Morocco: Wondering if you had time to come over today

I thought I would invite you into my living room in Marrakech today.  Come on, don’t be shy.  Pull up a chair.  By now, if we had been in contact this much in the non-cyber world, I would have invited you at least over for a drink. So I thought that I would do that on line.  Do you have a minute?  I’d love to get to know you better.

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Now, you have seen our plans for a house and you know that we are planning to build something special.  But in the mean time, we are living in a place that couldn’t be described as much more than “ramshackle.”  I hope you don’t mind.  As you can see, we are very much regular folk.  We have done our best to decorate the place given its current state, a genre I like to call “Moroccan ruin.”  That means strategically putting up paintings to hide the holes in the walls.  That means trying to distract you from looking at the pitted floors with our collection of Moroccan pottery.  Most of our stuff is in storage, waiting for our “real house.”  And so we have made do with some odds and ends. 

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We have made a lot of furniture ourselves from salvage – an old ceiling panel is now a coffee table, one side table is the hand carved side of an old Moroccan banquette.  The other side table is made from a huge fossil we bought by the side of the road from a man in the Atlas Mountains. Over our fireplace is a lintel with Arabic writing from some old Moroccan home. My husband designed the couch, inspired by ones he had seen in books of Indonesian homes.  It is upholstered with an ancient Moroccan blanket we found in a heap in a corner antique store.  On the bolster is an embroidery I bought in Azerbaijan.  We also have in our living room, the largest pouf yet known to mankind. Our art is from Morocco and elsewhere.

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As you can see, no Crate and Barrel near by, no Pottery Barn. Does it look a bit strange to you? 

What's it look like in your living room?  Please tell me, if we met in real life, would you invite me over to your home, too?

Comments

[diane in gibraltar]

Look very nice and very ethnic , i like your husband banquette , looks the part specially the feet! Well i think you have made the house your home looks quite cosy too. When you are renting it's very difficult , when i went and hang one of our picture i discover that the married quarter wall were made of concrete plaster you can 't nail it !!!!! And they are telling you that you are only allowed of 3 hooks pitures per wall , that's the rule! But since i am leaving here i have been collecting some morrocan item and of course now i have no room to put them! At least you have displayed your finding with harmony. You will need more for you big house ,so get back to shopping!

[Claire]

Maryam, your home (even if this temporary one) is welcoming and beautiful. I can't wait to see what you do in the real deal.

I am still in that slightly nomadic stage of my life, renting. I dream of painting walls and nesting, though. Someday!

[stuccohouse]

Very cute! I'm also a travel collector....and like to use my "hauls" to decorate my house. Makes me remember some very fun times.

[Ambika B]

Your house is absolutely beautiful and your self-deprecation in the face of such beauty is charming. Love the pottery, the re-purposing and all of the *color*. Such a nice alternative to the usual white walls and blond Scandanavian wood (or veneer) you see everywhere in the States. Lucky you!

[John]

Currently, our living room is no where as nice as yours (I particularly like the paintings and the couch your husband designed). The ceiling's paint is cracked and flaking; it begs to be stripped down and repainted. The walls are in tatters. They are riddled with thousands of tacs and bits of 100 year old canvas and wallpaper. The window trim is stacked in the corner and sheets of plastic are taped over the windows to keep the wind out. Our built-in cabinets and shelves are new but unpainted. The floor is 115 years old, unfinished and worn heart of pine. The only furniture is a lawn chair and the vanity for our master bathroom sink. We have a small rug on the floor, some books on the shelves, and a 13 inch TV.

Most of our personal possessions are still languishing in storage, so we haven't returned to as high a level of civilization as you.

If we happenend to meet in person, we would certainly invite you over. However, we would offer you a seat in our kitchen nook. The kitchen is clean, warm, and bright and the food & drinks are just as good.

[Laurie]

Beautiful paintings. You are a wonderful artist. Right now I'd join you for coffee, somewhere other than our house. Our goal is to finish the dining room by January 1 so that we can start entertaining again - at that point the living room, dining room, and kitchen will be looking quite nice!

[Maryam In Marrakesh]

Diane - My husband cast himself the feet of banquette out of concrete. We could have used wooden block, but he wanted to do something different. You are so right about the limitations of decorating when you are renting a house! Are you buying your Moroccan items in Gibraltar?

Claire - Thank you! My whole adult life I have been nomadic. Can't wait until that phase is over. Have you guys thought about buying a place?

Stuccohouse - I am visiting your blog to see if you show some of your loot;-)

Ambika - You are adorable. Thank you so much for your kind words!

John - It's so challenging. It's always a work in progress. I feel like every time I have a little money, I try to sock it away. It never ends though. But my husband and I would love to come out and hang out in your kitchen some day and who knows, maybe you will come and hang out in ours, too!

Laurie - I wish those paintings were mine. But the two big ones are by Said Qodaid, a very talented Moroccan artist. We definitely ate rice and beans for a while in order to afford them! And it's a deal - let's meet at Starbucks;-)

[Sarah C]

I think this looks wonderful. Necessity is the mother of invention and, apparently, good decorating.

I love that you decorated your temporary space. It's tempting just to wait for the new space, but there's nothing worse than living in a home that doesn't feel like your own.

[An Indian in America]

I can see the "Rainbow" in your living room.
You can definitely come to my place -
Come on in, Put your feet up and relax..While I make chai. Meanwhile feel free to look around the various cutouts that I have around the house. But look out of the window too - check the various hues of the blue sky, the river, the boats passing by, the statue of liberty in a distance and the manhattan sky line.

You are welcome again if you like my place.

[Phoebe of Silk Felt Soil]

maryam,

i am swooning over those gorgeous turquoise vases and pots... so lovely!

xx phoebe

[Gale]

Your furnishings are distinctive and your decorating is resourceful as well as environmentally responsible. It was a privilege to be so welcomed into your home.

[Leslie]

Your house is really amazing. I love all the color and variety. I grew up in a house decorated by my father's trips around the Caribbean and South America. We had an ox cart wheel made of iron wood as our coffe table, side tables and another coffee table made of old wooden ships hatches, aztec calendars and llama fur wall hangings and paintings from Haiti, Mexico and Brazil. I didn't realize this was not the way others decorated until I was in college (I have no idea why I didn't notice this in high school).

I find your blog to be inspirational in my efforts to turn my house into something reflecting my taste vs. mass merchandised...

[Maryam In Marrakesh]

Sarah - Thank you so much. I am trying to create my own version of a Moroccan modern roost!

Anrosh - Sounds like the view from your window is fantastic! Let me grab a seat and sip my chai. Delicious!

Phoebe - Thx;-) I am obsessed with that blue Moroccan pottery. I scour antique stores to find them and then scoop them up. I want to do a whole wall in our new house.

Leslie - Your house when you were growing up sounds *great*! I love it when stuff is re-purposed to make something new. It's like a second chance!

[diane in gibraltar]

Well, maryam i bought my morrocan item in a little shop called JANA (means paradise)situated in casemates square in gibraltar , i love talking to the lady there , her husband is gib/morrocan and spend a lot of time travelling around morrocco , everything he is selling is all handcrafted ,and i like it better that way ,we have a big wall rug where a whole familly of 12 was doing it for 1 year we saw some picture , it's a labour of love i will send you some picture. We tryed to bring things back from tangier but the pushchair was a bit in the way. So when i meet them they told me i can have anything i wanted , so i did , it's better than shopping in a mall as every item are coming as treasure for me . There is as well another place to buy morrocan item in SABANILLAS market in spain (they have got amazing spanish door there for there haciendas..)of course and someone has just opened a morrocan shop in the town next door La Linea . Now you know everything about me . We are hunting for a morrocan water fountain now!!!!

[Maryam In Marrakesh]

Diane -
Wow! I can't believe how much Moroccan stuff you have! It must look great. I really want to see your rug. Moroccan fountains are so, so beautiful - I hope you find a lovely one. Would the fountain be for indoors or outdoors?

[olga]

i'm coming to visit i'm coming to visit!!!

last time i was in marrakesh was a bizarre enough story but I long long long to return

Sorry for my crankiness this morning when i posted my first comments at AT on your lovely space. I entered the contest and keep waiting with bated breath for my room to appear and fear that it may not, boo hoo. (I'm so pathetic.) Plus I've been in informationitis mode researching thinset mortars for my custom cut art glass kitchen backsplash extravaganza! So I'm going a bit stir crazy and OCD.

I am envious though (looks down in shame) You're living my fantasy life.

Well perhaps someday I'll grace your copious and fabulous gardens-to-be with an abstract and fabulous custom mosaic plant pot.

keep well Maryam and thanks for entering the contest -- more tadelakt! Yay!

Olga

[Libby Beaty]

Hi from Qatar...I just found your blog. I recently welcomed readers into my living room and home. Come on over for a cyber visit...www.xanga.com/libbybeaty. I have thoroughly enjoyed your blog so far and will check back often. I have a Moroccan sister in law and it is definitely on our "places to visit" list! Libby in Doha

[Russell]

Still looking for a fountian?