Announcement!

When I think of the many thousands following this blog and the online work we do training through video, I have to say I do feel quite stunned. It’s no small thing that Joseph and I have brought about a training and teaching program for woodworkers and furniture makers that now reaches around the world. We may not have put the brakes on more invasive methods most people don’t really need but we have made a sizeable incursion into helping people see the alternative is not at all primitive but actually advanced. It’s interesting that we have done this by skill–we’ve never taken advertising, sponsorship or ‘free gifts‘ since we began filming my work. You alone have always been enough support and inspiration for us. Sponsors can’t bring vision to our effort nor influence it. The vision is ours to give to you to become yours to work with. You are the ‘apprentice‘ online and it works better than I could ever imagine. So we continue to keep our work free from sponsorship so we can alway speak our minds freely, uncoerced and honest.

Talking to Joseph this week, discussing the next phase in our vision for training woodworkers, we saw the current completion of various parts in the same way we see the assembled components for a new design coming together on the workbench; the tenoned rails, mortised leg, the drawer sides and raised panels each with the concluded parts fitly framed for assembly like a three dimensional jigsaw but much more complex. It starts out a 3 x 8 beam six foot long and rough cuts downsize it through long rips and eventual crosscuts ready for planing and joinery. Soon the parts become comprehensive–known by their part in the whole–identified. Before long there’s a symmetry to the pieces. Instead of seeing component parts stacked in relative segments you picture the whole as though it is done and together. Pulling all of the design components we jointly envisioned has become multilinear, the composition of a dream that is, like the piece of furniture, becoming the clear and concise reality for craftsmanship to take its rightful place in the future. I believe our vision has differed to all others in this one thing. Craft and skilled work of any kind is best preserved in the lived lives of those who practice it. It has little to do with professional status or indeed any other type of status but more to do with those who love the work. With this alone we have seen the craft hand work in woodworking extend around the world. How happy this makes me.

Over the last few weeks, months and years we’ve been assembling the parts. As it is to those visiting my workshop through the years, what I am making is not immediately obvious until assembly nears completion. It may not have been obvious to you too but bit by bit the component parts have been coming together. Some times the steps seemed insignificantly small, stepping stones if you like, others, for us anyway, seemed such giant ones yet we felt they were too important not to take them. Doing the mental gymnastics to get to the different points seemed far ahead of us but now, here we are. There were the physical obstructions too. A major hurdle was finding somewhere to work where we could really maximise control of our environment. We’d worked through many years subjected to external noises, stray light we had no control over. It was not that we were precious about things, just that a wrench dropped when only one take results in a ruined dovetail can mean retake after retake so it doesn’t spoil the experience for the watcher. Those are the invasive things that happen when you least want them and there are times when there is no way when you are filming that you can recover from them. So a year ago we bought the building to film in. We built our garage workshop in a small corner of it and set up our film studio. This then ensured the future premium crafting of our videos.

Our dream of recent years has been to build what we’ve come to refer to as a houseful of furniture’. By that I mean we would be starting from the ground up to build everything in wood you might need to furnish and supply a home. To do that we would need to start with finding the right house, one we could own, a house we could design for, decorate and furnish from its empty state. After a long search we found the house we felt best suited our ambitions. It’s a fairly ordinary house for ordinary people to live in. People like us. It’s not too big nor too small. With the house as our base camp, we can now plan our new designs, designs perhaps not seen anywhere before, new and modern, traditional, composite designs and not just furniture either. Remember the Eco Bin series, the Lap Top Desk. Coffee table in the living room and then bunk beds for the kiddies. Every stick and stem for any home will come from our garage workshop and the workbench we’ve been encouraging everyone to build. This recent plywood workbench was to help people to join us. Already I feel we’ve stepped up the pace with that move alone. We hope you will join us over the coming weeks and months as we learn together to make our own pieces. Also, a new step for us, we want you to learn how we design each of the pieces we make. We will be discussing these steps too but we want designs that you can adapt wherever possible to suit your own needs in the design of your home pieces. Our long term investment teaching and training others was paying off in the lives of others. I felt the art of hand tool woodworking would now survive. So now we own our studio to film and edit in, our garage workshop within the studio, the ideal workbench in different forms, the actual house we are designing the pieces for, the home garage at the house and staff working hard to back up our vision. This is a new beginning and we will be taking you on the journey with us!

71 Comments

  1. Wow. I can see this going on for ages and each episode full of wonder. I think it is a brilliant idea. Not only is it enhancing my skills but great entertainment for my evenings with meaning rather than what I consider rubbish on the TV. Thank you Paul and team

  2. Wow I really cannot wait. This has always been my reason for woodworking (or probably “making” as they call it now). I don’t do stuff to sell or commissions that would make it like work again and I do it for my own and families pleasure.

  3. Great news Paul, Cannot wait to see what you fill this house with.
    I have to agree with Peter Compton when he states that he would rather watch you than the usual rubbish that is on the television. Maybe you should go into the jungle and show the so called celebrities something useful.
    Keep up the good work and a Happy belated Birthday.

  4. This is great news for me, personally. I have been working on the interior of a “summer camp” for the last 8 years, and I have learned a lot from Paul (as well as other youtube craftsmen and women). I am down to the “punch list” stage on the interior, and I am turning my thoughts to furnishing it.
    I am also in the process of looking for a new house, and space for a workshop is a key consideration, as I visit possible locations and consider what I will need to do.
    I look forward to this new venture of yours, Paul, as I start on my own venture of crafting a home space.

  5. Wow, I am quite speechless, what an incredibly ambitious project. My workshop cabin will be ready in a few weeks and I can’t wait to get started.

    Have you thought of approaching broadcast TV with this project?

    The professionalism of your video work means a longer format broadcast version would be more than possible and I would love to see Paul on TV !

    1. Great to hear from you!

      We are planning this for release on our websites in a similar fashion to Woodworking Masterclasses.

      That said, we will be filming them in a way that would be suitable for TV (or online equivalent) broadcast if ever that is an option.

  6. Great news, especially as -selfishly- my workshop should be complete by year end.
    Looking forward to the new projects and lessons.
    Thank you for your superb work so far, and thank you in advance for the future experiences.

  7. This is a great idea. I wonder who will be the lucky devil in the end to live in this home?

  8. Would this house possibly be used to house guests who come from long & far for your courses? …just a thought.

  9. it’s like you’ve said in the past: woodworking is not about the individual pieces and projects, it’s a part of everyday life. From the front door to the kitchen cabinets to the coffee table you put your feet on. I’m betting there will be lots of buyers lined up for your “ordinary” house at project’s end. Looking forward to the journey.

  10. No matter how much I enjoy watching your videos (“the Bob Ross of woodworking”?), I doubt television is the right medium anymore. Two or three decades ago? Definitely would’ve loved to see you on TV! Back when educational TV still existed and wasn’t dumbed down to included everyone and his dog. But TV is a station I passed many years ago. Not worth switching it on, for me at least. Besides, with the internet, there’s no need for it anymore. It has become irrelevant, at least for me, for about 20 years now.

    Am looking forward to this next phase you’re taking. But, I also hope you’ll occasionally delve a bit into house carpentry: fixing a door, hanging a door, repairing or making a window frame, repairing squeaking stairs, replacing a floorplank, that sort of thing. It’s not Woodworking with a capital W, but they’re tasks that often end up on the ‘to-do’ list and uses many of the same tools as furniture making. And when buying an older house, those tasks will most definitely come up. Either way, I know which ever direction you take it, it’ll be worth my time to watch it.

    1. We are developing this idea for our own websites.

      I wouldn’t want to rule out making the content available elsewhere in the future but we have an audience for our content and a tested delivery method already working.

      Thanks for the feedback.

    2. My wife has asked me to make a new front door in very expensive (but beautiful) oak. No paint means no mistakes!! Last year I had to make a new sash window. All very taxing for an apprentice . I too would appreciate guidance on these issues from the master.

    3. I agree with Nemo; this sounds fantastic but it would be great to see how sash windows were made (for example). I managed to salvage a heap of sash windows that were taken out of a school to be replaced by aluminium ones. The thing is, the windows were made from Tasmanian King Billy Pine – one of the worlds rare and unique timbers that is now commercially extinct. When pulling them apart I marveled at the workmanship; there were about 60 of them but each one was slightly different and beautifully made. It would be really interesting to know how they were made and, also, how the old, paneled timber doors were made.

      All the best for the new venture; can’t wait 🙂

      1. Thank you for the support, Steve. Here we have a common dilemma though. I am often asked about the possibility of replicating processes used in the past for such things as sash windows and moulded skirting boards a foot deep. I understand the interest, of course I do, and the entertainment value just in the procedures alone using hand tool methods, but my goal is to ensure that today’s woodworker is well equipped by developing skills and doing so through the pieces designed as the vehicle to learn through. Whereas the majority might benefit from just about any piece of furniture I make in some way, and I try to include some new technique or method every time, it is unlikely that many would gain from the replication of sliding sash windows or even general window frame making because almost no one would make their own window frames or go back to that sliding sash and weight style or type of window. The work itself is so specialised very few would benefit from it.

        1. Respectively, I would have to disagree Paul. Even in Perth (the furthest capital city away from any other capital city, or so I get told) there has been a steady demand for these sorts of skills. Times change, not always for the better. Some of the factors dictating a complete lack of internal joinery at all or to the standards of the past are different construction techniques and the drive for a dollar in the material available or just the drive for a dollar by the developers whom seem to miss the benefits of some of the internal joinery features. Not just the lack of availability of wonderful old growth soft woods and hardwoods. Even the finger jointed pine in good grades is not of the same dimensional attributes of the past timbers. Because of your teachings and other practitioners on line I can for example manufacture plinth blocks to match the damaged old ones in size and dimension from suitable waste timber (because of it’s unusable length!) with hand tools in a temporary 2x3m converted laundry/workshop. From the same space with a portable table saw set up on the back lawn and a few rebate planes all the profiles for a modified to current requirements 3.6m high sash window with fixed panes to replace the existing termite eaten one was made. The customer wanted this and the skillset to manufacture is one in the same to a degree, the installation and the application when actually at the house brings different considerations. The work can be specialised but your point of bridging old, new with the skilled use of hand tools rings true across the board. I would love to see videos of how you would approach any of the maintenance/repair tasks on what is now considered to be old internal joinery. Sometimes it is the why, something which you demonstrate great capability at conveying in an approachable manner. You are in a unique position of being able to deliver such knowledge in an accessible format and you have installed countless items of second fit joinery that I have read of from your website in your professional (amateur;) ) life. I do appreciate the transference of skills from furniture to such joinery in a house as a logical progression but I really do see this as a prime opportunity . I have many reference books and the occasional teacher but a go to video on architrave installation, built in cabinetwork, window repair, door repair/hanging ,floor repair etc would personally I feel to be of great value to your subscribers and in the case of self interest, myself, even having installed or manufactured a lot of this previously. You would make all these home reno tv shows look completely inept! This is a great development!

  11. Bravo ! But please, stay away from commercial tv endeavors. That would only mean loss of control and disaster. ( In my opinion)

    1. We have a pretty clear vision for our content and a dedicated audience. We are developing this new venture for our own websites.

  12. I started my own adventure in woodworking one year ago with the primary goal to furnish our new home with my own hands. I had had it with purchasing poorly made furniture while feeling like there was no alternative because I didn’t have the necessary skills…convenience is a kind of prison.
    Over the course of the year I built a bench following your guidance and as a result finally feel like I am ready to undertake “real” furniture builds to finally meet our goal. This announcement is perfect timing for someone like me! Thanks for keeping your focus practical and approachable!

  13. WOW! when you were teasing your exciting new endeavor for the coming year, i struggled to think of what could be so exciting. this is a brilliant, novel, and very practical approach for instructing woodworkers. will the designs be your own? a sampling of established styles? (to help with your planning, my wife and i are very fond of the Shakers. haha.)

  14. I’d second the comment about domestic carpentry skills – I’d love to learn how to make and fit traditional windows and doors.

  15. Looking forward to seeing your designs for the furniture to fill the new house. And of course having a go at making some of them!

  16. Very exciting Paul. You and Joseph have a well thought out vision.

    It’s great to hear that you’re going to delve into the design process of your pieces. I’ve been reading through your blog (starting back on page 222), as well as watching a lot of your videos and a recurrent theme seems to be a lot of folks wanting you to do some design change to a piece to make it how they’d like it. Maybe this will help them to let go of your hand, spread their wings and figure out some of this stuff on their own. Reading their posts, I know they have the skills to do it. Disclaimer: I’m including myself in the “they” group!

    Jim

  17. Very creative and I’m sure it will be fantastic. I look forward to seeing the show grow and expand.
    A thought, maybe, add an apprentice to the show. Having that person learn, ask questions, make mistakes can help us learn. In addition, as you get older (in your case that will be slow in coming) you have a continuation of your wonderful vision. A young person like when you started would be interesting to watch. Just some food for thought, given with the desire to be helpful.
    Dennis

  18. Very exciting! I look forward to seeing more about the design process, as you mentioned.

    A few years ago, you were going to recruit some apprentices and have them build a dining room, bedroom, or both. Is that still part of the idea? If so, it would be quite interesting to have them journal their apprentice experience and share their journals, if they were willing. I suspect there are big lessons in little things that the apprentices pick up on.

  19. Brilliant! That was the first word that came to mind and sure enough, it’s the first comment at the top of the list. Looking back at the Singing Work post mentioned above about building a staircase, would you by any chance be doing that kind of work or just building the furniture that goes into the already completed house? Stair building is an art and if Paul could build us a staircase, with all the traditional parts properly assembled it would truly be a joy to behold. Lessons abound for all of us as well. I suppose building a house from scratch then outfitting it with furniture is a bit big of a project but I for one would love to watch Paul do all that. Who hasn’t dreamed of actually building their own home?

  20. When Joseph told me this news in the summer, I eagerly awaited an announcement confirming the rumor! This is very exciting news, and I’m really looking forward to the next stage.

    One thing I struggled with in my own home was installing fitted cupboards and drawers. A lot of the inspiration came from your videos, but fitting it neatly between the wonky walls was difficult! I hope you’ll be able to offer some guidance on this in future. I’d be interested to see how I should have done it!

  21. How exciting!

    It is definitely a massive project, the best kind of project! So much for us the audience to learn! I am sure all your everyone, including me, are eager to see this project come into fruition.

    Thanks for all your work Paul and team.

  22. I’ve got plenty of plans for things like this I went back to college and retrained as a building surveyor, I can’t sit in front of a TV all day long so nine times out of ten I’ll be on the computer designing living accommodation all made from wood (apart from the foundations). Well insulated and made from 12 x 3 frames for the outside walls and 6 x 2 for internal walls, infilled with solid insulation. No gas-electric provided by a small wind turbine any extra electric sold to the national grid, and if push comes to shove you should be allowed to drill for your own water supply. This would put the onus on the individual for energy saving.

  23. Please let this house also be a museum that we can walk through and see your work in person!

  24. Very exciting! I plan to be re-building a house (built in 1892) for the first time in the next year, and building pieces to go into it would be wonderful. I have been drying wood I harvested from my current lot for a few years. Every time I watch you, Paul, I want to call you Sensei. If I could quit my job and make wood shavings, I would be in heaven. Let’s go!

  25. It’s time to be a true master of the craft by letting apprentices/associates do some of the teaching while you supervise, explain design, correct mistakes and even explain how to estimate.

  26. I am so excited for this. My wife and I are about to embark on this journey ourselves with buying a new home (minus the cameras and all). You have been the most important recourse I’ve had over the years and I can’t wait to follow along with you and fill my own home!

    Thank you and your team so much for all you do.

    Best,
    Jason

  27. Good News, Paul. I thought the work you and your team were doing was the pinnacle of what we coould get, but you’re proving me wrong.

    What a time to be alive.

  28. Wow, this is amazing! I can’t wait to watch this happen. Thank you so much for what you do.!

  29. Fantastic!!! Just what I’ve been wanting to do!

    Is there a project list yet? Can’t wait to see it.

    Will the videos be released as WWMC videos?

    How long do you anticipate this project to take from release of the first to the release of the last video in the project?

  30. Paul,
    Your quiet and calm voice has filled my room this winter as I devour every video and I have used your techniques and advice while in my woodshop in Texas. I watch other YouTube woodworkers also, but they seem to be screaming for attention and sponsors. You on the other hand have nothing to prove and your wisdom and desire to teach speaks volumes about the quality of your character. I chuckle watching you labor to rip a board with a handsaw while I am shouting ” for goodness sakes Paul just pick up a Skillsaw!” I do realize that you are laboring just to show how it was done and can still be done. I very much appreciate that. Finally one evening I was watching you explaining saw sharpening and I realized you love using your hand tools as much as I love using mine. It’s the process and the journey that we both love and the end result of a useful and beautiful piece is just a nice bonus. I have quit watching mainstream TV as I just cannot stomach the dross anymore. Please stay true to your methods and format. I am excited in your new project and I eagerly await to see your work! Best of luck to you!
    Bud (A fellow Texan!)

  31. If Paul would like to be even more ambitious and share his knowledge of how to frame the house and finish it before the furniture goes in that’d be brilliant as well ?

  32. – “After a long search we found the house we felt best suited our ambitions. ”
    and for our US friends, houses are generally brick houses in GB.
    So, I guess, no house framing.
    Although door, window, trimming and stair work could be interesting. My house is about 130 years old.

    – Paul, please resist any call to transform a great learning experience in a “reality show”.
    There is no need to show incorrect techniques, apprentice errors, apprentice nervous breakdown and such things… The sole purpose of those show is to flatter the ego of the spectator, well seated in his armchair, who likes to think he would never have done so bad.

    That is not to say you should not show how to correct a slippage here and there as it sometimes happens even with 50 years of experience.

    Thank You for all.
    Sylvain

  33. Fantastic news about this latest development. As a newish grandfather I would be interested to see your ideas about a baby’s drop side cot.

    I have returned to working with wood since last doing it at school when 13, I am now 70. So far all I have to show are two three legged stools made for granddaughters. What surprised me is the amount of time involved. Every action had to be rehearsed in my mind several times before doing it. Two things have been learned. Don’t get the grain of the wood being laminated mixed up and secondly cheap spade bits when used in an electric drill are an abomination.

    Please keep up the excellent work, as has been pointed out, your videos beat just about every program on the tv into a cocked hat!

    Richard Elsdon

  34. The idea seems bold and daring, I like it. I wish I would have known about it. Heck I would have bought a house to use just to be part of it.

    As far a your video quality goes, you have some of the best quality videos. Your websites are clean simple and easy to use. You and your staff do excellent work. Thanks

  35. Mr. Sellers, I am so excited by your announcement. I am a novice, I look forward to the design elements. I frequently wonder why are the tennis that size? Is it aesthetic or structural? Looking forward to it.

  36. Bravo! A wonderful concept which I can totally empathise with. So much furniture is made poorly these days and yet costs the earth (a deliberate choice of words). I am just starting woodworking ‘properly’ at the age of 51 and will be coming along with this journey.

  37. Furnishing a house is really exciting Paul. There’s a possibility that I could inherit my neighbor’s house. I could be in the same situation years from now. I will be tuned in. Historical question about woodworking – were furniture makers during the premachine era commissioned to furnish houses?

  38. I’ve followed your work on Youtube for years, and joined Maserclasses earlier this year. I’m still in the dovetail boxes stage of hand tool woodworking, with ambitions to build up o a desk this summer, and a dresser the next, with quite a few small projects in between. This is tremendously exciting news, and a wonderfully ambitious project. And for me personally, quite timely, as you are laying down a path ahead of me to follow. It’s already miles long, but now it will go even further over the horizon. Thank you, really looking forward to where this goes.

  39. Dear Paul

    This announcement is very much welcomed, for a second there I thought you were retiring… glad that was not your announcement. We would miss the singing.

    A couple of questions because the scope of the announcement is big.

    For previous projects like the coffee table, eco bin you have already done those projects recently , are you going to repeat those projects for the new house or adapt those projects for the new house ?

    Can you give us a preview of what projects you are planning for 2019 ?

    For such a large ambitious project are you planning on using the bandsaw where applicable for the new projects ?

    Are you going to get to include other members of staff in the woodworking videos to share the workload?

    Sorry for all the questions.

    1. Hello Richard, Good questions. The projects we have made will not be reappearing or reworked in any way. We may for instance bring in bookshelves but not ones we have made previously. there will be themes to some rooms but my goal is to provide information that can be interpretive, making a design can be reconfigured to suit another style and we will discuss such things as we go. I do plan to use techniques I have developed for a project like the eco bin to make say a small office waste bin or something like that but the plan is to be open to new designs without dismissing what has been valid for decades and centuries.We will try to giver insight into projects ahead of time, yes. We can see how that goes too. The bandsaw is here to stay but necessarily for every project or every section of work. It’s about giving choice. Not planning on using others in the videos but we will be adding new staff to help with drawings and woodwork.

  40. Do you plan on showing traditional carpentry / joinery projects, e.g. stairs and railings, doors, windows, mouldings, wainscoting, etc? I’m sure many people would love to see your take on these.

    1. No, Justin, that’s not our goal. It does not mean we won’t be doing some things but we are not planning on anything like This Old House or New Yankee things.

  41. Interesting concept. I usually leave plywood to my CNC and other utilitarian projects. It’s also my choice for instrument body molds. The workbench looks good in the video and I can see this could be a good alternative for some. For me here in Houston, it is harder to find and transport decent plywood. I can easily buy the pine I need to make the traditional workbench at an orange/blue box close to home, but to get decent baltic-birch-like ply there are limited speciality stores, each around 40 minutes away from me… and then I have to rent a truck to get the wood home–it won’t even fit in my SUV.

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