The main business of Leonard’s Antiques, a group of highly respected antique stores located in the Northeast, is the making and selling of reproduction beds. Using both old original elements salvaged from the past and newly created parts necessary to meet modern bed dimensions, the craftsmen at Leonard’s know all about beds. Norm pays Leonard’s a visit and meets the owner, Jeff Jenkins, for a behind the scenes look at how the beds are made. Then he returns to the workshop and creates a beautiful tiger maple version sized to fit a queen. The four turned posts and a handsome headboard lend distinction to a good night’s sleep.

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.

The New Yankee Workshop single bed is a four-poster with robust turnings on the posts and scrolled and serpentined cut-outs on the headboard. The bed is built from maple and pine. A bed similar to the New Yankee version, built between 1825 and 1840, can be found in Massachusetts at the Concord Museum, only steps away from the historic Old North Bridge.