The story behind a staircase, a house and a little piece of Morocco in Cape Town

When I was commissioned to completely revamp this traditional Tudor-style home in Kenilworth, Cape Town, the brief wasn't about creating a perfectly styled period interior.

The owners had travelled extensively and wanted their home to reflect some of those experiences. Incorporating pieces, patterns and influences that meant something to them.

So we went eclectic.

My aim was to create an interior that felt collected rather than decorated; a home with a sense of history, travel and personality, while still respecting the character and architecture of the original house.

One of the details I particularly loved was the staircase.

The story behind the tiles

At the time, Moroccan Warehouse in Cape Town was something of an Aladdin's cave of Moroccan treasures - filled with tiles, textiles, lanterns, pottery and beautiful objects sourced from Morocco.

It was there that I found these Moroccan handmade and hand-painted tiles.

Traditional Moroccan tilework, particularly zellige, has its roots in cities such as Fès and Meknès, where the craft has developed over centuries. Artisans create intricate geometric patterns from individually shaped and glazed pieces.

Geometry is central to Moroccan design. Stars, interlocking shapes, flowers and repeating patterns create rhythm and balance. The designs can be extraordinarily precise, yet the handmade process means that no two pieces are quite identical.

And that, for me, is where the magic lies.

The slight irregularities, changes in colour, texture and glaze give handmade tiles something that mass-produced tiles simply can't replicate.

They have movement.

They have character.

They have soul.

Designing the staircase

The different hand-painted patterns were placed across the risers, with the dark treads providing a simple, strong frame for all that colour and pattern.

The effect reminded me of a Moroccan textile unfurling up the staircase.

And importantly, it was never intended to be a "Moroccan" interior.

It was intended to be their home.

A traditional Cape Town Tudor house with a little Morocco, a little travel, a little history and a lot of personality.

Why I still love it

There is something particularly interesting about using a material with such a strong cultural identity in a completely different architectural setting.

Moroccan tiles sit surprisingly comfortably within Cape Town interiors. Perhaps that's because Cape Town has always been a place where influences meet. African, European, Mediterranean, contemporary and international design traditions layered together over time.

The tiles bring history without feeling old-fashioned.

They bring pattern without necessarily feeling busy.

And they bring craftsmanship without feeling precious.

Over ten years later, I still love this approach to design.

Looking back at the project, the staircase is a reminder of something I have always believed about interiors:

Good design doesn't always need something new. Sometimes it simply needs something with a story.

The interiors I love most aren't necessarily the ones where everything matches.

They are the ones where every piece has a reason for being there.

Where the architecture, the materials and the objects tell you something about the people who live there.

And sometimes, one staircase is enough to tell the whole story.

~

Designed and completed in 2015.