FROM SAN FRANCISCO TO VALDERREDIBLE

THE ENCHANTED VALLEY

After serving as creative director of the deco firms Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, Celia Tejada returns home to revitalize the forgotten Cantabria. How? Converting an old mill into a hotel, Molino Tejada, which serves as a retreat for artists and as a catalyst (eco) for the recovery of old traditions.

“All this has been a work of LOVE. We only work with LOCAL artisans and each detail has been designed ‘ex profeso ’or ELECTED with great care”

COUNTRY LIFE

Celia around the hotel, full of artistic facilities. On the other page, inside the cabin designed by Okuda and two details about it.

“In the two CABINS built on the river I felt FREE to do something amazing. Seeing the WATER running under your feet is something that fills you with peace ”

“We work UNIQUE and exclusively with LOCAL artisans and everything has been designed ‘ex profeso’ or chosen with MIMO ”

Going back to the valley in which he had grown up, in Cantabria, was an idea that had been in Celia Tejada's mind for a long time. She had left for love, at only 20 years old, to San Francisco. There she raised her family and established a successful professional career as one of the most sought-after product designers in the United States, leading Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware first.

Her house, from her arrival, became the cultural epicenter of the city and, together with her husband and two children, she created a growing, colorful and modern family with its many friends. But Celia never forgot her roots. In 2016, on one of his annual visits to her land, he found a sixteenth-century mill on the Ebro river, and saw clearly that it was time to return, even if it was for seasons. She bought the old building and created a very personal hotel there, Molino Tejada, which is revitalizing the area through various initiatives, such as the book INMORTALES , which celebrates the people of the valley with the photographer Californian Nathan DeHart, or the MICRORRELATOSVALLUCOS. A literary contest in which Aristos ,son of Celia invites young people from the region to speak with the elderly and tell their stories.

The pool is designed by artist Okuda San Miguel, the hotel's cultural ambassador, for whom he also designed one of the cabanas and a large mural.

DESTINATION

Each artist invited to retire for a time to the hotel leaves a work as a legacy; what has turned the place into a true open-air museum

ART IN THE VEINS

On this page, Celia picking flowers on the farm, and two of the artistic installations that decorate it.

“This has been a work of love from the beginning. We work only and exclusively with local artisans and everything has been designed specifically or chosen with great care, ”says Celia. Two small cabins on the river were added to the original building, with wide stone walls. "There I felt free to do something amazing." And she did it, betting on glass floors that light up at night to see the water run underfoot. "It is something that fills you with peace, like the fields that surround us." The first of them, in addition, was intervened by the artist Okuda San Miguel, who was given carte blanche, such as in the pool and the mural that he later designed for the village of RUERRERO nearby hometown to Celia . "Now he is our cultural ambassador, he comes often and with him we are awakening interest in art and culture in the Valderredible valley."

Gastronomy and sustainability, on the other hand, are also important themes at the hotel. They were guided in the menu -and cellar- by Jesús Sánchez, <three Michelin stars> of the Cenador de Amos, and they built an ecological garden on a small islet that has the river as it passes through the estate. There they traditionally grow potatoes, beans, zucchini ... "And everything that we cannot produce - such as honey, cheese, wine ... - is of absolute proximity. Because our most important mission is to celebrate the richness of this enchanted valley. "

“Everything we OFFER is of absolute proximity. Because our MISSION, the most important, is to celebrate the wealth of this enchanted VALLEY ”