A few years ago, married architects Anna and Eugeni Bach purchased a flat in Barcelona’s Eixample district that hadn’t been renovated since its construction in 1910. The elderly man who occupied it previously was a compulsive hoarder, and he’d packed it so full that its beautiful mosaic tiles, obscured for years by miscellaneous objects, were actually kept in relatively decent shape.

When the couple began remodeling the 1,300-square-foot home, they decided to fully restore the colorful floors so they could once again take center stage. “They are the essence of the flat,” Eugeni explains. “Without them, the whole thing would be very different.” While preserving historic details, the architects incorporated dramatic structural changes to the kitchen and bathroom that fully modernize the apartment. “We wanted to adapt it to the present way of life but still conserve the atmosphere of the old Barcelona traditional flats,” he says. The result is a quirky, contemporary dwelling infused with nostalgic charm.