SECRET OASIS

The calm interior of this Marrakech home is testament to its expat owners’ singular style and thriving business

expat American designers Samuel and Caitlin Dowe-Sandes love a good house project. Since moving from California to Marrakech 10 years ago, they have updated and remodelled three houses for themselves. Each one has offered a great opportunity to experiment with colour and pattern, helping to spur new ideas that feed into their collections for Popham Design, the stylish cement tile business they founded together not long after their arrival in Morocco. Their new house, in Gueliz, is the family’s most substantial home yet, arranged over two storeys with a private garden forming a buffer zone between the family and the city beyond. “The easy way of living in Gueliz was a really big attraction for us,” says Caitlin. “We can walk to our daughter’s school in five minutes and to the restaurants and shops. We also have a lot of friends here. To have a bit of garden space in the centre of town is a big treat and the central staircase and big volumes with high ceilings were also a draw for us. This house had really nice bones.” Both Caitlin and Samuel Dowe-Sandes grew up on the East Coast of the United States before moving to Los Angeles, where she worked in public relations for architecture and design firms while he was a film producer and writer. They decided to take a sabbatical year and go travelling, but soon after arriving in Morocco they were gently seduced by Marrakech. Before long they had bought a traditional house, or dar, in the medina next to one of the mosques and threw themselves into a learning-curve renovation. One of the discoveries they made along the way was how easy it is to get things made here, in a city of artisans, including their own tile designs. Popham Design was born soon after, named after one of the couple’s favourite beaches in Maine. When their daughter Gigi — short for Georgina — was born, they moved to Gueliz, the ‘new town’ that was first laid out by the French back in the 1920s, settling first in a modest bungalow. But as Gigi got older and their lives busier, a yearning for more space led to a two-storey town house close to the flower market. “When we started work there was a little window at the back of the sitting room we wanted to open up but it turned into quite an excavation,” says Samuel. “We were ripping out boulders of rock.” The sitting room was opened up further by removing half-walls and archways and opening to the central hallway, where the staircase is lit by a high window. »

FROM LEFT: On the opposite end of the living area, a Stefan Keller lamp with a shade designed by Caitlin sits on an antique side table; the Mid-century coffee table was found at a local flea market; the desert photograph on the right is by Samuel and the abstract painting on the wall is by Jo-ann Menchetti. Samuel and Caitlin standing near the pool, below. OPPOSITE PAGE: In the dining room, a vase from local artist Tif adds warmth to the midnight-blue wall; the framed artwork Woodsy Spooks is by Samuel’s father; and the trays are from Hay Amsterdam.