In this post, I will lift a tip of the veil from our Kasbah house. As the Airbnb room is ready, I thought it was time for some sharing!

Sometimes you need to move until you know you have found the right place. And most important, you need to give yourself time to do just that; finding a space that is perfect for you!

I love Essaouira, I know by now you get this picture ;). But business wise I needed to be more and more in Marrakech. Not in the countryside, which is adorable, but IN TOWN. Living in Belgium where you could easily cover a tour between 3 cities in one day, I never realized I was kind of a city girl!

renovating, styling, interior, marrakech

And so it took us a while. Let's say I saw this house as one of the first ones, but I was not familiar with this part of the Medina, the Kasbah, and most important...I did not like the house at all! It was dark because there was a cover over the inner garden that kept all sunlight and any other appreciated light out of all the rooms. The colours shifting from yellow to dark brown and such a mess of tiles.

But things grew upon you and after three months this house started popping up in my mind over and over. I was thinking how we bought our farm in Belgium...an old non-inspiring house with an even less inspiring front yard. I managed to turn this into our dream home and a dream home to many others that came and stayed in our guest cottage.

So... one day, we were standing again in the Kasbah house and I thought giving it a try!

After three months of renovations (I was NOT allowed to touch the tiles ;) ) things kind of start to look the way I want.

We might have another three months ahead to decorate our tent and the winter sitting area, but the more the work evolves the more fun it is.

Meanwhile, I have completely fallen for the Kasbah and all these little backstreets. So much quieter than the Medina and at just 15 minutes walk from the big square.

Our guestroom and our main areas are ready except for some decoration that I don't force. I love to stroll around and find the pieces that make me say "AHA, this is what I want!"

Enjoy my before and after!

Just have a look!

the old traditional hammam on the roof terrace I absolutely adore! This is a next project to restore it!

Marlène Pauly is a personal sourcer and shopper for private and wholesale interior objects in Marrakech. Here, in the red city, she founded COCO-Morocco, a Sourcing Agency on Moroccan Handmade. Her 10+ years sourcing the souks as an architect and interior designer, decorating her restauration projects on farm houses in Europe gave her a solid knowledge of quality and price. She fell in love with the country, and became passionate about the culture of negotiating and when to define a transaction as a 'good deal'. You can hire her for private sourcing projects and tours. She also organises twice yearly Marrakech Design Week. A week for wholesalers and people in the retail business. Besides that, she adores visitting riads, having undercover experiences and reporting back on her blog.