A NEW family-run bed shop has opened in Bridgwater.

The Bed House, which is based in Taunton Road, is owned by Karenza Davies and sells a selection of mattresses, divans and bed frames as well as bedroom furniture.

Karenza runs the business with her daughter, Sophie, and two sons and said the family have been ‘toying’ with idea of running their own business for some time.

The group finally took the plunge and opened the business this year after Sophie, who was already managing a bed shop, spotted that a building on Taunton Road was up for let.

“We have worked really hard as a family to get this business off the ground and the building looking how it does now,” Karenza said.

“All the work has been all done by ourselves with the help of my husband Justin and Sophie’s partner Chris.

“There was an extreme amount to do here, from removing grease clumped stones from the girders in the ceilings, painting the entire inside of the building, fitting the kitchen, plastering, fitting new doors, laying carpets, cleaning drains to finally putting the beds and the furniture together - what a relief when it was all done.

“However that is where I come in to my own, I do the dressing of the beds, the design of the store layout, the buying of the beautiful pictures that we sell, the procurement really and the marketing side of the business.”

Karenza said the family had ‘lots of discussions’ about the coronavirus pandemic before they set up the the business and decided it was the best choice for them.

“As a mother, I kind of took charge, like any mother would to give their children a better life and to me this was our chance to make that happen," Karenza said.

“There is no way we would ever have had the opportunity to rent this building if not for the coronavirus situation because it would have been snapped up by some other established retail company.

“Times have been so difficult for everyone and there were not so many people wanting to take on a rental property and thus gave us a bit of a bargaining tool.

"On top of that my daughter is excellent at what she does, has an extreme amount of knowledge of beds and sales and a lot of contacts in the bed world and I have every faith that if she could do it for someone else she could do it for herself and our family.

"My son, Ashley, he is the thinker, and very business minded. He is an engineer by trade and has also spent time in sales. As soon as he had hold of our contract, he read it from front to back and inside out as he understands that kind of thing.

"He also sorts out our computer side of things along with his brother Justin for all things IT, the website and the social media side of the business."

Currently Karenza and Sophie are the only two staff at the shop due to the coronavirus pandemic but they are helping customers with advice over the phone with purchase options and have even loaned people bed bases until their deliveries arrive.

"It is such a shame that we have gone into another lockdown," Karenza said.

"It is not an ideal situation for anyone but we are prepared to do all we can to make this work and as much as we can do to do our bit to help stop the spread. "Our products are getting out there through our website, Facebook and Marketplace and we are still delivering doing Covid safe doorstep deliveries and offering a click and collect service.

"We are confident we can see this pandemic through.We have every confidence in our business moving forward.

"Being local people and family run, we are bringing to Bridgwater a modern shop with great quality beds at affordable prices, with friendly faces in store, a great customer service and an excellent delivery team."

For further details visit www.thebedhouse.co.uk/