Moroccan decor is a blend of styles borrowed from various cultures. European influences from Spain, Portugal, and France are combined with Persian, Islamic, and African elements to produce a unique and colorful style. This ethnic room decor is characterized by vibrant textiles, colorful mosaics, and wooden furniture covered in natural materials that harmonize to create an opulent, multicultural theme. Ceramics, rugs, and paintings add splashes of vivid color, and geometric patterns are commonly seen.
This unique decor tries to bring elements of the outdoors into the home by using colors from the natural landscape. Blue and green are popular colors in traditional Moroccan decor, while the colors of the sunset and desert are also commonly used. Red, orange, gold, and jewel tones are used in mosaics, paintings, and fabrics.
Moroccan architecture typically features arches, and walls are often covered with intricate designs or hung with colorful tapestries. Hardwood floors and Persian rugs are characteristic of this unique style of decor. Texture is also an important element, with embroidered fabrics and plush pillows providing contrast to carved wooden furniture, metal scrollwork, and plaster walls.
The lighting used in Moroccan decor is unique. Oil lamps, wall sconces, and hanging pendant lamps are common. Arabian style lanterns are also popular for the dim lighting characteristic of the traditional Moroccan home. Moroccan lights are frequently made of intricately carved wood, metal with fancy patterns cut out, and stained glass in jewel tones.
This decor can generally be classified as either urban or rural. The former style is contemporary, while the latter is more traditional. Urban Moroccan decor generally uses a few colorful decorations such as pillows or a colorful area rug and contrasts them with furniture that has a modern design and is covered in natural fabrics or leather. Rural or traditional Moroccan decor has much more ornamentation with lots of colorful textiles in vibrant tones.
Designing a home interior with traditional Moroccan decor can become pricey when using ethnic lighting, carved furniture inlaid with mother of pearl, and Persian rugs, but it is possible to add the flavor of Morocco to a room with a smaller budget. Placing a few ceramic vases painted with geometric designs on tables or shelves, and adding some colorful pillows to a neutral-hued sofa, will bring a taste of Morocco to the existing design scheme. A colorful area rug and an Arabian oil lamp will also lend an exotic flavor to the home without breaking the budget.