THE unique BespOak Interiors started as a good idea, became a hobby and is now well on the way to becoming a big success.


Daniel Lee hand makes rustic wooden furniture using original designs, but his speciality is shelves, ingeniously set into the wall to look like a growing tree.


Less than a year after it was set up he had won Business Innovation of the Year at the Cirencester Business Awards hosted by the town’s Chamber of Commerce.


Daniel’s business started as a labour of love, using the wood working skills passed down by his father and grandfather to make things for his own home.


With encouragement from friends and family, he set up BespOak Interiors last September and worked on the projects around his full time job as an insulation engineer.


But soon the business was flooding in and when February came around Daniel, 28, decided to pack his job in and take on his new businesses full time.


“It’s always a bit of a gamble striking out as a business. Luckily I was able to grow while still working full time,” Daniel said.


“I’m really enjoying it though, and the business is going well.”


For now, BespOak Interiors is a one man show, except when Daniel can convince his wife to help out with the admin.


That means he must design and make all the products himself, while also thinking about marketing, accounting and keeping up to date with the website and social media.


“I tend to spend all day in the workshop then design and do the admin stuff in the evenings at home.


“I’d like to start taking on some staff soon – I can’t do everything on my own forever, there’s only so many hours in the day.”


A few months after going full time he was standing up at the Cirencester Chamber of Commerce Business Awards, accepting an award for Most Innovative Business.


He said he was put off guard when he arrived at the ceremony to find everyone else had received invites.


“I hadn’t received anything, so I thought that’s it, I haven’t won. So I was surprised when they called me.”