Photo by Melissa Fry.
Originally from Normandy, France, Bénédicte Bodard lived in Los Angeles for 18 years before moving to Barcelona. In L.A., she worked as a wardrobe stylist for films, television and commercials, but said that after so many years surrounded by the rich and famous she was ready to get back to reality. Plus her American husband, Robin, had more work in Europe than in the States. “We were travelling so much for his job, we were becoming a family circus,” Bénédicte joked, “and with the birth of our daughter, hotel rooms were feeling smaller and smaller.”
Bénédicte and her family relocated in 2001, and found their first apartment in the Eixample. At the time, the real estate market was booming. Every block seemed to include a giant cement container piled high with debris from apartment renovations, and Bénédicte found her next calling. She began dumpster diving for Modernista hydraulic floor tiles, an essential design characteristic of the city’s past that was being devalued and discarded.
A typical square tile weighs two kilogrammes. Bénédicte was finding them by the hundreds and hauling them home with her. Today, she estimates there are nearly 10,000 tiles with over 1,000 different patterns in her workshop. Her workshop, or her cave as she lovingly calls it, is underneath her family’s current apartment in Sants and used to be a soap factory until the Fifties. With crumbling brick walls and plenty of dust, it’s “where the dirty work happens”. When Bénédicte discovers new tiles, she has to chisel up to three inches of chunky, hardened cement from the backs by hand, restore the fronts and return them to their natural beauty. “It’s harsh work,” she admitted. “It’s not easy.” And she certainly can’t maintain a manicure.
Photo by Melissa Fry.
After the tiles are cleaned up, Bénédicte uses them in tables of all sizes, nightstands, frames and plant stands, and more recently her clients have requested her tiles for detailing in their apartments. People want them for backsplashes and around fireplace mantels. She had one woman who wanted a single row of tiles to mark the threshold of her room. “With just a few tiles you can give so much character to a space,” she said, and Bénédicte never lets clients leave with a pattern or product that she doesn’t believe fits their needs perfectly. “These aren’t just some mass-produced trinkets they’re buying, but a part of Barcelona. I want them to always look at their tiles with admiration.” And so her company, Mesa Bonita, was born.
About three years after moving to Barcelona and starting her own business, Bénédicte, along with Robin, started looking for a new place to buy. “I must have looked at hundreds of apartments,” said Bénédicte. “They went from bad to worse.” One ordeal stands out in her mind. She went to look at an old butcher shop in Gràcia, which hadn’t been properly cleaned. “I asked if it came with the smell,” she laughed. Finally, their real estate agent asked if they would consider looking in Sants. “The first thing I thought was, ‘but it’s so ugly’.” However, one day the couple was grabbing lunch in the neighbourhood and saw a for sale sign on a very nice, old building. During their first visit to the available principal apartment, they looked at each other and just knew they could do something wonderful with the space.
Photo by Melissa Fry.
They hadn’t intended to buy a fixer-upper, but for some reason this apartment felt right, and the spacious terrace, which gets tons of sunlight, sealed the deal. Robin had remodelled a place before in his home state of Oregon, but it was Bénédicte’s first experience. And what an experience it was. “First of all, I can assure you, the apartment looked nothing like what you see today,” she emphasised. The main difference is the back of the apartment.
What is now an open concept, with the kitchen, dining room, living room and library all flowing into one another, used to be five closed off rooms. Walls covered two of the high structural arches that Bénédicte’s plans exposed, and there was minimal natural light making its way through the thick, textured, yellowish glass in thedoors leading to the terrace.
Photo by Melissa Fry.
An arch that Bénédicte exposed between the living room and library.
Remodelling an apartment is never easy, but what Bénédicte had to deal with was particularly difficult. With every step they took, a serious issue raised its head. Initially, they got “screwed” by the people who sold them the apartment. Then they found out their plans threatened the structural integrity of the building, constructed in 1898. At the time, Robin was also in hospital, unable to move. And to top it all off, the neighbours were less than helpful and, on occasion, showed their annoyance at the work being done. “The whole process was really quite painful,” admitted Bénédicte. Eventually everything was completed—if not exactly how they wanted—and they achieved a social environment where they have been living happily for 10 years now. “I think I’m so proud of what we have now because of everything we went through,” she said.
The couple often organises events at their apartment—cooking classes or dinners—and every year Bénédicte holds a Christmasmarket where she invites artists to show their work and usually has a chef cook for everyone in attendance. “We’ve gotten so many people some years that we’ve unfortunately had to turn some away.” But the main function of the apartment is as a showroom for Bénédicte’s tiles.
Beautiful tiled products line the walls ofthe hallway and living room, no two alike. Framed tiles spread across the dining room table and kitchen countertops. It’s hard to notice any other decorations in the vicinity. This is where Bénédicte picks her clients’ brains to uncover their true purpose for her tiles, before she ever takes them to the cave. “It would be too overwhelming for them to start there,” she said. Whether you believe it or not, Bénédicte has every tile’s pattern memorised, and once she understands what a client needs, she can lead them downstairs, directly to the stack they desire.
If you have made yourself an interesting home from home and would like to appear in our Place of My Own feature, please send an email to editorial@barcelona-metropolitan.com