Moroccan home decor allure, charm, grace, seductiveness should be enough adjectives to describe the coastal style of countries occupying the northern & southern side of the Mediterranean Sea where this decorating style originates. Moorish influence, the demands of it’s climate, available materials and maturity over time have set the tone for this design and decoration that has spread outward from the region. With bright colors you could get easily with a Moroccan-themed room.
As a much loved regional decorating theme, especially in south of Spain and north of Africa for the tradition it represents, moroccan style will always have an important place. Beyond, it is being altered by the popularity of other decoration themes having shared similarities. Mediterranean will remain an influence for sure as several themes merge into a new form. Already, in America, it’s purity has been lost in a blur of influences and mutations. But, that is all pure speculation. What authentic Moroccan decoration means today is cause enough for enjoyment.
Wall Texture
Walls are predominately textured. It is what gives that pre-requisite aged appearance. An over-all application of neutral sand paint supplies a good base. It’s easier than working with tinted sand paint at a later stage. There are prepared burnished Venetian plaster paints on the market that provide lots of texture. These can be used when working with color accents. Include plaster moldings, cornices and columns when ever you can. Oh the color The sea and the sky and the warmth of the earth. Lavender and creamy yellow make a whimsical appearance in this mixture. Blue is always making an appearance. You will no doubt be using lots of accessories –brightly colorful to muted earthy and aged metallic– in your creation. You can see these colors samples on our armoires, doors, ceilings.... That’s not a warning to exercise caution and agonized pre-meditation in your selection of wall paint. Most walls will exhibit atoned or maybe even a wash effect by mixing some degree of white into all your color choices. By applying some of these same paints at full strength, boldness can be added to appropriate spaces later as your overall project begins to take shape.
Color Accents
Incorporate brilliant mosaic tile designs into rich orange/red terra cotta or brick tiled floors. You can choose to continue the motif by applying the mosaics to the wall in the place of base mold, inlay them around door frames and be sure to make use of mosaic tiles for the kitchen or bathroom back splash. Select a foyer, hall or alcove to try a troweled on red or lavender burnished plaster paint application for a dramatic affect.
Furniture and accessories
Furniture may be elegantly crafted from fine hardwoods or simple rustic designs of common woods. Either way, pieces are low and heavy set and often include accents of tile, iron or marble. Lots of furniture on the market carries a Mediterranean tag but that is as close as it comes to having the authentic scale and quality of the real thing.
Glass, iron and terra cotta have been decorating basics for centuries. The appeal of these works that you’ll want to use in abundance is in knowing the materials used, the production techniques required and workmanship employed are time honored traditions that can’t be changed. It can still be captured! Hang wall tapestry from mounted wrought iron architectural pieces. Wrought iron grills can also be wall mounted to create the illusion of a window, above doorways to accentuate an entrance or to each side of a camel bone mirror to add interest and old world charm. Go back to some of those base paints to color in bulkheads or selected short walls.
Pottery has important application. Either in natural terra cotta or colorfully finished, over sized pots and vases in classic shapes add drama, form and color. Continue enhancing the allure with iron and wood wine racks in the dinning room. Add tapestry runners on side tables and top the one on the dinning table with a cast iron candle holder for quite, romantic dinners. Burnished brass urns, an indoor faux stone water fountain, and of course a thick relief, plastered fireplace hearth are “musts” if you can work them in. The most difficult task you face is knowing when to stop.
Some Final Meditarranean moroccan Inspiration What you want to accomplish is a point of interest, a touch that impresses, a subtle surprise at every turn. If there is one decorating theme with the abundance of choice and style to make that happen this is it. As you sit to work your plan be carried away to lunch at an estate winery near the Mediterranean coast. It is to be in a small, almost enclosed courtyard hidden behind an aged sunflower yellow stucco wall. From the stone pathway you can only catch short glimpses of the setting through grilled windows as you approach the heavy, weathered wooden door way. The door is adorned with cast iron florets and above is a slope of clay roofing tiles. Lying seductively behind is the romance of your own finished home.
Hisham Ben Arbi, owner of www.casbahdecor.com
Home Improvement 
