Custom web design
No templates, no page builders. Your site is drawn up around your brand, your audience and your goals, and every decision in it is one I can explain to you. Bespoke
Bespoke web design & development
Every great website starts with a wish.
The Wishing Pool designs and builds websites for small and growing businesses - made from scratch, never from a template, with every enquiry landing straight in a Google Sheet you own outright.
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Declan Auston, founder
01 - Services
What I build
Six things, done properly. Most projects use a few of them; some use the lot. Either way it’s shaped around how your business actually runs - not around a theme someone else designed.
Google Sheets integration
Enquiries, bookings and sign-ups drop straight into your own Google Sheet. No third-party database sitting between you and your customers, and nothing to lose if you ever walk away. The difference
Google Apps Script
Quiet automation behind the scenes - forms wired to Sheets, Gmail and Calendar, doing the admin you’d otherwise be doing by hand. No extra subscriptions to keep it running. Automated
SEO optimisation
Built to be found. Semantic markup, structured data, sensible metadata and genuinely fast load times - the technical groundwork laid from the first commit rather than bolted on later. Discoverable
Mobile-first build
Your customers are on their phones, so that’s where the design starts and where it’s tested hardest. Tablet and desktop follow - all three treated as first-class, none as an afterthought. Responsive
Ongoing support
Launch isn’t the finish line. Content changes, tweaks, new sections, the odd favour - you’re talking to the person who built the thing, not a ticket queue. Personal
02 - Data ownership
Your data. Your Google account. No middleman.
Most website builders keep your customer data on their servers and charge you every month for the privilege of reaching it. Not here. Every submission goes straight into a Google Sheet with your name on it - and it stays there whatever happens to me.
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You own it outright
Everything lives in your Google account, under your login. Nothing to cancel, nothing held hostage, nothing to export in a hurry.
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It arrives instantly
A submission hits your spreadsheet the moment it’s sent. Open Sheets on your phone and it’s already there, no syncing, no waiting.
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No subscription lock-in
No Airtable, no Notion, no monthly fee for a database you never asked for. Just Google - which you’re almost certainly already using for free.
How a submission travels
Live
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STEP 01
Your website
A customer fills in a form - an enquiry, a booking, a callback request.
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STEP 02
Google Apps Script
The submission is handled securely inside your own Google workspace.
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STEP 03
Your Google Sheet
A new row appears in your spreadsheet, timestamped and ready to work from.
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STEP 04
Email notification
An optional Gmail alert so you know the moment something comes in.
03 - Process
From first chat to launch
Four stages, no jargon, no surprises. You’ll always know what’s happening and what’s next.
01
Discovery
We start with a conversation. What does your business do, who are your customers, and what do you actually need the website to achieve?
02
Design
I design it from scratch around your brand, your tone and your structure. You see it and sign it off before a line of code is written.
03
Build
Clean, fast, SEO-ready code. Your Google Sheets integration is set up and properly tested, with regular updates throughout.
04
Launch & support
We go live together. I walk you through everything, then stay on hand for questions, updates and whatever comes next.
04 - Pricing
Quoted properly, every time
You won’t find a price list here, because I’ve never met two projects that needed the same work.
Price on application
Every project is quoted individually
Different scope, different features, different amount of work - so there are no packages to squeeze yourself into and no tiers designed to push you up a level. Tell me what you’re after and I’ll price the actual job.
Honest pricing - no hidden fees, no surprise invoices
Before you commit
Free demos for the right projects
Sometimes the clearest way to show you what’s possible is to build a piece of it. For certain projects I’ll put together a free working demo first, so you can see something real before any money changes hands. Ask, and I’ll tell you straight whether yours is a fit.
Availability depends on the project
05 - About
Hi, I’m Declan.
I’m a 27-year-old web developer with a fairly simple belief: small businesses deserve genuinely good websites, not a generic template bought off a shelf and filled in with your logo.
The Wishing Pool was built on the idea that your website should work as hard as you do - bringing in leads, looking the part, and never quietly costing a fortune in subscriptions to tools you don’t fully understand.
“No account managers, no handoffs, no one learning your business second-hand. Just me, and your project.”
Every site I build is a direct conversation between what you need and what I know how to do. You’ll speak to the person writing the code, from the first email to long after launch.
- Honest pricing - no hidden fees, no surprise invoices.
- You talk directly to the person building your site.
- Tailored to your business - never copy-paste.
06 - Contact
Let’s talk about your project
Tell me what you’ve got in mind - a first website, a rebuild, or something you’re not quite sure how to describe yet. There’s no obligation and no sales pitch waiting at the other end.
- You send over a few lines about your business and what you need.
- I read it myself - it comes straight to me, nobody else.
- I’ll be in touch within 24 hours with some honest thoughts.
Start a project
Fill in the form below and I’ll be in touch within 24 hours.