Living room inspiration - Moroccan design in 10 easy steps (or less)

This week we have had a huge increase in people looking at the Moroccan themed lighting on our site. I would truly love to see the rooms some of the pieces are ending up in.

That got me thinking – what would I need to do to redesign a room in the Moroccan style? I really hope some of our beautiful finds sparks off some ideas!

The 10 steps to designing your Moroccan themed space

1. Decide on a budget.

This is really important. It will ensure that you don't go over budget. It will really help you with working out where to go for your pieces and fittings. 

2. Decide on a basic overall look.

-         The Games room  is a fantastic example of the use of a decorative light fitting and the use of fabric. The circus tent arrangement could be easily recreated in a bedroom space.

-         The Living room  is a beautiful example of the use of soft furnishings to add bright colour to the space. The curtains also partition the space, so a great idea if you have an open plan living space. To balance out the bright colours, the light fittings, accessories and furniture are all very neutral. It’s actually a great example of the neutral background + bright accessories trend I highlighted the other week.

-         The purple bedroom is a great example of an understated Moroccan design theme. It adds elements of the concept – bright colours, ornamental lights and soft furnishings.

-         The bedroom / study . This is a fantastic way of making a bedroom and study work really well in the same space. The Moroccan theme has really been picked up through the soft furnishings, accessories and the geometric patterns on the walls. It’s an understated design, but timeless.

-         Main bedroom in wood.  This goes off the theme of the use of brightly coloured fabrics. However, it makes fantastic use of the geometric patterns carved into the wood and beautiful lights.

3. Find & order your decorative fittings

It’s worth doing these early in the process. While you are waiting for them to arrive you can have fun painting / re-wallpapering and sorting out your floor.

        Lighting

Electric pendant

TaJ 8648CH   - Ideal if you want to replace your current light fitting and are using bright colours with your soft furnishings.

Non Electric Pendant

NE-96061  – Ideal if you don’t want to rewire. The light can be easily sorted by just changing the pendant.

Wall Lights

Arabesque 1   - I love the geometric patterns and the neutral colours would work well with the brightly coloured fabrics. This one does also have a matching ceiling light.

Table Lamps

Ceylon CEY4161 - You can even add some gorgeous Moroccan style to your bedside tables. This one does also have a matching ceiling light. Ideal if you're looking for a set of matching items. 

Fairy lights

Kasbah Light chain – Want to add some colour and some decorative light to your space? Fairy lights are an ideal solution. These ones are LED -so you don’t need to worry about them getting warm. They are also made of glass, so these string lights look amazing on or off. The bright colours really match well with this theme. 

             Soft furnishings

Image Copywrited - Scion 

Not knowing that much about soft furnishings, we approached our friendly experts at Gilroy interiors for some advice. They recommended these beautiful full length curtains in the Spirt Soul Rhythm Fabric by Scion. They are a fantastic way of adding some bright colour to your space.

If you need a creating a bedspread or cushion covers they will be more than happy to help you.

4. Find and order furniture or upcycle some old pieces.

Moroccan themed furniture is surprisingly easy to find. I spent a very enjoyable half an hour searching through etsy.com . There are some amazing one-off pieces. Our favourites were the beautiful cabinet (@marocasa1404) and this fantastically bright pouf (@poufbhagyodayfashio ).

5. Repaint or Repaper (optional)

Even if you are just freshening up your current paint - this can make a real difference to the room. 

Depending on your space, you might want to consider a feature wall. It can be a great way of adding some extra colour. It is an ideal solution if that beautiful wall paper you found would take you over budget. One wall is a lot cheaper to redo! 

Note: if you’re adding in some new wall lights, make sure you sort out the wiring before you repaint or paper!

6. Flooring (optional)

This could be putting down a new carpet or using some wooden laminate. Although, you could save some pennies and plan your design to match your current floor!

7. Install your wall lights and electric pendants

 8. Install all your beautifully decorated new or upcycled/recycled furniture

 9. Install your non-electric pendant and table lights and soft furnishings.

This is where you’ll start to see the room coming together. It is time to add your new curtains, throws, cushions, bedspreads and remaining lights. You should have a really good idea of how the finished room is going to look.

10. Buy and install any accessories.

Have you spotted some little accessories during your hunt? This is the time to buy them. You can use what you have left of your original budget. Leaving it until now means you don’t risk going over the top with it. A few well chosen beautiful pieces will look better than covering all of your remaining space! 

Now take some time to relax in your beautiful new space

If you’d love some more information about anything discussed in this blog please phone us on 01202 601846 . We will be more that happy to help! :) 

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Have fun!

Top 5 ideas for using Fairy Lights in your Bedroom or Student House

When I started this job, I was convinced that fairy lights were plain pin lights that suddenly appear from nowhere in late September. How wrong I was.

We have a fantastic collected of some really beautiful examples of LED fairy lights. The range of colours and designs are fantastic – which leads me to dream on our Pinterest boards of where they could go in my house.

I have managed to dig up some really gorgeous ideas for the bedroom that I had not thought of before. The fairy lights add a really soft light (or bright depending on the design) to the area you put them in.

Personally, I always use LED lights at home. They don’t kick out as much heat. Also, they do not use as much power so you do not need to be scared of the energy bills!

1. As a Mirror surround - 

Floral fabric fairy lights are a great way of adding a bit of gentle decoration to the room. They are a great example of what can be achieved when you steer away from the traditional pin lights.

They’re also a great idea for adding some decoration to your kid’s room (although they’re not suitable for under 3’s), or in your rented student flat.

2. As a unique offline Photo Gallery -

If you are anything like me, the majority of your photos only ever see the light of day on Facebook or your other social media channels. Even my photo albums tend to sit and get dusty on the shelves in my Living room. 

This is why I completely fell in love with this idea. It is such a simple combo of white pin lights and pictures. The best way I've found for attaching fairy lights to the wall is probably the Mini hooks by ‘Command’. Sellotape and bluetac never seems to work quite as well…

It is a really original way of presenting your photos and mementos – either for yourself or guests. Because the pictures aren't all perfectly framed you can easily change and update the display. 

3. Wall art with pin lights

Have you seen anything like this before? (If yes please tweet us @shinelighting ) . 

This is such a clever design idea. In concept it looks to be such a simple idea, but a fantastically well executed plan.

You’re going to want either 1 very long light string or 2. Although, you might be safer with 2 depending on how large you want to make it.

I personally think this could only be made better by using coloured pin lights . What would you do?

4. Light up the end of your bed

Do you have a metal bed frame? This could be the perfect way of jazzing it up. It adds a bit of soft light to end of your bed for those cosy evenings watching a film.

The perk of this idea is you could literally put any lights here. What would you choose?

Here’s a few ideas to get you started ...

5. Light up your 4 poster bed.... 

...Or to create your four-poster bed effect - buy yourself a mosquito net. This attaches to your ceiling and can create a really relaxing atmosphere.

The use of fairy lights to decorate is a beautiful idea. You can have some really good run here by experimenting with different light strings and different colours.

Highly recommend sticking to LED light strings as they won’t generate as much heat. You do not want to create a fire hazard! 

Do you have fairy lights in your bedroom? Why not send us a picture on twitter or facebook? We’d love to see them and might feature it in a future post!

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Have fun!