The New Yankee Workshop - Season 9

Norm begins his search for low-country furniture projects in Savannah's famed Monterey Square at the home of antique map and print dealers, Virginia and John Duncan. On their veranda, Norm discovers a quintessential piece of the Old South, a planter's desk. Once used by cotton and tobacco farmers for bookkeeping, the desk can function quite well today as a compact, home office. Featuring nicely tapered legs, a hinged desktop, and plenty of shelves, it also has enough room to accommodate a small computer. Back East in the New Yankee Workshop, Norm builds this piece out of recycled pine and finishes it with a new pastel stain to give it a "pickled" look.

While touring Savannah, Norm found the inspiration for this unique piece in Marty Johnson's antique collection. Though its name remains a mystery, there's no question that its graceful three-leaf-clover design makes it an attractive and practical accent table. Norm brings a little bit of Georgia back to the New Yankee Workshop when he creates the table out of Southern heart pine.

On a sojourn to the quaint New England island of Nantucket, Norm found a wonderful lidded settle that can double as extra storage space and a hallway showpiece. Norm crafts a rendition out of beautiful cherry wood and, in the process, demonstrates a variety of intermediate woodworking techniques including spindle-turning and how to make framed panels.

This lovely washstand is true to the circa 1830 original found in the antique collection of Stanley and Jacqueline Levine of Savannah, Georgia. Featuring elegant scroll work, turned legs, and a generous shelf drawer, this vintage design can be used today as a night stand. Norm produces this piece out of fine tiger maple, making it one of the most sophisticated pieces in his collection of low-country furniture.

In the 1800s, a dough box provided a warm hiding place for bread dough to rise. When Norm crafts his version of this simple design out of antique pine and adds a hinge to the lid, he turns it into a great-looking, modern-day, chest-on-legs.

Norm couldn't resist bringing the romantic design of this garden gateway back from a visit to a historic New England village. This ambitious outdoor project features a spindled gateway and is complemented by a pergola and a trellis that frames the garden view. Norm builds this outdoor project out of common, pressure-treated pine to ensure that it will last through years of sunshine, rain, and snow. In the process, he demonstrates how to join wood segments together with splines to form the elegant archway.

Norm takes viewers in to his favorite antique haunt on the quaint New England island of Nantucket where he discovers two distinctive wooden trays. Deeming them the perfect weekend woodworking projects, Norm crafts the more primitive fruit tray out of recycled pine, and, for the first time on The New Yankee Workshop, introduces the craft of metal-smithing when he fashions the cherry tray's hardware out of brass.

It's a great family gathering table and perfect for playing games with the kids, Norm claimed when he discovered the original in a private collection in Savannah. The ingenious design of this table features a lazy Susan centerpiece which can easily be removed for more formal gatherings. While building this piece out of salvaged pine, Norm shares his secrets for creating the spindle centerpiece with minimal hardware.

Norm spied this regal nineteenth-century English mahogany, seven-drawer chest in the back room of Alex Raskin's renowned antique shop on Monterey Square in Savannah. This well-proportioned, chest-on-chest features period brass hardware pulls, edge banding, and dovetail drawers.

Norm introduces viewers to the seventeenth-century craft of wood steaming when he creates this charming hat rack out of oak. To learn the proper techniques, Norm pays a visit to craftsman Mike Dunbar, a well-known Windsor chair builder and teacher.

He may be America's favorite master carpenter, but Norm readily admits that he's a "brown thumb," when it comes to gardening. This greenhouse is the perfect project for the serious backyard gardener (or someone who knows one) who is "workshop bound" for the winter. Norm fabricates this design out of redwood and polycarbonate panels. Built to withstand even the toughest weather conditions, this greenhouse provides enough insulation and light to sustain plants during the long winter months. This is part 1 of 2.

He may be America's favorite master carpenter, but Norm readily admits that he's a "brown thumb," when it comes to gardening. This greenhouse is the perfect project for the serious backyard gardener (or someone who knows one) who is "workshop bound" for the winter. Norm fabricates this design out of redwood and polycarbonate panels. Built to withstand even the toughest weather conditions, this greenhouse provides enough insulation and light to sustain plants during the long winter months. This is part 2 of 2.

Between shooting The New Yankee Workshop and This Old House, Norm rarely has time to build anything for himself. And, like the rest of us, he readily admits his own home is "a work in progress." So, Norm is taking this woodworking project home. With his own Rumford fireplace awaiting adornment, Norm takes the opportunity to design this classic Colonial fireplace mantel and builds it using a variety of woods and moldings readily available at home centers nationwide.