DEJA VU AT THE ALHAMBRA

 I'm back and finally unpacked from our summer holiday in Spain! One of the highlights of the trip, and a must for anyone visiting Spain, is a tour of the  Alhambra palace and fortress located in the beautiful city of Granada.



The Alhambra's Islamic palaces were built for the last Muslim Emirs in Spain and its court in the 10th century and are today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

  It's said that the greatest concern of the architects of the Alhambra was to cover every single space with decoration, no matter the size of the space. The interior spaces are magestic, with extraordinary rows of richly carved interior arches which were built simply as decorative design elements. 

Walls are covered with beautiful and extremely rich ceramics and plasterwork with vibrant tiles arranged in complex geometric patterns. The designs are ancient and yet so current in today's interior designs. 

I've recently been obsessed with F. Schumacher's new wallpaper line Byzantium which has beautifully interperted ancient Moorish designs for today's interiors.

The Nasrid Palace Mosiac is a multihued hand print wallcovering featuring a traditional star pattern--looks familiar, doesn't it?

Schumacher's Malaga in gold borrows from the Alhambra's gilded ceilings

The Alhambra's carved wooden ceilings are echoed in Schumacher's Cordoba in Persimmon  

Would you incorporate Alahambra chic into your home design?