This Winning Workshop would make even Norm Abram envious. Located in Brighton, Colorado, John Lewis runs an old-fashioned woodshop where he teaches handmade chair making and creates furniture in a primitive style using reclaimed materials.
The shop occupies a partially renovated barn dating back to the 1800s. Renovations were modest: an 1890s base burner stove was installed, some insulation added, and enough patching was done to keep the sparrows out while preserving the building’s historic character.
John favors authentic tools whenever practical. His collection includes spoke shaves, hand drills, block planes, lathe tools and other implements from the 1800s through the early 1900s. When original tools are too fragile or rare to use, he prefers hand-crafted modern tools made in the traditional manner by contemporary artisans. The only power tools in the shop are a lathe and a table saw, the latter used mainly to break down large stock into manageable pieces.
There’s no internet in the shop, but plenty of books on classic Windsor chair making, primitive woodworking, and related crafts to browse. The space is intended not only as a working woodshop but also as a calm, restorative environment. It’s remarkable how spending ten hours building a cradle for a friend’s new baby can be more soothing than a day at a spa or an evening of entertainment.
We often romanticize the “good old days,” and a place like this makes that easy. Life in the late 1800s had many hardships, but workshops such as John’s remind us of skills and values worth remembering—parts of our cultural heritage we may have let fade without realizing their value.
Photographer Sam Ley, a friend of John’s, describes the workshop as “a very calming place, especially in winter with the old 1800s stove burning.” For more information about John’s classes and work, visit his website.
Think your workshop belongs on this list? Send us your photos. Photos courtesy of Sam Ley.