Without dispute, one of the greatest collections of American antiques resides at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. One of the Museum’s most popular displays, the original workshops of the Dominy family, quickly draws Norm’s attention. The Dominys were clock and cabinetmakers who worked in eastern Long Island from the 1730s to the 1830s, creating high-quality clocks and furniture. Norm visits the exhibit and selects a clock, circa 1821, from the Dominy collection to reproduce back in the Workshop. Inspired by the Dominy clock, and up for the woodworking challenge, Norm builds his own simple tall case clock out of poplar and paints it to resemble the original.

It would be hard to think of a more important element of a home’s appeal than its entranceway. But all too often, modern doors are an unremarkable (yet necessary) feature quickly forgotten by those who pass through them. Not so with this custom-made, mahogany beauty that Norm creates in The New Yankee Workshop. He designs and builds it from scratch for an old house that cries out for a new door. Along the way, he is able to find a pair of antique looking “Bulls Eye” glass inserts and a handsome brass knob and lock to set off this masterpiece.

One of the most challenging projects ever attempted on The New Yankee Workshop comes when Norm tries his hand at reproducing a Federal-style Giltwood Mirror. It isn’t the woodworking that is particularly difficult. Norm makes that part seem easy. It’s trying to gild the mirror with gold leaf and make the frame appear as solid gold that takes time, patience, and lots of skill. Norm picks up the history of Giltwood and sees some remarkable examples when antiques expert Gary Sullivan discusses his collection. Then, Norm visits Linda Abrams a gilder and reverse painter for an understanding of what it takes to turn wood into gold.

Linda Abrams may be reached by e-mail at lindabrams@yahoo.com or by phone at 781-647-0672.

In this program, Norm demonstrates how easy it can be to panel a wall. Norm begins by showing some wonderful examples of wall paneling techniques in a home restored several years ago by This Old House. At one end of the spectrum, Norm shows how simple molding applied to a plain wall can create a paneled effect. Then, he moves back to the Workshop to show classic bead board paneling, raised panel systems and, finally, elegant mahogany paneling using veneer hardwood plywood and solid custom moldings and trim.

We first found this item in a decorator show house and were impressed with its functionality and beauty. No more than a shelf really, it is fastened to the wall with massive decorative brackets. It is a perfect solution for displaying vases, candles, lamps, and other objects in a narrow space. Norm builds his out of mahogany.

Over the years, Norm has created several clocks for The New Yankee Workshop, most notably the tall case oak clock with an imported eight day movement (Item #0405) he built a couple of years ago. Now his interest turns to a shorter cased clock with a key wind spring movement that is housed in a walnut case. But the big difference is the painted glass panel that adorns the clock face and the clockworks below. Norm asks his project partner, the Klockit Company of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to come up with a facsimile of the famous New Yankee logo, which will be painted on the glass and through which the clock pendulum can be seen. The results are stunning and just the finishing touch for a workshop or any room in the house. Everybody who has seen it wants one.

If you’ve priced plantation shutters lately, you know how expensive they can be, costing several hundred dollars per opening. Not surprisingly, Yankee ingenuity and thrift get the better of Norm and he creates some stunning shutters in the workshop. As his admirers have come to expect, he first builds a collection of jigs, which are necessary to drill holes, set staples, and mortise hinges. Then he shapes the individual bass wood slats, mounts them on a control rod, and positions the whole assembly into a frame of poplar that then gets spray-painted. You’ll be impressed at how well these interior shutters look and operate when he installs them in a room he’s been working on for some time.

After tackling more pressing projects, Norm is finally getting around to building a mantelpiece for the master bedroom in his home. Though his home is filled with the beautiful furniture he has made over the years at the New Yankee Workshop, somehow he never took the time to complete the most defining architectural element in his bedroom – the fireplace mantel. Now, instead of waking up to an unfinished brick and plaster wall, he looks at a beautiful Colonial mantelpiece that frames the master bedroom’s fireplace. The project involves using the router table to produce the frames to receive the m.d.o. plywood panels and make a molding, some precise work with the mitre saw, and installation of the completed mantelpiece. As always, Norm makes this project seem within reach of most average woodworkers.

Is there a homeowner out there who doesn't yearn for more shelf space for his books and display items, says Norm at the beginning of The Library System program, which concludes the 17th season of New Yankee Workshop projects. Recognizing the need for a good bookcase design that can be used in any suitable room and added to as needed to fill out a wall of books leads Norm to design a modular system that can be adjusted to go around existing windows or doors. It looks like expensive "custom" built-ins, yet the elements are actually built in the shop where cutting and routing large pieces of plywood and dealing with the resulting dust is easy. Norm is betting that when wood workers learn some of his tips on this project, lots of Library Systems will be built.

Largely unknown in grandmother’s time, kitchen islands have become indispensable in today’s modern home. Used to house sinks, cook tops, storage for pots and pans, recyclables, and barstools, they often become the most valuable work surface in a busy kitchen. Norm builds this one out of poplar and birch plywood for a painted finish and lines it with hard wearing factory-applied finishes intended to give this island a long career of heavy use. Along with the high-tech plywood, Norm uses state of the art drawer slides and period pulls to complete this useful project.

Encouraged by his success in building the upholstered cigar chair in Season 15, Norm partners once again with furniture guru Norman Coley to build an oversized ottoman that today’s decorators simply must have. Norm visits the semi-annual world famous Chapel Hill, North Carolina furniture market to select the model he will build in the New Yankee Workshop. While he is at it, he adds a leather-covered footstool to go with his cigar chair.

Every family needs one of these. An assembly point for the family keys, hats, and mail, with the added bonus of a large mirror that gets you ready before you leave the house. This Arts and Crafts style hall mirror, framed in oak and fitted with reproduction antique hardware, is an ideal woodworking project.

From hobbyists building a clock out of a kit to professionals building one from scratch, clock building seems to be a popular woodworking pastime. Over the years, thousands of clocks have been made and a surprising number have survived. Nowhere is there a more interesting collection of old clocks than that of the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Norm pays a visit to their collection for ideas for his version of a grandfather’s clock. Inspired, he combines an Arts & Crafts-style case and some delightful sounding chimes into what is sure to become a family heirloom.

The folding room screen is an attractive alternative to divide a room or to seal off an unwanted view of a computer, a TV set, or perhaps a heating radiator. This handsome three-fold hinged screen is built of traditional raised panels. Norm uses mahogany, which is stained to enhance the beautiful wood grain and then sealed with hard-wearing polyurethane.

Years ago on In lieu of a great bedstead, sometimes all you need is a headboard. On this program Norm builds a beauty out of mahogany that will lend substance and elegance to a simple metal frame with a mattress and box spring. Again with help from Leonard's Antiques and Jeff Jenkins, Norm finds some interesting variations on this popular alternative to a full bed frame. Norm builds this headboard, sized for a king-sized bed, from top grade mahogany veneer plywood and uses solid mahogany to form the posts and moldings.

Years ago on This Old House we featured the installation of a wooden flagpole on our Napa, California project. Now Norm has taken up the challenge on making one in The NewYankee Workshop. Made of strong Douglas fir, glued with epoxy, painted with marine paint and mounted on a welded steel ground anchor designed by master welder Bob Diorio, this flagpole is easy to maintain because the whole pole can be lowered to the ground whenever necessary. Be the first in your neighborhood to make your own flagpole.

See Note below

Organizing today's electronics is a challenge with ever-larger televisions, DVD's, amplifiers, speakers, CD collections and all sorts of other paraphernalia. Finding useable storage for everything can be difficult. In this special two-part program he builds a large media cupboard made of maple and outfits it with swing-away doors, adjustable shelves, and four roomy drawers below. The project includes finishing steps using aniline dyes and polyurethane to protect and enhance the beauty of the piece.

The plan for the Media Press specifies a quantity of 2 drawer pulls. However, 6 pulls are need, one each for the small drawers, two each for the large drawers.

The cutting schedule calls for the sides of the lowelower chest to be 22 3/8" inches wide. On the plan showing the rabbits, it calls for the sides to be 23 3/8" measurement, is correct.

While visiting Palm Beach, Florida, Norm discovers an attractive maple shaving stand in the Flagler Museum. Norm recreates this unique piece of Americana using cherry to form the mirror surround, the drawer, and to form the gracefully cut legs. At first glance, you might wonder why Norm (with his full beard) would ever need a piece of furniture like this, but he will be ready in case fashions change.

Long after the last steamship sailed its last voyage, Norm sets out to build a New Yankee Workshop version of the rounded-top steamer trunk. Once used to store clothes for ship passengers, these trunks are still very popular among antique collectors. Today they are much admired by those who use them at the foot of beds for blanket and linen storage. Norm built his from antique chestnut and hammered iron strips that mimic the original trunk hardware.

See Note below

Like most of us, Norm has a mailbox he purchased from a local home center that now shows all the wear and tear of harsh New England winters. Determined to do something about its sorry state, he designs and builds a beautiful replacement complete with ornamental finial, chamfered post, and even a newspaper slot. It promises to signal to passersby, 'a craftsman lives here.'

Project #0110, Mailbox, 3/3/04: The measurements shown for the brace and mortises are incorrect as shown in the Base Trim and Mortises for Brace detailed drawing. The measurements for the thickness of the brace, the width of the mortise in the post and the width of the mortise in the bottom of the mailbox should all read 2 3/4 inches, not 2 7/8.

Project #0110, Mailbox, 3/3/04: The second piece of 2 x 8 redwood should be ripped to 5 3/4 inches wide instead of 5 1/2 inches as noted in the Material list.

Norm's CD storage case promises to fool the casual observer with its handsome looks, and capacity to store and display over 200 titles. Resembling an old-fashioned library card catalogue, it features six drawers with antique brass drawer pulls and labels to identify the contents. Crafted out of recycled "heart" pine, the drawers come with full extension slides, making it possible to find the right CD easily. This well-proportioned, modular piece can fit easily on a desktop or bookcase and can be added to-to house a growing collection of CD titles.

Norm shops for a perfect gift for a loved one, discovers an exquisite jewelry case, and decides to replicate it back in The New Yankee Workshop. He improves upon its original design and makes it even more useful when he adds flip-up mirror and secret compartment to store treasures. But viewers will just have to tune in to see this secret revealed.

After looking through the offerings of a country store, Norm finds the inspiration to build a small lock-and-key style writing desk which was popular 200 hundred years ago. Any viewer who has ever struggled with box joints or dovetails won't want to miss this program. These fine woodworking details are what give this simple piece its elegant character. Norm crafts two versions of this piece-one out of antique chestnut and one out of cherry-to ensure that viewers at home will be able to master these woodworking techniques.

In a surprise twist, Norm opens this New Yankee Workshop from This Old House's recent job site in Milton, Massachusetts. While building a new "dream workshop" on the footprint of the old barn's demolished shell, Norm decides to replicate a version of the antique cupola that once adorned its roof back in The New Yankee Workshop. With help from coppersmith Larry Stearn, Norm recreates a copper-roofed version of the original design. Calling it a "true carpentry project which entails every mitre box application," Norm expertly crafts the cupola's louvers and hip roof.

Though a gardener friend uses his handsome antique library ladder to display a collection of vintage watering cans, Norm vows that it can also be used for more utilitarian purposes. He builds this intermediate woodworking project out of recycled, long leaf Southern yellow pine and in the process, demonstrates how to craft its defining feature - splayed legs joined by a hinged crossbar.

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

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.

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 metalsmithing when he fashions the cherry tray's hardware out of brass.

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 peice of heart pine, is sixteen inches high.

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.

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, hose 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.

Norm visits Old Schwamb Mill, the oldest operating custom frame factory in the country. Back at the workshop, he uses both stock molding 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.

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 moldings from a combination of off-the-shelf moldings and others made at the workshop, and selects an inexpensive quartz movement.

The inspiration for the finish on the New Yankee version of this Victorian entry-way piece is the Arts and Crafts Movement. To achieve this "burnt" effect, Norm builds himself an airtight chamber in which the oak piece is fumed. The piece is built from light oak and features a mirror and clay pot holders to catch the raindrops from the resting umbrellas.

A visit to Colonial Williamsburg reveals an often overlooked feature of every neighborhood fences. Norm is struck by the variety of functions and styles, from rustic and split pickets to sophisticated and highly fashioned "in town" fencing. Back at the workshop, he fashions four of his own versions in Eastern white cedar.

Norm turns to the band saw to help form the mahogany frame for his full-length standing mirror. Some delicate work with a router gives a soft edge and an elegant look to the piece.

Norm visits the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts to see one of the surviving wall clocks built by Shaker craftsman Isaac Young. Norm's version of the clock improves on the past with the use of a quartz timepiece that costs only five dollars. Made from handsome walnut, it is a small, elegant piece that fits into any decor.

After visiting the Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts for inspiration, Norm returns to the workshop to build two versions of the classic Shaker step stool - a simple three-step model and a fancier one with two steps. The first stool is made from pine, mostly with hand-held power tools and hand tools, while the more complex version is cherry, featuring through-dovetail joinery fashioned with a sophisticated dovetail jig.

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.

Without dispute, one of the greatest collections of American antiques resides at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. One of the Museum’s most popular displays, the original workshops of the Dominy family, quickly draws Norm’s attention. The Dominys were clock and cabinetmakers who worked in eastern Long Island from the 1730s to the 1830s, creating high-quality clocks and furniture. Norm visits the exhibit and selects a clock, circa 1821, from the Dominy collection to reproduce back in the Workshop. Inspired by the Dominy clock, and up for the woodworking challenge, Norm builds his own simple tall case clock out of poplar and paints it to resemble the original.

It would be hard to think of a more important element of a home’s appeal than its entranceway. But all too often, modern doors are an unremarkable (yet necessary) feature quickly forgotten by those who pass through them. Not so with this custom-made, mahogany beauty that Norm creates in The New Yankee Workshop. He designs and builds it from scratch for an old house that cries out for a new door. Along the way, he is able to find a pair of antique looking “Bulls Eye” glass inserts and a handsome brass knob and lock to set off this masterpiece.

One of the most challenging projects ever attempted on The New Yankee Workshop comes when Norm tries his hand at reproducing a Federal-style Giltwood Mirror. It isn’t the woodworking that is particularly difficult. Norm makes that part seem easy. It’s trying to gild the mirror with gold leaf and make the frame appear as solid gold that takes time, patience, and lots of skill. Norm picks up the history of Giltwood and sees some remarkable examples when antiques expert Gary Sullivan discusses his collection. Then, Norm visits Linda Abrams a gilder and reverse painter for an understanding of what it takes to turn wood into gold.

Linda Abrams may be reached by e-mail at lindabrams@yahoo.com or by phone at 781-647-0672.