Building a Website for a Real Dental Clinic (Without Being Hired)

I wasn’t hired for this—I just built it and sent it anyway.

I’ve been working on a small project for a dental clinic—GM Smile Dental Studio.

I didn’t get hired for it. I just decided to build a sample website and see if I could turn a real business into something more structured online.

Most of the material came from their Facebook page—services, photos, even some reviews. Nothing private, just public content. I tried to shape it into something clearer and more usable for someone actually trying to decide whether to book an appointment.

At first, I even tried building a custom WordPress theme with ChatGPT. It worked, but it was more work than I needed for what I was trying to test. So I switched to an existing WordPress theme and just focused on customizing it properly instead of reinventing everything.

That shift actually mattered more than the design itself—realizing when to build from scratch and when to just use what already exists.

This whole thing kind of became a GridPractice exercise without me planning it that way. Not just building a website, but figuring things out through iteration—pulling real information, testing ideas, simplifying when needed, and focusing on something that could actually be used in the real world.

I sent it to them as a proposal and I’m now waiting for a response.

Whatever happens, it’s the first time I’ve taken something from “I think I can build this” to actually putting it in front of a real business.