Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Salon Marocain 2012 / Moroccan Living Room


Am I trying to up web traffic with that title? Maybe...Am I trying to up web traffic because I truly want to share this experience…definitely? 

In 2000 I lived in a small house in the West End neighborhood of Atlanta. We acquired a vintage blue green couch from a thrift store that lasted us about 5 months before I got rid of it and decided to go with a, what I thought at the time to be,  traditional Moroccan living room. Basically we outfitted the living room with red carpets and blue leather poufs. We had carpets on the floors and on the walls. I loved it. (sidenote: Why in the hell my husband, a middle class, Casablancan would allow his wife to create a poor Berber living room for them is yet to be known, all I know is that I am glad I finally moved here and can now save him from himself)

I found myself, 12 years later, thinking back to that living room as I stood with Youssef’s mother (the woman's whose picture hung on my refrigerator for years before I ever met her) on the second floor of a small shop that looks no bigger than a patio from the outside, but contains some of the most beautiful fabric I have ever seen on the inside. Imported from India, over 80 dollars per meter…I need 31 meter…you do the math.

In the spirit of presenting this journey in the most organized way possible I will present the wild ride of Moroccan living Room Acquisition to you in the following sections and they each deserve their own post:
The Wood, The Material, and The Mattresses and the Sewing.
First up: The Wood…

Before we get to that though, I will share with you a few images collected from around the interweb, just so we are all on the same page as to exactly what a Moroccan Living room is (all pictures hyperlinked to source and from a google image search):

This is one of the more traditional ones I found:



This one is a bit more of a classy one from Richbond which is a large matress company here (we will get to that). 
 This is a normal one that could be in anyone's apartment (note the size of the room is similar to ours):


A large traditional room, just imagine how many people this can sit!


The current trend to cover mediocre wood in cloth, much cheaper, can be quite stylish and a nice option for the smaller Moroccan dining room:


One of the modern ones with a little more...let's say...pizazz...(I am being sarcastic here people):


And finally...a much more realistic view of what our 2000 living room in the west end looked like (or at least what I was going for at the time except way less orderly and clean than this photo):


As far as the big unveil to our current living room...you will have to wait for it just as I myself am waiting for it. In the meantime we can have some hellova buildup here!

OH MY GOODNESS I ALMOST FORGOT!!!! Here are before pictures (as-in before we moved in) of the current room:




3 comments:

K. Berlin Metalsmith said...

Anxiously waiting for the next chapter. I can't wait to see what comes next Carrie.
Hugs,
Kim

Marie Loerzel said...

You have a great space to work with! Can't wait to see the big reveal. And I think that purple atrocity should be refered to as Purple Reign, cause I could totally see that in Prince's house...

A Brilliant Life said...

Thanks Kim! This is quite the process!

Marie: You have now got that 100 percent stuck in my head!!! Thanks.