How to Incorporate the Moroccan Design Trend Into Your Home

By Milena Damjanov
May 19, 2011

Incorporating Moroccan interior design ideas is one of the most popular ways to add a dash of the exotic to an interior, especially given the current home decor obsession with the look of the well traveled home. In fact, on eBay online auctions, sales of items with the listing term "Moroccan" in the Home & Garden category are up 63 percent in the past month compared to approximately one-year prior. But how to sort through the Moroccan style carpets, tiles, poufs and hanging lanterns to find the best interior design trends?

Enter New York-based interior designer Katie Ridder, who has a flair for bringing a subtly Moorish vibe to her work. “I do naturally gravitate towards that look,” says Ridder, who recently even went so far as to accompany a client to Marrakesh. She says she especially favors elements like the country’s colorful cement tiles, honeycomb-patterned pendant lamps and arabesque curves.

Katie Ridder, who describes her approach as “a European interpretation of the exotic,” often takes the images and shapes found in Morocco’s souks and asks a fine craftsman to create a more upscale version. Past examples have included a traditional valance in a girl’s bedroom with a repeating, ornamental silhouette and the headboard in a main bedroom with a sinuous outline.

Morrocan Style

Interior designer Katie Ridder adds Moorish touches, from arabesque curves to bright tiles, hanging lanterns and poufs to otherwise contemporary interiors.

Bright colors and patterns are another way Katie Ridder likes to deliver a pretty Moroccan interior design touches. She says she’s drawn to the vibrant hues found throughout the country, such as turquoise, pink and red. When it comes to accessorizing the home, she might pick a Moroccan throw rug saturated in orange or tea glasses washed in blue. (She has a book coming out in the fall that further explores her use of color.) Ridder’s own line of fabrics, available through Holland and Sherry, includes patterns that exemplify her love of sophisticated North African style. Both “Moon Flower” and “Oiseau” feature crescent moons, while the latter is also covered in ornate bird cages based on Moroccan shapes.

Morrocan Style

Katie Ridder’s own line of designer fabrics includes traditional Moroccan patterns with a modern update. Both “Moon Flower” and “Oiseau” feature crescent moons, while the latter is also covered in ornate bird cages based on Moroccan shapes.

Still, you’ll never see a room of hers look straight out of Casablanca. Katie Ridder might cover a client’s bathroom in bright blue Moroccan tiles, but then balance it with more contemporary bathroom fixtures. She'll use a gold pouf here, a brass lamp there, but that's as far as it goes. Says Ridder with emphasis, “For me, it’s important to make it not a lot of actual things from the souks.”

To bring a sprinkling of Moroccan interior design exoticism to your home, skip the rusty lanterns and go for bright colors and elegant arabesque silhouettes.

(photos courtesy of interior designer Katie Ridder)