Our Favourite Moroccan Rug Styles

Moroccan rugs are at the top of many people’s shopping list when they visit Marrakech. But what do we love about the pieces we choose for El Fenn?

​​Morocco is synonymous with rugs, so it is only fitting that El Fenn serves as the perfect canvas. Ours are curated by our co-owner Graham Head, former president of NYC’s legendary ABC Carpet and Home, whose work has taken him across continents for over thirty years. 

Graham’s love affair with Morocco and its rugs began when his wife, designer and co-owner Madeline Weinrib, brought him to El Fenn for the first time many years ago. After a lifetime sourcing rugs in the bazaars across Central Asia, he was instantly captivated by the colour-dense pieces he found in Morocco and their wonderfully unstructured designs. 

And today at El Fenn, his favourite pieces are dotted across El Fenn. 

“The hotel is built on passion and our rug collection is the manifestation of all the partners’ love affair with Morocco,” says Graham. “Buying for El Fenn is an organic process and I believe each rug has its own floor so the selection and placement of each rug is part of an ever-evolving dialogue, between the rotating art on the walls, the tiles on the floors, and the guests that stay with us.

 

“Even after 30 years of buying one of a kind unique pieces I still can’t resist some interpretation I haven’t seen before. Some can be thousands of dollars and some can be bought for as little as a few hundred, mixing and matching is the fun part.”

OUR FAVOURITE RUGS

You can really see the Mediterranean and African influences in this Boujad. There is a fabulous lack of symmetry and a beautiful balance of colour.

The base of this rug from the Ourika Valley looks almost like a tartan but the artist has woven an abstract pattern with pile work giving it another unexpectedly beautiful dimension.

The combination of flat weave and pile gives this Talsint rug a graphic, almost cartoon-like quality. It’s also got a really striking use of colour. 

Resources are often limited so Berber women repurpose scraps of any number of materials (wool, cotton, scraps of clothing) to create abstract, vibrant boucherouites.

Another piece from Ourika that’s so spontaneous and free, no two parts of it look the same. The monochrome with flashes of colour perfectly balances with mid-century furniture.

The weaver’s stream of consciousness plays out with the forms and weave in this Boujad. They are brave with their use of colour and use different techniques sporadically.

Find out more about the different Moroccan rug styles and where to buy them in Marrakech.