The results are in. We received dozens of responses to our invitation to show us your home boatshops. We saw a great variety of shops, including a hand-hewn log cabin, a refurbished Wisconsin dairy barn, a garage and basement shop in South Africa that utilized two levels, a converted worm barn in Alabama, and much more. Here we present three of our favorites: a free-standing shop, a basement shop, and a garage shop. We hope you’ll enjoy touring these three boatshops and pick up some ideas that will be useful in your own shop, too.
Jake Haar
The Free-standing Shop
Taking inspiration from Norman-style buildings he saw while traveling in northern France, Tim Warden designed this 34' x 32' shop and design studio. Warden and his wife, Laurie, built it over the course of two years, working weekends. The wood-heated shop has plenty of elbow room for small-boat building.
The Wardens have dedicated a 32' x 10' space (within the shop’s total footprint) as a design studio. This area, which is completely walled off from the rest of the shop, has oil heat, a couple of couches, and two drawing boards. The solid wall keeps the design area dust free and gives it a different personality from that of the workspace; it’s more like a sitting room. Both drawing boards are placed near windows that face northeast, looking out onto a peaceful, wooded glen.