Karen Price has transformed a 17th-century ... - The Post House

need to know
The owners Karen Price lives here with partner John and
together they run the house as a B&B.
The house The Grade II-listed building in a village near
Wells was built in the 17th century and, prior to Karen
buying it, functioned as the village post office and bakery.
Downstairs is a kitchen, living room, dining room and
breakfast room and upstairs are three guest bedrooms
and the master bedroom. Part of the house can also be
rented as self-catering accommodation.
32 H&A April 2012
Karen Price makes it all look very easy. Her
country B&B – in the blink-and-you’llmiss-it
village of Chewton Mendip near
Wells – looks like it would be more at home
in Provence: all flagstone floors, iridescent
lime-rendered walls and elegant antique furnishings.
Appearances can be deceptive though and the polished
finish belies a year of hard grafting.
When Karen bought the 17th-century house five years
ago she was after a renovation project and this place
couldn’t have been more of one. What is now the sitting room
was the village post office; the dining room was originally a
bakery; and the kitchen, literally, a pig sty. ‘During the
viewing there was a whole pig being roasted in what was the
bakery – which was filled with huge ovens – and the windows
had fallen out on to the pavement. The property had been
in the previous owners’ family for around 90 years and it was
falling down around their ears,’ says Karen. Karen is no
stranger to a project though: this is the fourth historic
building she’s worked on, so it was in safe hands. She enlisted
the help of a local builder who ‘was very sympathetic to the
house’s history’ and together they oversaw the work of
H&A homes
Facing page, clockwise From top leFt
Karen lays the kitchen table ready for breakfast; in
the summer the second courtyard area is something
of a suntrap; Karen originally wanted a completely
free-standing kitchen but realised she needed work
surfaces, too. She compromised by having units made
by a local carpenter and fitting open shelving to the
walls this page Kitchen shelves display Karen’s
collection of recycled Weck bottles and copper pans