The BEST episodes of The New Yankee Workshop season 21

#1 - Mesquite Bookcase

Season 21 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/23/2009

Norm’s expedition to Arizona in search of Arts and Crafts-style furniture projects to build in the New Yankee Workshop leads him to Arroyo Design, a small custom furniture company in Tucson, where he spies a beautiful, glass-front bookcase inspired by the famous Greene Brothers. Featuring divided pane windows and the Greene Brothers’ trademark square-peg detailing, its true artisan qualities make it one of the most sophisticated pieces in this season’s collection. To ensure its heirloom value, Norm crafts this project out of mesquite and in the process educates viewers on how to work with this native Sonoran desert hardwood.

#2 - Roll Top Desk (2)

Season 21 - Episode 26 - Aired 6/27/2009

#3 - Tiger Maple Washstand

Season 21 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/24/2009

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.

#4 - Garden Gate

Season 21 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/7/2009

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.

#5 - Whirligig

Season 21 - Episode 23 - Aired 6/6/2009

On a sojourn to Nantucket, Norm is invited to view a local antique dealer’s private collection of children’s toys and whimsical whirligigs. Inspired by their endearing humor, Norm decides to build his own mechanized version of The New Yankee Workshop’s logo, featuring Norm, himself, working at the table saw.

#6 - Dough Box

Season 21 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/31/2009

#7 - Walnut Table

Season 21 - Episode 16 - Aired 4/18/2009

Norm travels to Savannah, Georgia, to meet Greg Guenther, a respected local craftsman known for his skills at making period furniture and for his restoration work of Historic Savannah mansions. In Guenther’s private collection of period pieces, Norm spies a stunning nineteenth-century, black walnut, drop-leaf dining table with graceful turned legs. Before heading back to the New Yankee Workshop to recreate this heirloom piece, Norm joins Guenther in his workshop for a lesson on how to master a high-gloss finishing technique that enhances the natural beauty of wood.

#8 - Planter's Desk

Season 21 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/3/2009

#9 - Fireplace Mantel

Season 21 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/28/2009

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 mantle and builds it using a variety of woods and moldings readily available at home centers nationwide.

#10 - Seven Drawer Chest

Season 21 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/28/2009

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.

#11 - Chop Saw Station

Season 21 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/30/2009

For any woodworker who aspires to have a home version of the New Yankee Workshop, Norm builds a portable chop saw station, an accessory that he promises will “make your power mitre box much more versatile.” This station can be used in the workshop or can be carted out to a job site to trim a house or to the backyard to build a deck.

#12 - Roll Top Desk (1)

Season 21 - Episode 25 - Aired 6/20/2009

Norm visits the Old Schwamb Mill in Arlington, Massachusetts. Built in 1860, the mill was purchased in 1864 by German immigrant woodworkers, Charles and Frederick Schwamb. The brothers did a brisk business crafting the oval picture frames which, at the time, were in demand to display photographs of Civil War soldiers. In the Schwamb Brother’s old office, Norm spies a handsome, quarter sawn oak roll top desk, which inspires him to build his version of this American classic.

#13 - Nantucket Settle

Season 21 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/17/2009

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.

#14 - Old Pine Bar

Season 21 - Episode 18 - Aired 5/2/2009

Norm builds his version of an antique Irish bar out of recycled pine and gives it a high gloss finish so indestructible that he dares any woodworker who builds it to “leave a frosty mug on it.”

#15 - Turkey Table

Season 21 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/10/2009

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.

#16 - Greenhouse (1)

Season 21 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/14/2009

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.

#17 - Serving Trays

Season 21 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/14/2009

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.

#18 - Carousel Table

Season 21 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/21/2009

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.

#19 - Hat Rack

Season 21 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/7/2009

#20 - Greenhouse (2)

Season 21 - Episode 12 - Aired 3/21/2009

#21 - Irish Table

Season 21 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/4/2009

Back again on Nantucket, Norm visits an antique shop that specializes in Irish country furniture. There, he spies what he calls “the perfect occasional table,” an antique Celtic pine table with a thirty-six-inch round atop four graceful, tapered legs. Back in the New Yankee Workshop, Norm fashions his own version using recycled pine, and in the process demonstrates mortise-and-tenon joinery techniques and shows how to make a tapering jig.

#22 - Linen Press

Season 21 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/11/2009

Norm asks, “Have you ever noticed that most armoires and linen presses are too big to fit in today’s rooms and look just right?” However, in a private collection in Savannah, Georgia, he finds a beautiful antique linen press whose three-foot by six-foot size make it versatile enough to fit in almost any room. Featuring streamlined, raised-panel double doors with detail beading, its simple design seems almost modern. Back in the New Yankee Workshop, Norm recreates this piece out of recycled pine to give it a vintage look.

#23 - Library Ladder

Season 21 - Episode 17 - Aired 4/25/2009

#24 - Morris Chair

Season 21 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/9/2009

In Arizona, Norm goes on a search for Arts and Crafts-style furniture in Tucson’s Historic Arts District. Responding to the many viewer requests he receives each season to build more of the ever-popular Arts and Crafts-style projects, Norm ventures into the F.L. Wright Furniture Gallery where he finds a virtuoso example of the era-a classic, reclining Morris chair. Norm recreates this vintage design out of quarter sawn white oak and in the process, shares his secrets for mastering the techniques required to build the chair’s reclining back.

#25 - Cupola

Season 21 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/16/2009

In a surprise twist, Norm opens this New Yankee Workshop from This Old House's 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.