From One-Man to a Global Family Business
This year marks twenty years of SWD and it's a milestone that means a great deal to everyone who has been part of our story.
What began in 2006 as Solid Wooden Doors, founded by Tony Cope, has grown into an international family business with showrooms in Surrey and West Palm Beach; supplying bespoke internal and external doors, hardware and joinery.
Yet when Tony looks back over those twenty years, what stands out isn't a carefully mapped-out plan for expansion. It's the opportunities that came from trying things differently, as well as the clients who challenged us to create something truly bespoke.
To celebrate our twentieth anniversary, we're looking back at where it all began.
It All Started with Design
Our story begins well before the first door was sold, when Tony decided by his early twenties that he wanted to run his own business. From 1985 he built a studio that grew from graphic design into website design, point-of-sale and packaging, working with major names such as Panasonic as well as in the camera film and telephone directory sectors.
It was also a period of extraordinary change in the design industry. Tony remembers being amongst the first to adopt Apple Macs professionally, investing £25,000 in a second-hand computer and monitor back in 1990.
Although the business which he runs today looks very different, those early years established an approach that remains central to SWD. Understanding a client's brief and finding the right creative way to bring it to life have always been part of the process.
An Unexpected Move into Doors
Around the year 2000 Tony launched one of the UK's early online ironmongery businesses, supplying door hardware at a time when buying specialist products online was still relatively unusual. As competition increased, his web developer suggested a different direction: why not sell the doors that the handles were fitted to? It was an idea that would eventually change the course of the business.
At an exhibition, Tony discovered a range of French-manufactured wooden doors that immediately caught his attention. Recognising an opportunity to introduce something different to the British market, he decided to open a showroom.
Custom kitchen cabinet doors also became part of the offering, but as demand for internal doors grew, Solid Wooden Doors was established in 2006, marking the beginning of SWD as we know it today.
Interestingly, those early ventures also introduced Tony to someone with ambitions to sell doors in America; the idea of a US showroom had entered the conversation long before it became a reality.
Doing Things the SWD Way
One of the defining features of SWD's development has been a willingness to explore what could be done differently. After starting with a Spanish manufacturer of fire-rated doors, SWD was able to offer a 2.4-metre fire-rated doorset at a time when 2.2 metres was the more familiar limit.
As interior designers began approaching the business with increasingly individual requests, the range developed further. Rather than limiting clients to existing designs, SWD began working with specialist manufacturers to develop new styles and finishes, many of which continue to influence the materials and finishes that we offer today.
Over time, Solid Wooden Doors became SWD Bespoke, reflecting a business that had grown far beyond its original offering.
The Family Behind SWD
Today, Tony's daughter Olivia leads the company as Managing Director, whilst his son Alex oversees the Palm Beach showroom. His daughter Charlotte also brings her experience as an interior designer, with Tony remaining closely involved in the technical aspects of projects.
For Tony, having his children become part of the business is one of his proudest achievements. It has also brought different perspectives into SWD, combining practical manufacturing knowledge with interior design experience and a shared understanding of what clients are trying to achieve.
There have, of course, been challenges along the way. Tony remembers the COVID period as one of the most difficult times for the business, despite it also becoming exceptionally busy. Orders continued and SWD was fortunate that its supply chain remained operational throughout much of the disruption.
Looking back, it's the people who have helped the business through those periods, as much as its commercial achievements, that have made the last twenty years possible.
Taking SWD Across the Atlantic
The ambition to introduce SWD to America had been there for years, but finding the right location took time. Tony explored several possibilities, including Los Angeles, New York and Miami. Each offered opportunities, although none felt quite right for establishing SWD in the US. In Miami, for example, the market was already well served by sleek, frameless Italian doors. Beautiful in their own right, they represented a different approach to the traditional British joinery and decorative detailing that SWD wanted to bring to the States.
West Palm Beach offered something different, with Tony immediately recognising a residential market with an appetite for highly-personalised interiors and homeowners who wanted to explore more individual designs.
The showroom became an opportunity to introduce SWD's British heritage to a new audience without simply reproducing the design trends already associated with Florida. It’s this thinking that can be seen in the Palm Beach Collection of internal doors. For example, The Vista draws on traditional British joinery through its arched form and solid timber construction, whilst The Cabana takes a different direction, pairing an oversized opening with bronze framing and glazed panels.
One of SWD's most memorable American projects was in Newport Beach, California, where the brief called for seventy doors measuring ten feet tall. The resulting high-gloss panelled designs demonstrated the scale and degree of personalisation that had become central to the business.
From a single showroom in the UK to projects on the other side of the Atlantic, it’s been remarkable distance to travel from that first encounter with French wooden doors.
20 Years Later
When asked what advice he would give himself at the beginning, Tony's answer is surprisingly practical: bring in someone exceptional at business development, someone who understands what they're selling and genuinely enjoys talking about it. It's a fitting reflection from someone whose own enthusiasm for design and new possibilities has shaped so much of SWD's history.
Twenty years on, that curiosity remains and there are still plenty of new materials to explore and clients asking whether something can be made that hasn't been attempted before. Perhaps though, the greatest achievement is that the business Tony started has become something shared by his family and a team of people who have helped to shape it over the years.
To our clients, collaborators, manufacturers and everyone who has been part of SWD's journey, thank you for twenty years of support. We look forward to what comes next.
Explore our internal door and hardware collections for inspiration or speak to our team to begin specifying a doorset for your project.
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