Bill Lueders
Chris Jungbluth in his 2,700-square-foot shop just off East Washington Avenue.
Chris Jungbluth points to a shelf laden with boards — two-inch-thick slabs of walnut. It is beautiful dark wood, awaiting transformation: “This is going to be a table and benches for a customer.” His “mostly” German shepherd, Charlie, sniffs the ground. He’ll believe it when he sees it, if then.
Jungbluth, 41, is the sole proprietor of Capital Joinery, a woodworking business on Madison’s east side. He makes furniture, including tables, chairs and beds. Most are custom built — or, as Jungbluth puts it, “not premade things for anyone to pick up and walk away with.” But they can skate away, on one of his custom skateboards. What he makes is functional, but also art.
“I’m reaching a niche market of people who want something unique and handmade,” Jungbluth says. He designs and builds rocking chairs, end tables, desks and shelves. One of his conference tables, made while he was working for Baraboo Woodworks in Madison, now adorns the office of Mayor Paul Soglin.
He freely mixes wood types — oak, walnut, maple, teak, cherry, elm, mahogany. He buys boards and sometimes whole sections of trees when the opportunity presents, then waits until he’s hired or inspired to turn them into projects. One of his favorite places to buy wood is “literally out in the middle of nowhere” — Johnson Creek Hardwoods, in Mount Carroll, Ill.
Chris Jungbluth spent over 400 hours making the rocker featured in Fine Woodworking magazine (left). The English walnut desk drawer (above) shows his love of mixing woods.
A native of Hartland, Wis., Jungbluth has run his own businesses before: He made and sold tie-dyed T-shirts in high school and spent a couple of summers sealing driveways with asphalt after his uncle happened to acquire the requisite equipment. He’s also worked at various times for others. He prefers being his own boss. “It makes me happy,” he says. Plus he gets to bring his dog to work.
After graduating from the UW-Madison with a degree in wildlife ecology, Jungbluth spent a year studying woodworking in Fort Bragg, Calif., at one of several campuses of the College of the Redwoods, which bills itself as “a learning community where lives are transformed.” Under the tutelage of famed woodworker James Krenov, he built a chair special enough to be featured in Fine Woodworking magazine.
He ran his woodworking business out of his garage for several years before buying his present workspace last summer. It’s a spacious 2,700-square-foot building just off East Washington Avenue, with an array of saws, shapers, planers, sanders and clamps — hundreds of clamps. It seems like a lot for a one-man operation, but Jungbluth demurs: “Having too much space is almost never a problem.” And it gives his business room to grow.
Jungbluth says there are “a lot of people who do what I do, but not a lot who do what I do professionally.” Even for him, it’s not possible to get by on custom furniture alone. So he does other work, like building the wooden frames of furniture for the Straight Thread, a traditional upholstery store on Atwood Avenue. And he has a model bed on display at Satara Home & Baby, a home goods retail outlet in Middleton. He’ll build a bed based on this model in a choice of sizes and “species.”
He’s also built gorgeous wooden in-home stairways under contract with carpenters, as well as custom-made entry doors, including one now in his shop. The entry door, a storm and screen combination, will go for about $7,000, sans hardware and installation. A table and benches might cost $4,000, a single chair between $1,500 and $2,500.
“The numbers are a little bit shocking to people, but when I break it down to labor and materials, I should maybe be charging more,” he says. His standard rate is $50 per hour, including overhead. “I want people to be able to afford what I do. But I want to keep the lights on and doors open.” For now, he’s doing just that, covering his costs and looking forward to someday hiring his first employee.
“I think as soon as I start making money is when I’m going to bring another person in here,” he says. Maybe even another dog.
In a perfect world, things can always get better.
Capital Joinery will host an open house on Saturday, July 16, 5-9 p.m.
Capital Joinery, 3223 Burke Ave., Madison, 608-556-0306, capitaljoineryllc.com
