NEW BUSINESS A HOMECOMING FOR JUPITER AUDIOLOGIST
Jupiter High graduate returns home, opens Hammer and Stain.
JUPITER — Jupiter High School graduate Ami Muncy left home 22 years ago for the University of Florida to study communication disorders, then she went on to the University of Texas at Dallas for her doctorate in audiology.
In October, she returned home to start her “second life.”
Muncy gave up a successful career in audiology with no regrets after 15 years because the stress was becoming too much, she said. She moved back to Florida to take a stab at a different career — running a do-it-yourself studio.
“I moved to Dallas for my doctorate and just stayed,” Muncy said. “Everything was good, except I had a really high stress job. I remember thinking, ‘I need something else to get me through this difficult time in my life.’”
Muncy, 41, said she never hated her line of work, but she took on the weight of patients’ problems, which left her emotionally drained and in need an outlet to let off some steam.
One day in 2017, Muncy decided to give into her creative side and try a wood and paint class that she kept seeing on her Facebook feed.
“I was really artistic when I was younger, but I kind of lost that along the way with work and being a mom,” Muncy said. “I went to my first wood and stain class in 2017 and was like, ‘why am I not doing this all the time?’ I didn’t want to stop.”
It was in that moment that Muncy decided she needed to make a change.
“I had always wanted to move back to Jupiter,” she said. “Now was just the right time.”
In February, Muncy started getting the pieces in place to open Hammer and Stain Palm Beaches, at 2109 S. U.S. 1, which is her own version of the wood, paint and sip studio that she fell in love with in Dallas.
Muncy still has her “big girl job” as an audiologist, but only does it part-time now. Every other moment of her day, Muncy said she spends learning design techniques, thinking of new craft ideas and building her business. While Muncy doesn’t have any staff, she said her 19-year-old daughter, Caitlin, will help out around the shop when she’s home from Stephen F. Austin State University on breaks.
“I really don’t find it hard,” Muncy said about running a business. “Yes, I work long hours, but it doesn’t feel like work. It’s more like me playing.”
Hammer and Stain had its grand opening Saturday and regular DIY workshops start today. At the studio, one can make wood or fabric home decor pieces.
“It’s actually something you want to hang up in your home,” she said. “If you can use a stencil and paint, then you can do this.”
Muncy said her studio is the only one of its kind in Palm Beach County. She described it as “a step up” from painting classes because people can customize almost everything so it’s exactly what they want.
Even though Muncy just started her new business and still gets stressed, she said now “it’s good stress.” There is no more emotional strain because of her job. Instead, she feels thrilled that she gets to create every day and pure excitement to be back home.
“Jupiter is home to almost my entire family. My sister and brother-in-law both teach at the high school, where we all graduated from,” she said. “[It’s] the perfect place to live and I feel lucky to call it home again.”