In Arabic, moussafir means traveler, or wayfarer. It comes from the root word safar, meaning travel. This building was conceived as a journey from West to East, with each of its five garden rooms evoking a different destination, from Mali all the way to Northern India. The fabrics, furniture and interior architecture all draw inspiration from countries whose design traditions are rooted in Islamic culture. Moussafir is located next to the clay tennis court, with its own heated saltwater pool and open air lounge area featuring an outdoor fireplace.
PERSIAN ROOM
The Persian room evokes the region's famed turquoise gems. It was essential that the room be a mix of blue, yellow and green to represent the jewels, the sun, and the verdant gardens of ancient Persian tales. To do this, Meryanne blended influences from across the Orient: a bed cover is from Jaisalmer, India, curtains made from Indian silk with a Turkish Ikat fabric insert, and a frieze inspired by traditional Iranian wall patterns.
AFRICAN ROOM
In the African room, the interior design honors the continent's majestic fauna with its large painting of a panther in the bedroom and the bathroom's wall-sized piece depicting elephants. Traditional wooden farming tools on the wall contribute to this pastoral theme. The bathroom contains a fireplace, made of tadelakt, a traditional plaster used in Moroccan architecture for centuries.
CASABLANCA ROOM
The Casablanca room features Art Deco style, an architectural and interior design tradition quintessential to the city made infamous by the classic Humphrey Bogart movie. The walls are not white as the name might suggest - Meryanne chose a rich red palette instead. The bed's headboard is a repurposed folding screen of carved wood sourced from India, while the bathroom tiles have backgammon-patterned triangles of yellow and black.
CALLIGRAPHY ROOM
This room evokes a journey through Middle Eastern design traditions. The ceiling frieze is carved with Arabic poetry written in elegant calligraphy. The Syrian corner desk and its matching shelves are composed of meticulously crafted cedar fragments forming geometric patterns with inlaid Mother of Pearl pieces. Meryanne adapted the shelves, adding a large mirror in the middle. In the bathroom, an antique wooden ceiling piece sourced from Morocco was repurposed as a mirror frame. The glass door leading to the bathroom features a folding screen as a centerpiece. A beautiful Ikat fabric coat from Uzbekistan hangs above the bathroom fireplace. The walls are covered in antique prints depicting life in the Middle East, from Cairo to Damascus. These photographs are rare finds that Meryanne sourced from Paris flea markets. The frames inlaid with camel bone further add to the room's poetic theme of travel.
JAIPUR ROOM
Meryanne has a deep passion for India. She always says that Marrakech reminded her of Rajasthan when she first traveled here in the mid-eighties, the reminiscence further cementing her desire to create beautiful spaces in the imperial Moroccan city. The Jaipur room features rich red and saffron colors and antique mashrabiya, wooden lattices often found in Islamic design. Intricate patterns formed by chic bathroom tiles, together with the coppola above the bathtub, create the sense of being in an Indian palace. The walls are decorated with vintage photographs of Indian nobility wearing their family heirloom jewelry. By a mind-blowing coincidence, a charming older lady who stayed in this room once, asked to see the owner. She had recognized her grandmother's best friend in a portrait on the wall. The childhood memories that she then shared would make for a riveting historical novel.
VERANDAS
The rooms at Moussafir open onto light-filled covered verandas, beyond the glass facade of which you can see verdant trees evoking a little jungle in the midst of the oasis. Heated in winter and cool in the summer, it is the perfect spot for an afternoon read.