Half a world away seems like a long haul for anything to make — except, perhaps, for inspiration.
Vivid memories of past sojourns to Morocco paved the way for the pan-Arabian style of a Canadian couple’s winter home. These snowbirds knew that reprising one of their favorite destinations as a theme for their Palm Springs retreat would require a designer who had also experienced the vibrant culture of the North African country firsthand.
“I’ve traveled there many times,” says designer Michelle Boudreau. “For this project, I thought a lot about Yves Saint Laurent’s house in Marrakech.” Painted in electric blue and teeming with texture from Moorish motifs, elaborate tilework, and flamboyant filigree, the landmark is a cultural centerpiece of the late French fashion icon’s adopted city. “Before Marrakech, everything was black,” Saint Laurent once said. “This city taught me color, and I embraced its light, its insolent mixes, and ardent interventions.”
The aquatic palette makes waves through different textures, both perceived (the watery shibori cushions) and real (the shag rug).
So, in a different desert half a world away, but nevertheless arrayed with similarly iconic date palms and mountains, Boudreau unleashed a spirited interpretation of YSL’s Moroccan aesthetic. The modern new build in Vista Las Palmas, says the designer, vaguely recalls the compound-like architecture of a riad, a traditional Moroccan house. Inside, its all-white canvas made her predominantly blue palette all the splashier.
While YSL’s Marrakech house may have inspired the color choice (a shade called “Majorelle blue” after his home’s original owner, French painter Jacques Majorelle), the textures and motifs Boudreau suffused in the home have a more aquatic sensibility, nodding to the clients’ passion for watersports.
In the dining room, wallpaper by A–Street Prints has the blurred trompe-l’oeil effect of handwoven ikat textiles, which came through North Africa on the Great Silk Roads. Its diamond pattern suggests the gem-like glint that reflects off the surface of water on a sunny day. Even more aqueous is the shibori upholstery that gives the Pierre Jeanneret re-edition dining chairs a drenching dimension.
And lest all thalassic spaces require at least one piscine prop, the homeowners’ prized taxidermy marlin, complete with palette-appropriate teal streaking through its dorsal fin, commands the room from its mount in a glorious mid-breach pose. According to Boudreau, “Movement is another way to create dimension.”
Indeed, this house moves. Light projects through the filigree-inspired pendant lamps in the dining room, scattering luminous confetti throughout the space. The “casbah” (as Boudreau likes to call the media lounge) — appointed with low cushions and high-pile rugs to emulate the tent culture of North African nomads — reaches kaleidoscopic effect with custom wallpaper. The tonal-blue arabesque pattern mimics the at-times dizzying motifs of handcrafted zellige tile, arguably the most distinctive characteristic of Moroccan design, drawn from the country’s Islamic heritage.
In the kitchen, blue-and-white Clé tiles in a custom arrangement add an energetic dimension that rivals the more prim brass pendants by Tom Dixon.
Through its custom arabesque-patterned wallpaper, the “casbah lounge” recalls one of Morocco’s great art forms, handmade zellige tile. Low seating and inviting textures underscore the casual tent culture of North African nomads.
The ecru environs of the primary bedroom do not sacrifice any Moroccan flavor.
A beaded chandelier, pom-pommed blankets, and shaggy rugs add tactile interest to the neutral palette in the primary bedroom.
Boudreau applied another modern spin to this ancient art form with the three-dimensional turquoise tiles cladding the living room hearth. The installation feels oceanic due to the clustered tiles’ barnacle-like forms. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Clé tile emblazoned with seemingly kinetic geometry gives the space a current of energy, even without pans sizzling or blenders abuzz.
More familiar textural synergies occur throughout the home, including those that highlight cane and brass, two tried-and-true midcentury materials. In the living room, club chairs with a curved cane frame are a breezy counterpoint to patinated brass accessories like tea sets and side tables.
The primary bath echoes the bedroom’s colors and textures creating a harmonious sense of calm and connectivity between the spaces.
From blue accessories to cane furnishings, decorative themes from the interiors extend to the patio off the primary bedroom.
The frond-forward wallpaper in one of the guest bedrooms sets a stylistic backdrop for the leafy metallic pendant lamps.
At the kitchen island, the natural grain and weave of the Serena & Lily rattan barstools line up like sun loungers on the sand — a beachy contrast to the Tom Dixon brass lamps suspended above. The sumptuous burnish of the conical pendants is reminiscent of tagines, the traditional earthenware cooking vessels of North Africa. Their warm gleam also gives the otherwise relaxed-as-a-seaside-afternoon space a dose of glamour.
Intended as a respite from the color and prints dominating the rest of the house, the ecru environs of the primary bedroom do not sacrifice any Moroccan flavor. Textiles like imported blankets and rugs from Soukie Modern play with pile and pompoms for all-over tactile satisfaction. Moroccan poufs provide casual seating and, fittingly, a semblance of sand-hued dunes, to the monochromatic tableau. To finish the fantasy, the designer upended spatial expectations by dropping a dramatic beaded chandelier through the frame of the four-poster bed.
“It’s important to do things like this so that the neutral palette doesn’t appear flat and cold,” Boudreau notes.
With a detailed eye Saint Laurent himself could appreciate, she proves that colorful, textural inspiration from Morocco’s “insolent mixes and ardent interventions” can flourish in our own fashionable desert half a world away.
