Our Eclectic Living & Dining, Room Tour

I have been under a technical spell lately, my laptop and camera have had issues lately- not to mention my car but thats a story for another day- I'm typing this away on my husband's laptop right now. I unfortunately lack all of my photo editing programs and with the issues with my camera the photos turned out less than great to me but since I've promised to share my living room and my painting with you for a very long time…here goes nothing I guess!

p.s: I will add a list of resources towards the bottom of the post so you can know where I bought specific items. If you have any questions post a reply and I will get back to you

Don't get me wrong my husband and I absolutely LOVE our home and take great pride in the way it looks, we take a deep breath in and sigh the moment we walk into our home…I just tend to be…a tight ass perfectionist when it comes to my work/my home/my photos…you get it.

The sight we see when we first get home everyday
I love having an entryway/corridor when we first walk in

The Arabesque mirror, wall sconces, and ceiling pendant are all from Egypt. The lights were a gift from my brother in law and the mirror was from a shop here in Doha. The solid wood shelf was custom made at a carpentry in Doha and stained to match the mirror. 

A print of a hand drawing in ink of a landscape of Jerusalem, Palestine that I purchased a few years before

Front Door view, the flat woven rug is a purchase we made in Morocco on our honeymoon

This is our living / dining room where I spend most of the day when I'm home and where we pretty much do everything as a family as well; folding laundry, watching Tv, playing with Farida, reading books, working on design projects, eating dinner, and entertaining friends and family.

I'm not big on furniture sets, I tend to be very eclectic when designing for myself

We first rented our flat 2 months before our wedding. My husband and I lived separately until we were married and this was our first place together- it was also my first place as I lived at home with my family up until I was married as customary. I'm a Palestinian freelance interior designer- in case you didn't know that- and my husband is an Egyptian personal development coach who works as a training manager at Qatar Airways- again, apologies if this is redundant. We both have very different personalities but we are both loud, love colour, love to travel, love design, and especially love wood- Walnut to be specific, if you can't tell! We've collected several items from our travels and wanted to proudly display these collectables in our home, we wanted our home to reflect both our characters, passions, and cultural heritages as well. Once we found this place we started putting down design ideas, colours, and styles and started executing directly to have our home ready as soon as possible in time for the wedding.

our gallery wall has a a mix of prints of famous paintings by Van Gogh that I picked up at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam a few years back, a photo by a friend of mine of Egypt, a framed inspirational textile that my husband got from Muslim Leaders, a print of a photo that I took of a street sign in Morocco, and a few photos taken by me in Amsterdam. We kept some space towards the bottom for us to add more items as life go on, maybe some art made by Farida!  

I bought these beautiful wall hung planters from a store on Etsy, link in resources. The street sign was of the Yves Saint Laurent street in Marrakech where we spent part of our honeymoon. This is the street were Les Jardains Majorelle where Yves Saint Laurent resided in Morocco, currently there is a museum of his work there and a beautiful botanical garden

The low TV console is an antique Kashmiri piece, the display cabinet is far east colonial

Floating laminate wood flooring were put in to cover the badly grouted and cracked tiles beneath, all of the furniture was purchased, delivered, and assembled before the wedding. Selecting photos, accessories, plants, personal items to display all took place after the wedding, we went on adding little items here and there and taking out some items as well. I love being able to see time change a place and the effect of time on a family and their home.

Everything in there gets used regularly, we aren't saving no china for when the queen visits

Beautiful espresso cups that I got my husband as an anniversary gift from PIP Studio

I don't know why but I can't resist household items, especially china. The Moroccan tea pot is part of a set I got from a visiting bazar here in Doha. The tea cups are from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

A drum that my husband picked up in Mozambique

Our home design style is very eclectic; it's a mix of modern, antique, multi-culturally ethnic, and universal all at the same time. We wanted our home to be practical, for it to use space in the best way possible for us and meet our needs but for it to also look like a young couple's home..this was our first home and we have all the time in the world to chic/glam it up.

Remember that painting that I raved about, well maybe on Instagram more so than here, but there it is!

It's an oil colours on canvas painting of an aerial view of my husband's village in Egypt, colours and scale were converted for art reasons!

Our beautiful Matryoshka that my parents got us from Moscow lately

Another beautiful purchase from Moscow by my parents. This is a an exact replica of an authentic Faberge egg that was made for the king, The replica is also made by Faberge. 

This is also a vintage Kashmiri piece that we got from a store here in Doha

Behind our sofa is our dining area where we also happen to work from home. A photo by Osama Silwadi of an old house in Palestine hangs above.

A little Palestinian touch with a cross stitched side table cover that was a gift from my grandmother for my future home since before I met my husband, that's what taita does!

Farida's high chair is actually a feeding chair from Mamas & Papas that is fixed to one of our dining chairs, less floor space to be occupied!

An antique traditional clay bowl from Fes, Morocco

A view at the entry of the inner corridor

inner corridor leading to powder room, bathroom, and our three bedrooms

On top lays a crystal bowl- a wedding gift of ours- some hats from Aswan, our wedding guest book, a painting from Amsterdam, and some of my personal sketches

So I've finally managed to post this, I will be posting it again now on FB, Instagram and all of my other channels. I'm really excited about sharing my home with you and I hope that it inspires you and goes to show that you do not need to own your home to make it your own and that you do not need to spend a fortune to have a beautiful home either. Thank you for following me and for checking out this post. If you have any questions do not forget to post it in the reply section..peace out!



Resources:

Paint Color: NP A30.2 National Paints
Sofa: Scarlett Sofa from Origins Living
Rug: Stockholm Rug
Swivel Chairs: Home Center
Leather and solid wood brown armchair and Ottoman: The One
Dining Set: Stockholm from IKEA
Kashmiri Antique Side board & Low Console: Richi at Landmark
Nesting Tables: IKEA, Stockholm Collection
Shelves: IKEA
Side Tables: ID Design
Display Cabinet: Bombay
Wall Planters: Light & Ladder on Etsy
Corridor two cabinets: IKEA

Riad Fes

during our honeymoon in Morocco we staid in Fes for 3 nights at a great Riad hotel called Riad Fes http://www.riadfes.com/. If you are ever in Fes you've got to stay there or at least visit for an exquisite meal in their excellent gourmet restaurant. The hotel follows the traditional Moroccan architectural method of a courtyard surrounded by rooms. The hotel is part of the Relais et Chateaux chain and consists of 5 different old houses which were purchased over time as the hotel expanded. All of the design work is new and not original to the 5 houses. the hotel includes a small garden, pool, 3 courtyards (Moroccan- Andalusian- Baroque) the rest of the hotel includes traditional moroccan detailing along with modern lines and luxuries especially the part that includes the spa, pool, and breakfast area which were completely designed in a contemporary style with some modern takes on traditional Moroccan bits.

this is the main lobby courtyard in the Riad, the mix of traditional Islamic and Moroccan architecture with french classic furniture in such hot colored upholstery is absolutely beautiful.

The ceiling is really high in this courtyard which makes you feel like you've stepped into a palace in ancient time.

I had to snap a picture of a ton of details in this lobby. I can't believe that they designed and executed all of the designs in this entire section of the hotel within 2 years, crazy right?!

you can tell the level of work that went into detailing this hotel when the steps risers look like this. is this beautiful color combo doing it for you? it definitely is to me!

looking up to the ceiling in a reading nook in the main lobby

they have an amazing old piano in the main lobby, didn't see anyone playing it but I assume someone does on certain events or nights maybe?

I spy a lounging handsome hubby <3 td="">

Isn't this just so lovely? Yeap we are still in the Main Lobby! can't believe how intricate it is.

stepping out from that beautiful lobby you find yourself in a small garden separating the originally different houses buildings

We had dinner in the Andalusian courtyard, Relais et chateaux markets its hotels as being those of charm and gourmand, you can tell its charming alright and I can assure you the food here is the best, we had a fantastic gastronomic dinner experience by this pool while enjoying the breeze and listening to an Ud player who guessed we were honeymooners and started playing Arabic wedding march anthems for us. I had the best fish ever at this dinner, I must have asked the waiter about the name of that fish type a million times but I never got it' it was a white meat fish fillet topped with tons of origin, lemon slices, and olive oil and it was the most delicious, most scrumptious thing ever, just thinking about the taste again...yumm

This is the modern part that I spoke about, this is where breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served

you can see how the spa section and the story above full of guest rooms were completely done in a contemporary style

the roof top in this hotel is great, fully equipped with a grill and modern lounge chairs and a panoramic view of the city, with the hotel being on the top of the hill, this place would probably rock at night and it overlooks great parts of the hotel that you can see in the following pics;

I absolutely loved the seating they had on this roof top, guess who's on that chair?

ok so comes the last part in my pic-tour which is the room we staid at

we staid at a duplex room, a really beautiful modern/Moroccan room with a big bathroom and a seating area

the one thing I forgot to photograph in this bathroom was the great shower; a big shower with modern fittings and a frameless pristine door.

But seriously if traveling around and you'd love to experience true luxe living and mouth watering gourmet food you have got to go to a Relais & Chateaux hotel, check their website for a list of properties that they own around the world.