Rosemary酒店丨摩洛哥马拉喀什丨LRNCE（Laurence Leenaert创立）

11.07.23

Travel

Love the Look of LRNCE? Now You Can Stay in a Marrakech Hotel Designed By the Brand

by

Deborah Shapiro

It’s not easy to achieve a look that feels so considered and complete without being overdone. But

Rosemary

, a new place to stay in Marrakech, has pulled it off. The five-room boutique hotel, which opened recently, is scrupulously designed by LRNCE, the Marrakesh-based lifestyle brand founded by Belgium-born Laurence Leenaert. With her husband Ayoub Boualam, Leenaert acquired the riad — a traditional Moroccan house with a central courtyard and garden — a few years ago and got to work on renovations, with no detail overlooked, from the plunge pool and shady patio, to the hammam and the roof terrace, to the beautifully-appointed suites. Despite the damaging earthquake in the region this September, Rosemary was largely spared.

Rosemary — the name references both the former owner and the herb, which is a motif throughout — is located in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. While respecting the age of the place, Leenaert and Boualam created a contemporary atmosphere, collaborating with dozens of master craftspeople to bring their vision to life. That includes a group of women specializing in stained glass in Meknes, potters from Safi, marble vendors in Rabat and hand-chiseled zellige tile from artisans in Fes, and local carpenters, metalworkers, and plasterers. It’s been a labor of love, time, and attention. A carved wooden cedar door, one of the first elements produced for the space, took over four months to make and there are alluring touches at every turn: the green terrazzo floors inlaid with brass in the Jacaranda suite, the hand-carved cedar ceiling in the Rosemary suite, or the stained-glass picture window in the Cocoon room.

Custom furniture by Leenaert and Boualam — like their self-designed wedding chair on the roof terrace — sits alongside vintage Scarpa chairs, as well as desks from the 1920s. LRNCE accessories, such as handmade ceramics and textiles, round out the rooms, along with wrought iron door handles, hand-painted bathroom tiles, and sandstone planters. We know it’s a place to lay your head, a jumping off point for seeing the medina and sights further afield, but there’s also so much to see here.