Upcycling Barcelona’s forgotten hydraulic tiles into tables, furniture & art

January 30, 2023 | MumAbroad Life Video Channel

Have you ever looked down while visiting Barcelona, rather than up?

Barcelona is world famous for its modernist architecture like the Sagrada Familia or the Palau de la Musica Catalana. But it also had a flourishing tile industry dating back to 1857, and which today is slowly and silently being thrown into skips and dumpsters.

Mesa Bonita – upcycled hydraulic tiles from Barcelona

Bénédicte Bodard, originally from France, relocated to Barcelona in 2001 where she fell in love with the hydraulic floor tiles typically found in the Modernista buildings in the city centre.

When she first arrived the real estate market was booming and many people were remodelling their apartments and tearing up the tiled floors. She sourced her first tiles literally from skips on the side of the road.

Bénédicte has been saving and recycling these discarded tiles for over 20 years now.

And while she came to Barcelona as a lover of architecture – and particularly the La Pedrera building and museum – she never knew she would one day contribute the tiles to an exhibition there.

Own your own piece of Barcelona

You can find a range of furniture and decorative art pieces on the Mesa Bonita website.

The list of products include:

  • tables
  • souvenirs
  • frames
  • coasters
  • trivets
  • night stands
  • consoles
  • paper weights

You can eve have a custom piece commissioned – all made from upcycled Barcelona hydraulic tiles!

Find out more here: https://mesabonita.es/

More information

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MumAbroad was founded in 2007 as a resource for expat mums who struggled without the support of their extended family.

By 2014, the network had grown to include information on child-related services, schools, family activities, shops, family holidays and restaurants across Spain and three other European countries. The international network is proud to feature a Women in Business directory, giving home-country, expat and immigrant women a platform to reinvent themselves after maternity leave and serve the MumAbroad community.

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