rack from 1780. The Delft rack - an oak rack that is the ideal way to display china and figurines-has a cornice molding built up from up five different-shaped pieces of wood that fool the eye and "read" as one. Norm demonstrates how to mill the fluted casings, and how to use patterns to create decorative cutouts and fretwork that embellish this piece.

Delft Rack

Americans are mad for coffee tables! Norm's version of this feature of modern life is inspired by the English country look (there's no such thing as an English country coffee table) and by the rugged appeal of an antique workbench. Norm instructs viewers how to use a v-groove to give the table's top a thick plank-like look.

Oak Coffee Table

Norm creates two outdoor planters: one that's square with raised panels and a second that's simpler, larger and rectangular, with vertical slats. The master woodworker demonstrates how to craft the small planter's raised panels on a table saw and turn its finials on a lathe. (Both planters are "sinker" cypress, an excellent outdoor wood that weathers to an attentive silver-gray.)

Outdoor Planters

This simple, versatile English country pantry table needn't be confined to the pantry: it can serve as a bedside table, writing desk and more. Norm uses a table saw to craft this piece and explains how to taper its legs and form the delicate bead detail around the drawer front. Norm adds a breadboard edge to this classic's top - for extra stability.

Pantry Table

We call these buffets, huntboards or servers in America, but they're sideboards in England, and some are up to nine feet long. Norm's smaller white oak version has three drawers, fiddle-shaped legs and a pot board (a large open shelf between the legs for storage). Norm guides viewers in cutting the curves of the piece on a scroll saw.

Sideboard

After searching London's renowned King's Road, Norm uncovers this unusual piece. He then teaches viewers how to make a curved door from flat boards using a table saw and biscuit joinery for this bow-front hanging corner cupboard. The four-shelf piece, inspired by an 18th-century original, is built from hard sinker pine but has a plywood carcass to bolster stability.

Hanging Corner Cupboard

Norm teaches viewers how to make flat panel doors as well as glass panel doors for the display area of this English country cupboard. Made of soft #2 pine with knots to impart added character, the practical piece has tongue-and-groove backing.

Pine Cupboard

Norm's version of the indispensable kitchen staple, the butcher block, features a hard endgrain maple top instead of the usual parallel grain. The base of this English country piece is sturdy poplar. Norm demonstrates how to cut the endgrain carefully, thus avoiding excess sanding of this tough wood.

Butcher Block

Although Norm researched arbors in old England, the one that he builds is inspired by versions from the New England island of Nantucket. Norm's arbor, meant for sitting and enjoying the beauty of the garden, is built from redwood and presents the challenge of fashioning an arch out of segments of wood fixed together with a new water-resistant glue. Norm also tackles making diamond-shaped lattice panels for this project.

Redwood Arbor

Norm builds a secretary writing desk out of pine. Viewers can learn how to craft breadboard corners for this English country favorite, the most elegant and elaborate project of the season, with its four drawers, pigeonholes and stepped interior.

Secretary Desk

Norm suspects that the original of this English country clock found on London's King's Road, with its tapered profile, may have been built by the village coffin maker. Norm builds up its mouldings from a combination of off-the-shelf mouldings and others made at the workshop, and selects an inexpensive quartz movement.

Tall Pine Clock

Norm has thought of everything for this classic easel, combining his favorite elements from several commercial versions with a sturdy, timeless design that's all his own. The piece features a chalkboard on one side and paper-holding frame on the other, plus a drawer to keep the supplies together with the easel. Norm uses biscuit joinery - no screws, no nails - to join the parts of the leg assembly. The unique paper roll design allows children a continuous supply of new drawing surface.

Easel

Adult viewers may be as excited about this doll house as the children it is intended for when Norm creates a true-to-scale replica of his now-famous workshop. Norm gets some ideas from a late-Victorian example located in the Barrett House in New Hampshire, but his final design is less gender-specific, with the familiar great room that is the home of The New Yankee Workshop as well as two stories of smaller rooms and a garage - all features never before seen on camera. With some custom accessorizing, this doll house can easily be rendered appropriate for boys or girls or both. The project involves extensive work with the table saw and router.

Doll House

Combining functionality with simple fun, Norm's toy chest features a top with an inlaid checkerboard made of maple and mahogany, and even a compartment in which to store the checkers. Incorporating through dovetails cut on the dovetailing jig, the chest is as handsome as it is sturdy. Norm also demonstrates valuable marquetry techniques for the checkerboard. As always, safety is a primary concern, and Norm's toy chest includes an ingenious closing device that insures that the lid will never slam on a child's fingers.

Toy Chest

Norm visits Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts for the inspiration behind this Early American hooded cradle, one of the most commonly requested projects on The New Yankee Workshop. The construction includes finger joints and a sliding dovetail for the rocker. Norm's choice of durable cherry is rendered particularly rich with a Danish oil finish. With its distinctive hood and graceful lines, this piece is destined to become an heirloom.

Cradle

A useful space-saving piece of furniture, the trundle bed is perfect for sleep-overs. The top bed is low enough for kids to climb onto easily, while the trundle rolls out smoothly on casters. Constructing the bed presents an opportunity for Norm to demonstrate a variety of mortise and tenon joinery techniques. Once built, he paints the curved-headboard frame, made of poplar and plywood, with a non-toxic latex enamel, sealing the maple features with a satin polyurethane for a natural wood accent.

Trundle Bed

Norm considers a historic example of the classic marble roll, as well as a huge mechanical version located at Boston's Museum of Science. His own design emphasizes safety, proportioned for marbles too large for a child to swallow, while the entire unit is small enough to be portable. It is a relatively simple project, made primary on the table saw, that can often be constructed from workshop scraps.

Marble Roll

The storage units are essentially three projects in one: a chest of drawers, base cabinet and matching bookcase. All three pieces are constructed from 3/4" oak plywood, making them particularly sturdy yet portable. The plywood is edged with solid oak, which lends the handsome finish that all of Norm's projects share. These pieces that will last for years, potentially traveling with their owners to dorm room or apartment.

Storage Units: Bureau/Cupboard and Bookcase

Norm builds this project for the "A" student in the house - a desk inspired by the memory of his own version from high school. The durable laminate panels provide a smooth desktop surface for writing that will still look great after years of use. Norm demonstrates how to apply high-pressure laminates and uses mortise and tenon joinery for the stylish oak frames. The oak is sealed with polyurethane for durability.

Student's Desk

Children always want a chair that is their own size. Norm's is one they might someday pass on to their own children. The beauty is in the details with this challenging project, as the master woodworker turns the legs on a lathe and forms the curved backrest by laminating three pieces of cherry together. The holes for the arms, legs and stretchers are bored on the drill press using a series of homemade jigs with tapered angles and wedges. This rocking chair is perfectly proportioned and likely to become the favorite in any child's room.

Rocking Chair

Alphabet Wagon

High Chair

Norm's blockbuster project for the sixth season is a playhouse that boys and girls alike will love. He begins work by building the floor platform and prefabricating the walls, then assembling the frame in the backyard. Perfect for tea parties and secret meetings, this playhouse is also a handsome addition to any yard. Norm continues work on his playhouse, concentrating on the wood shingle roof and the many details that he refers to as "goodies," from the window box to the Dutch door. This is the project that Norm's younger viewers are likely to be clamoring for loudest of all.  This is part 1 of 2.

Playhouse (1)

Norm's blockbuster project for the sixth season is a playhouse that boys and girls alike will love. He begins work by building the floor platform and prefabricating the walls, then assembling the frame in the backyard. Perfect for tea parties and secret meetings, this playhouse is also a handsome addition to any yard. Norm continues work on his playhouse, concentrating on the wood shingle roof and the many details that he refers to as "goodies," from the window box to the Dutch door. This is the project that Norm's younger viewers are likely to be clamoring for loudest of all.  This is part 2 of 2.

Playhouse (2)

Norm visits Old Sturbridge Village, a "living history" museum in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, to investigate colonial life and furnishings and returns to the workshop with a period design for an X-brace trestle table. The handsome sturdiness of this versatile cherry piece makes it a welcome addition to any room, whatever the decor.

X-Brace Trestle Table

What better way to enjoy a hot summer day than from the shade of a graceful arbor? A perfect complement to any garden or deck, Norm's elegant pergola will look great draped in wisteria and is constructed of durable pressure-treated southern yellow pine.

Pergola

True to its name, this handsome mahogany piece is actually a tray and table in one: the tray features simple, sturdy handles that allow it to he used independently of its stand. Inspired by the TV tray tables of the 1950s and '60's, Norm's design seamlessly joins form with function.

TV Tray Table

It's been next to impossible to find an outdoor side or coffee table - until now. Norm builds a low round, slat-topped model out of durable teak that fits the bill perfectly.

Outdoor Garden Table

Norm builds a cherry bathroom vanity based on one he designed for his own home, guiding the woodworker through the details of constructing the vanity's raised panel doors using only a router. Norm also explains the techniques involved in forming the piece's solid-surface top.

Cherry Bathroom Vanity

Norm finds his inspiration for this piece in the garden furniture designed by renowned English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. Constructed entirely of teak, this faithful reproduction is built to last and age gracefully.

Lutyens Bench

Norm visits Old Schwamb Mill, the oldest operating custom frame factory in the country. Back at the workshop, he uses both stock moulding and several original designs to demonstrate the techniques used in making picture and mirror frames. Norm also offers step-by-step instructions on how to create mattes for the artwork.

Picture Frames

A visit to the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, Washington launches this challenging and exciting project which is modeled after a "class boat" known as the "Clancy." Back at the workshop, Norm builds the lightweight boat from scratch using 3' x 10' lengths of marine veneer mahogany plywood and an epoxy and fiberglass system to make the craft watertight. With the final coat of epoxy sanded and the last strokes of paint and waterproof finish applied, host Norm puts the SS New Yankee 1 and 2 to the test! Norm and This Old House host, Steve Thomas, take the workshop-built Clancy boats for a sail.  This is part 1 of 2.

Clancy Boat (1)

A visit to the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, Washington launches this challenging and exciting project which is modeled after a "class boat" known as the "Clancy." Back at the workshop, Norm builds the lightweight boat from scratch using 3' x 10' lengths of marine veneer mahogany plywood and an epoxy and fiberglass system to make the craft watertight. With the final coat of epoxy sanded and the last strokes of paint and waterproof finish applied, host Norm puts the SS New Yankee 1 and 2 to the test! Norm and This Old House host, Steve Thomas, take the workshop-built Clancy boats for a sail.  This is part 2 of 2.

Clancy Boat (2)

Norm begins work on one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted at The New Yankee Workshop. Brilliantly conceived and executed, Norm's intimate octagonal, screened gazebo reflects several popular Victorian styles and features a cedar deck, clever, collar-tied rafters, and a unusual tapered, cedar-shingled roof, the project's most challenging element. Norm offers useful tips on how to build screens as he creates the screen door and panels for his gazebo. The final decorative touches are applied as the Victorian latticework is assembled and mounted and the copper finial takes its place atop this storybook garden pavilion. This is part 1 of 2.

Gazebo (1)

Norm begins work on one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted at The New Yankee Workshop. Brilliantly conceived and executed, Norm's intimate octagonal, screened gazebo reflects several popular Victorian styles and features a cedar deck, clever, collar-tied rafters, and a unusual tapered, cedar-shingled roof, the project's most challenging element. Norm offers useful tips on how to build screens as he creates the screen door and panels for his gazebo. The final decorative touches are applied as the Victorian latticework is assembled and mounted and the copper finial takes its place atop this storybook garden pavilion. This is part 2 of 2.

Gazebo (2)

Norm returns to Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts to research the colonial custom of using blanket frames or racks. What results are stylish displays for prized quilts as Norm reinterprets these pieces in both Victorian and Shaker styles. While the mahogany Victorian rack features a curved top and turned legs, its simple pine counterpart boasts flat braces and a trestle foot.

Quilt Racks

Salvaged wide pine boards, some more than 200 years old, are the material of choice for Norm's version of this free-standing Shaker-inspired cabinet. More than seven feet tall and featuring a flat-paneled door and five interior shelves, this versatile piece proves an ideal kitchen pantry, linen or sweater chest.

Chimney Cupboard

Based on a piece he finds at a California vineyard, Norm builds a bedside cupboard out of pine.

Bedside Cupboard

Built of recycled chestnut barn timber, this generously sized coffee table is a reproduction pine table displayed at the Grace Family Vineyards in St. Helena. Featuring large turned legs and a natural oil finish, this table is as individual as the limited edition Cabernet Grace the vineyard is famous for.

Chestnut Coffee Table

The owners of this unusual table, Jack and Jamie of Schramsberg Vineyards in Calistoga, California, told Norm that it was originally a Mexican paymaster's table, carried on horseback, and used to pay groups of laborers on site. Built of recycled pine, the desk functions quite well today as an end table - and conversation piece. The desk has splayed legs with a stretcher and a two-sided pull-through drawer once used for holding money.

Paymaster's Desk

Norm finds the quintessential gathering table - it's 10 feet long - in the wine tasting room at the Myacamas Vineyards in Napa Valley. He fully demonstrates his master craftsmanship by reproducing this impressive piece of furniture, destined to become a family heirloom. To add to the integrity and value of this piece, he uses two different types of recycled pine that are peppered with interesting wood knots, buckshot and other natural irregularities.

Long Table

Norm spies this beautifully proportioned double dresser in a private collection of antique pine furniture in Napa Valley. This six-drawer desk is long but narrow, making it versatile enough for a hallway and other small spaces, as well as for a bedroom. Norm crafts his version of the design out of recycled pine, complete with recessed side panels, banded drawer fronts and wooden knobs.

Double Dresser

Another piece found in a private collection in wine country, this elegantly simple desk has an expansive surface, a single center pencil drawer and nicely turned legs. The original was made of pine, but for his version, Norm uses a harder chestnut that is better for writing surfaces. As straight forward and unpretentious as the best American antiques - or wines this desk can easily double as a table.

Chestnut Desk

One of the most impressive pieces Norm discovers during the course of his travels in wine country is a 200-year-old Irish Hutch owned by the Trevorses of Myacamas Vineyards. This pine hutch features two flat paneled doors and two large dovetailed drawers at its base. Atop the base is a plate rack with simple ornamentation and cornice molding. Lovingly detailed, with plenty of room for displaying china or collectibles, this is one of the most ambitious projects Norm makes this season.

Irish Hutch

In keeping with the wine-country theme, this project is much more than just a wine rack. It is the perfect system for people who take wine collecting seriously. Made of redwood and designed as a four-sided display, this storage unit holds 10 cases of wine while providing additional storage for glasses, corkscrews and oversized bottles, plus a platform for serving. No wine aficionado will want to return from a tasting tour of Napa Valley to anything less.

Wine Storage Unit

Norm designs three natural wood lamps made from recycled materials to complement his collection of wine country furniture. The largest, 20 inches high, is a massive turning of heart pine that has been laminated. The second, 17 inches high, is turned from two pieces of mahogany. The third, another piece of heart pine, is sixteen inches high.

Three Turned Table Lamps

The New Yankee Workshop is a woodworking program produced by WGBH Boston, which aired on PBS. Created in 1989 by Russell Morash, the program is hosted by Norm Abram, a regular fixture on Morash's This Old House. The series aired for 21 seasons before broadcasting its final episode on June 27, 2009.

The Best Seasons of The New Yankee Workshop

The Best Seasons of The New Yankee Workshop

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8

Season 9

Season 10

Season 11

Season 12

Season 13

Season 14

Season 15

Season 16

Season 17

Season 18

Season 19

Season 20

Season 21