When Danielle Clair decided to make her own dining table during lockdown, little did she know it would one day become her career.
The 32-year-old, from West Derby, was living alone and going through a difficult time in her personal life, so she decided to use the DIY project as a distraction to take her mind off things. Using a £7.99 palm sander she'd bought from B&M, Danielle tried to turn two scaffolding boards into a table, but it fell apart.
After watching countless YouTube and Instagram videos, she preserved, and her second attempt was a success. Danielle shared a photo of the table on Facebook, which gained a lot of attention and she was soon asked to make one for a friend.
But it was thanks to an advert on Facebook Marketplace that Danielle decided to quit her job in sales and logistics to start her own business as a carpenter, called Scouse Girl Timber, from a shed in her garden.
Danielle told the ECHO: "The first lockdown came along and my job at the time wasn't going great. With Covid and Brexit, it was a really hard industry to be in. I was really struggling with that.
"Living alone it was quite lonely in lockdown. All my family live quite far away so I didn't have that bubble that everyone had.
"I really needed something to take my mind off things. I wasn't exaggerating when I said I wouldn't even know what a meter was or what the right end of a hammer was.
"I was all about make up, bags and clothes before - I was very girly. It was very out of my comfort zone. It had never crossed my mind to do something like that before.
"I think with lockdown people were just stuck in. I thought I might as well give it a go.
"I put a picture on social media and it just went mad. People said 'oh my god I can't believe you made that.'"
After a lot of encouragement from her friends, Danielle shared her first business advert on Facebook in October 2020 and sold her first dining table for £120.
She said: "Someone messaged me and asked to buy one and I was that nervous I threw up. I don't think I genuinely believed someone would want to buy one.
"It excited me seeing something go from such raw materials and something ugly, to something that someone would want to show off in their house. It gave me a real sense of achievement."
Aged 30 at the time, Danielle, who left school with no GCSEs, decided to quit her job in sales to focus on the business. She made her own Instagram page followed by a website in January last year and the orders started flooding in.
She has quickly outgrown the 8ft by 6ft workshop in her back garden and swapped it for a bigger one, where she now makes all kinds of bespoke furniture from. Danielle's customers include Tate Liverpool and restaurants across the country, with her biggest order to date coming in at over £10,000.
As a female carpenter, Danielle often comes across sexist and outdated attitudes but she said this only makes her more determined.
Danielle added: "I get surprised looks and comments that I'm a woman and I'm making things like this. I try and turn it the other way and let it give me that buzz and that drive that I'll show you that nothing is for just for men, any gender can do anything.
"I think the more comments I get about it the more I want to show people it doesn't matter what you are, it doesn't matter what the stigma is, you can do anything. No matter how far out of your comfort zone it is anything really is possible."
Danielle said: "I've been able to give up my job and I earn more money now than I have in any employment. To go from making your own dining table to a full-time business with a fully functioning workshop is just unbelievable.
"That's what I want to show people - you don't have to have gone to university and have A Levels and GCSEs, you can push yourself out of your comfort zone. Even if you've done one career your whole life, no matter how old you are, you can change career.
"Sometimes I feel like I've got imposter syndrome and how have I got here? And then when I really look at it I think well done. I'm really proud of myself."
