Colours of Morocco
Six palettes taken from Moroccan cities and gardens, with their colour codes, and how to use them without turning the room into a postcard.
Each Moroccan city has its colours: the ochre of Marrakech, the blue of Chefchaouen, the green roofs of Fès, the white and blue of Essaouira. One palette, used with restraint, gives a room a Moroccan feeling without a single ornament.
In short
- Use three colours: one for about 60% of the room (the walls), one for 30% (large textiles and furniture), one for 10% (cushions, a door, a lamp).
- Strong colours go where the eye should go: a niche, a door, the wall behind the salon.
- Screen colours are approximate. Take the code to a paint shop and test a sample on the wall, by day and in the evening.
Six palettes
Each palette has five colours. The first is for the walls, the last ones are accents.
Marrakech
Warm and enclosing. Ochre or pale pink walls, terracotta in the textiles, deep green in the plants and one painted piece of furniture.
- Marrakech ochre
- Terracotta
- Palm green
- Sand
- Night blue
Chefchaouen
Fresh and calm, good for small rooms and bathrooms. White above, blue below, as on the walls of the town.
- Lime white
- Chefchaouen blue
- Powder blue
- Indigo
- Terracotta
Fès
Formal and bright. White walls, with green, cobalt and saffron kept for tiles, a table, cushions.
- Lime white
- Zellige green
- Fès cobalt
- Saffron
- Kohl black
Essaouira
Light and airy. White walls, blue on doors and shutters, natural wood, grey linen.
- Lime white
- Shutter blue
- Rampart stone
- Sea grey
- Thuya wood
Majorelle garden
Bold: for one wall, a door or a balcony. The blue needs yellow or green beside it, and plenty of white.
- Lime white
- Majorelle blue
- Lemon yellow
- Cactus green
- Terracotta
Sahara
Soft and warm, for bedrooms. Sand and cream on the walls, burnt orange and camel in wool, one dark blue for depth.
- Cream
- Dune
- Burnt orange
- Camel
- Desert night
Colours on a screen are approximate. Give the code to a paint shop and test a sample on your wall, by day and in the evening.
Putting colour in a room
- Start from what cannot change: the floor, a sofa, a rug. Choose the palette that already contains its colour.
- Paint low: a band of colour up to 100 or 120 cm with white above recalls zellige panelling and makes ceilings look higher.
- Paint the inside of a niche, the sides of a window or a set of shelves in the strong colour.
- Doors and radiators in the accent colour cost one small tin of paint.
- Repeat each colour at least three times in the room, in different materials.
- Brass, copper and dark wood count as colours. Many warm metals with ochre walls become heavy: add white.
Light changes everything
- Rooms facing north in northern Europe or Canada make blues cold and greys sad. Choose the warm palettes there.
- Rooms facing south take blue and white well.
- Evening light from warm bulbs deepens ochre and terracotta.
- Always test: paint a large card and move it around the room for two days.
Mistakes to avoid
- Every colour at full strength on every wall.
- Choosing from a phone screen.
- A cold, bluish white next to warm colours: choose an off-white.
- Forgetting the ceiling: pure white above ochre walls looks cut off. Add a little of the wall colour to the ceiling paint.