Marrakech aesthetics

In all the distraction of travel between Marrakech, Dublin, London, Cambridge and Paris over the last couple of weeks, I have been blogging in quite a random way - more online diary than what I really mean this blog to be doing. I will indulge myself for long enough to confess that today is my 29th birthday, although mortifyingly my father thought that it was my 30th, and this only when he called me for the third time today, having forgotten that it was my birthday the first two times. Today has consisted of Valhrona chocolates, more spa joy, a bit of work this afternoon and in a minute we're going to have some champagne upstairs and then go back to Jardins for dinner at their Indian restaurant.

Anyway. Moroccan decorative art. The Moroccan tendency to excess comes across beautifully in craft, although of course this is hardly a great secret as the roaring craft trade here attests - metalwork, leatherwork, pottery, embroidery and woodwork as well as "fine" crafts like zellij and tadelakt abound in Marrakech. Of course, after spending more than a couple of weeks here, it is impossible not to suffer from a bit of a craft overload, and our intially huge planned shopping list was cut back dramatically. However, one thing that it is impossible to get bored with is the beautiful tiling that you see everywhere. These pictures are from our house (the first two) and our landlord's beautiful home next door alone. The tiles in the third picture are *everywhere* here, but my favourite is the black, green and white pattern, I think. Which is yours?

I also couldn't resist putting in a little picture of the knobs on the window beside the desk here. Aren't they pretty? Little leaves.

Turning one's home into a souk... or not.

When we moved to Marrakech I firmly believed that we would be returning to Europe positively laden down with purchases from Morocco. We wanted a carpet (at least one), several lamps, ridiculous quantites of leather goods, carved cedar things, pottery, jewellery... goodness we wanted a lot. Now, not so much. We have indeed bought a couple of the things above - we each got leather hold-alls, four leather poufs (I'll do a leather post some other time) but, well, that's it really. I know what I want my future home to look like, and Marrakech market isn't really it. I get the impression that this is an epiphany that strikes most expats here after their first... ooh.... week or so.

However. This does not mean that I must therefore turn my nose up at the sort of things one can buy here - not by any means at all. In addition to the leather goods I mentioned, Moroccan embroidery is fantastic. I think I posted here before on the embroidered bedspreads at Beldi (and indeed, one may make its way into my possession before we leave Marrakech) but the beautiful cushions above (with a matching huge pouf, not pictured because it isn't stuffed, so you're just going to have to trust me - it's divine) came from Darkhoum, which I have mentioned before. The owner is still as grumpy as ever, but his furniture and textiles are still beautiful. This fabulous black and white embroidery is from Rabat.

Thoughts about little tables

Well, I wasn't planning on writing a blog entry today, but well, here I am sitting here with a pot of Pu Ehr tea and I thought, you know, I *do* have something I'm particularly interested in just at the moment, simple as it is, and that is the Moroccan side table.

These little tables from Garnet Hill and Altas Imports that I have pictured above are ubiquitous here. They are outside every furniture or interiors shop in the Medina, priced at anything from 10 to 50 or so euros from the more optimistic shopkeepers, or presumably more for the very fancy ones (which are less appealing anyway, to my mind). They are in the houses of Moroccan families, they are in riad guesthouses and restaurants of all levels and they are in luxury hotels. Even our ultra-modern house has them (in salmon pink!). And you know what? I'm going to be bringing as many back to Europe with me as I can carry. They are so simple but undeniably exotic and can be eased into almost any setting, I think. I plan to get the plain ones, maybe four of them, and paint them to blend/contrast with the rooms which eventually become their homes in England.

O Frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!

Finally - after two months of kicking our heels in what is, admittedly, one of the nicer houses in Marrakech - we got the keys for our real house and have moved all of our belongings in! This was a relatively easy process as the two houses are connected, so I helpfully carried the Champagne and the Pimm's while my ever-loving husband lugged the cases and boxes.

The house is as divine as ever, blissfully cool and oh my, but it's exciting to have a house of our own! For those of you who don't know me personally, we were married in December and have been living in a lovely apartment in Dublin for the last while before we came here, so this is our first actual house, with its own front door and multiple bedrooms etc.

Now, as luck would have it, tomorrow, on what should be our first full day of running around in domestic ecstasy, we will be leaving our new home in our housekeeper's capable hands and jetting of to the US (at 6am *groan*), to a town called Chincoteague in Virginia for my husband's family's annual holiday. I will continue to post, but perhaps not every single day, so keep checking in, or subscribe.

In the meantime, I have taken a couple of pictures of the new house, although not as elegant as the ones I posted a few weeks ago, and perhaps with piles of luggage in the corners. Ooh! I can't wait to have our first party there when we get back!

Of course, it's not just about clothes

There's probably more to moving to Marrakech than selecting one's wardrobe, isn't there? I also get to dream about what our house will look like. This is where imagination must take over for two reasons. Firstly, everybody to whom I have spoken on the matter assures me that our budget is a realistic one for renting a dar or riad in Marrakech, but beyond that...? After all, think of the sort of price range that might be considered reasonable for, say, a two-bedroom apartment in London. How long is a piece of string? Are we going to end up with something as wonderful as the coolly sophisticated Riad Magellan (probably not):


Or the lushly cosy Riad Eden? Again, probably not, although the size of the Riad Eden is more likely.


Finally, I dream of the Riad Louna in Fez:


What I imagine to be likely is that we will find something around the same size as the Riad Eden, without any of the trimmings, although hopefully with some respectable furniture. We will probably need to have the house repainted (for ease, this may be done in pure white, like the Riad Magellan) although the blue featured on the cover of Living in Morocco, and in the pages of Morocco Style makes me go weak at the knees...



Secondly (I nearly forgot), there is the fact that the house may not be in such a state that we *can* reasonably make our mark on it - the hope of finding a relatively blank canvas is just that - a hope.

At any rate, I will be buying silks in chocolate brown, saffron, aubergine and red as well as acres of natural muslin for bed hangings and curtains to bring with me - I will have the pleasurable challenge of decorating a relatively large house for one year of residence on as little money as possible but with as lush and beautiful an effect as I manage. Silk and Moroccan lamps will be the cornerstones of my creativity, but if you have any other suggestions, please let me know!

[Image credits to Riad Magellan, Riad Eden, Riad Louna and Taschen]