A Style Defined: Moroccan

Home Office by Laura U, Inc

I love Moroccan Design.  I love the vibrant colors, the attention to detail, and the comfortable looking spaces.  My husband on the other hand, not so much. Morocco is on the North West edges of Africa, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Morocco has a diverse history, including many different inhabitants including Islamic, Berbers, French, Spanish, and Arabic.  This contrast in strong cultures has fused together to create this diverse and beautiful design style.  

Some of the things you will generally see in Moroccan inspired spaces include tiled floors layered with rugs, luxurious fabrics, metallic finishes, carved painted woods, and a lot of geometric patterns.  This style often includes bold colors, like purple, teal, yellow, and fuchsia along side more muted colors like white.  

The Moroccan also comes with a collection of great accessories.  Often, you will find great lanterns in metallic finishes, including Mercury Glass, which is ever so popular these days.  From beautifully sculpted vases, to ornate lighting fixtures, such as these great pendant lights by Viva Terra.  They are punched through, which creates a lovely mosaic of light on the walls while they create a soft glow in the room.  These particular lights come in a variety of sizes and shapes, and start at around $150.

Another popular item often found in a Moroccan style space are poufs.  This great seating option is sometimes considered a staple.  I personally have seen these also in some great metallic finishes, but also bold colors and prints, like the ones pictured here, by Graham and Green.  The fabrics and materials also have a wide variety of textures, creating both visual interest, as well as tactile.

Another staple of the Moroccan design stile is of course, the patterns. The patterns can be on anything.  From the fabrics adorning windows, (or Poufs!) to the tile on the floors or walls, pattern is essential.  The patterns can be simple in colors, or can be just as vibrant as the walls, it doesn't really matter either way.

This Mediterranean tile by SomerTile is a prime display of some of the great patterns you can find in this design style.  This mosaic would be greatly suited for a kitchen backsplash, bathroom walls, or any great Moroccan styled space.

There are a lot of resources out there today to find great products and inspirational images to get started on making over a room with Mediterranean flair.  Of course there is always Houzz.com, where most of these pictures came from, as well as Pinterest.com and a good old fashioned Google search.

Moroccan is not only a style, it is a culture, rich with diversity.  I would love to do a room in this style one day, but until then, I guess it's just finding great products and blogging about them.