Arts,Decor and Architecture,History of Africa
Mask made by the Fang, given in 1905 to Maurice Vlaminck whom sold it to Andre Derain. It w aseen also by Picasso and Matisse. This was not the first African sculpture to attract Valminck, but it appears to be the only one from this time wich is still certainly identificable.
Arts,Decor and Architecture,Fashion and Lifestyle,History of Africa,People
Jujus are a fetish piece of art for most interior designers around the globe and one of the best kept secrets and they are used as a visual attraction. Due to this fact, jujus have achieved great popularity.
Designs with juju hats provide texture to walls with an exceptional touch of glamour due to the natural feathers of birds.
Depending on the season, you can combine jujus in different areas of your house. If you wish to use them for a wall composition, you can use vivid and bright colours in summer. In winder choose neutral tones and jujus with natural feathers at any time.
You can also try with a sequence of progressive colours and include bicolour or multicoloured jujus.
The main colour of juju has to match with the colour of some decorative element found in the area. On the walls painted with dark colours you can use light and white jujus.
You can decorate the living room, entrance hall, dining rooms, bedrooms, kitchen or bathroom. They can also be placed outdoors (if you avoid exposure to high temperatures).
Bamileke people, colours, Ethnic Patterns, Fashion, Feather Headress, Featured, Home Decor, Interiorist, Juju, Juju hat, Shops, Tiny hat, Travel
Cities and Countries,Decor and Architecture,History of Africa
The city of 333 saints takes its name from Tamasheq ‘tin’ or ‘tim’ Buktu, wich means the well of buktu, the name of the guardian of the place who saw the touaregs arrive in the 11th century. This place is still visible in the city amongst other architectural treasures to discover.
Architecture, Explore, Featured, Islam, Mali, Timbuktu, Travel, Tuareg
Cities and Countries,Decor and Architecture,History of Africa,People,Travel philosophy
Created in honour of dr. Kwame Nkrumah the first pesident of Ghana and the father of Independence in 1957, the park sir son, quite the symbol, the former polo grounds of the british coloniser. In the heart of the city, the main attraction is the mausoleum of Nkrumah, a superb pyramid in black marble surrounded by myriad fountains.
Decor and Architecture,Fashion and Lifestyle
Provence style will fill the house with warmth and coziness, make it comfortable and welcoming. Simplicity, restraint, kindness, and light characterize this famous interior style directly related to the natural beauty of the French region
COLOUR PALETTE
The main palette of this style reflects the natural colours of Provence: beige and milky, white and lavender, warm terracotta and sienna, bright colours of sunflowers, azure sea, refreshing wet sand and ecru. they fill up the house with serenity and tranquility.
FURNITURE
Comfortable and simple Provence style furniture has a clear geometric lines and hand made from solid walnut, chestnut or oak, painted in the main style’s colours. The furniture fronts are especially charming decorated with artificial chips and scrapes, shallow holes as if eaten with bugs. Provence style reflects the natural beauty of southern France with its flowers, birds and butterflies.
TABLEWARE AND KITCHEN UTENSILS
Tableware and kitchen utensils are very important in a Provence house being a guardian of family traditions, a family legacy, and beautifying the interior decoration. Decorated with artistic representation of bouquets, countryside pictures and floral watercolors table sets and individual items will look great and tablecloths of unbleached linen and cotton with floral motifs or traditional stripes. it should be noted that the French prefer mixing and combining of items, and there can be plates from different set on table, and antiques porcelain will easily appear next to some rustic handmade pottery.
DECOR
The décor of Provence style house is delicate and elegant, with a touch of time and history; or rather patina and artisan crackle technique. Therefore, forged decorative objects, small tables with tracery deco, birdcages, all sorts of ‘lacy’ elements perfectly complement the style. Moreover, the house should be filled with flowers. In fabrics and furniture’s deco, fresh bouquets, and even in breakfast desserts.
Colors, colours, Fashion, Featured, France, Gardens, Home Decor, potery, Provence
Arts,Cities and Countries,Decor and Architecture,Fashion and Lifestyle
The Berber Museum is located in the former painting studio of Jaques Majorelle, and presents a panorama of the extraordinary creativity of the oldest people in North Africa. A collection of over 600 objects (jewellery, arms, leatherwork, basketry, textiles, and carpets) was sourced throughout Morocco –from the Rif Mountains to the Sahara Desert- and attests to the richness and diversity of an ongoing, vibrant culture.
The museum was designed around its collection: sound, music photography and film transport the visitor, opening a door onto the Berber culture of Morocco
Art, Blue, colours, Fashion, Featured, Jaques Majorelle, Marrakesch, Morocco, Museums, Shops, Yves Saint Laurent
The term kilim comes from Turkish and Eastern Persian. It means “covering”. Kilims are flat tapestry carpets woven by passing the weave through the warp; this is one of its uniqueness that determines its design. Geometric patterns are the most common: Diagonal lines mainly forming reversed diamonds and triangles that are spread across the design, by creating a border or following a pattern, some of them with symmetrical patterns covering the entire bottom of the carpet. As well as decorations, colours give an ideal touch to kilims: Maroon, blue, dark brown.
Carpet, colours, Ethnic Patterns, Fashion, Featured, Hanbel, Home Decor, Islam, Kilim, North of Africa, Rugs, Turkey
Rugs manufactured by women from the Berber tribes of the Upper Atlas region of Morocco, made from recycled textiles with wonderful colouring in which the female universe is embodied violently and smugly. These highly original rugs are aesthetically very powerful and whose shapes and colours are striking and daring.
The craftswomen do not follow any predefined guidelines or patterns when manufacturing these rugs, rather they improvise freehand without placing any limits on the creative spirit to achieve their goal.
Recycled materials used create a bond between primitive and modern art forms. A genuine canvas of modern abstract art, like a Kandinsky painting displayed without contrivances on the floor.
Until rather recently, these rugs were not traded due to the apparent scarcity of their materials, however, they have begun to appear in western markets as a result of their authenticity and aesthetic worth.
Boucherouite, Carpet, colours, Ethnic Patterns, Featured, North of Africa, Rugs
Cities and Countries,Decor and Architecture,History of Africa
The exotic dramatic quality of Arabic decoration is extraordinary. A means of escape from the industrialised western decoration so overly confused as to what it aims to aspire to in terms of luxury and the limitation of its resources to serialised, repetitive and angular constructions offering furnishings with laboratory materials resulting in simply pale imitations of the past.
Nature, colour, constructive sets, exquisite materials, engaging ambiences, etc. all of these attract us the decoration projected through magazines as samples of a new luxury concept.
However, is Arabic decoration truly Arabic? Contemporary Arabic culture does not offer, except on rare occasions, any of these aesthetic principles. Even its aspiration is to foolishly mock western standards adding a further over-top-touch, ostentatiousness and bad taste.
In truth that sample of an aesthetic universe based on traditional Arabic culture has been recreated by western foreigners (refined and well-to-do foreign with new horizons free from the inherent atavisms of the west).
Even the recovery of traditional trade, handicrafts and pieces form part of this trend. There is still room for many unanswered questions on philosophical, political, anthropological and religious grounds, although there is plenty of time for them to be asked. The idea has been thrust forward; Arabic decoration is in fact European decoration.
It is worthwhile underlining that this is no way conditions the enjoyment and delight we take from a truly fascinating decorative model that is destined to make us reconsider interior design in the west.
arabic, colours, Featured, Fez, Home Decor, Marrakesch, Morocco, North of Africa, Shops, Travel
Cities and Countries,Decor and Architecture,Fashion and Lifestyle,Foods
This restaurant located in the Rue d’Anglaterre is –in the opinion of the members of “The African Blog” – one of the best in Tangiers. Both the French cuisine as well as well as impressive levels of customer care and quality services are far removed from the stereotypes one normally finds in Morocco. Furthermore, its decoration, in keeping with the trend for more exclusive spaces in Morocco, manages to incorporate elements of darkest Africa with an industrial vintage motif, all meaning that La Fabrique is a standout restaurant in Tangiers.
Featured, Home Decor, Morocco, North of Africa, Restaurants, Tanger, Tribal Style
