Peter Galbert

Peter Galbert, who studied painting and photography in college, worked with sheet goods in fast-paced cabinet shops in New York City in the 1990s. Then in 2001, while sharing a very small shop in lower Manhattan with a guitar maker, Galbert was inspired to look for “something I could make in a tiny space with hand tools and solid wood.” Windsor chairs were the answer, and he’s been making them—and teaching others how to do so—ever since. In 2015 he put all he knows about Windsors into an impressive book, Chairmaker’s Notebook (Lost Art Press), which he both wrote and illustrated. These days he’s happy in his shop in a historic mill building, where he builds chairs, teaches, and makes tools.