maison mk

finishing touches still finishing...

If you have ever fancied putting gold leaf on your ceiling, just ask Pauline for a little advice - you may need to set aside a few weeks to do the job. The quick suggestion from Peter (the interior designer) that we might like to gold leaf the private dining room (AND the tea room by the pool) seemed such a nice idea at the time. Pauline now feels like Peter should do the other ceiling himself, as a punishment !

Those of you that have been bored to death by my ranting about pool ladders, spouts, etc can now stop avoiding me. After just 7 short months, we have our pool ladder. I still can't see why 5 steps & 2 long poles are such a problem, but amazingly we finally have a pool in place. (Obviously, this being Morocco, they managed to smash the pool light whilst fitting the ladder meaning all the lights kept fusing & the pool had to be drained, light repaired, and pool refilled). Anybody that has renovated in Morocco will understand the deep joy that the arrival of a long awaited doorknob, window catch, tap, etc can cause - we did manage a small whoop when the ladder arrived !

website finally nearing completion

   

My latest visit last week was to shoot the pictures for the website. You can see them all piled up on sample photos 
Kam, the web guru is putting the final website together this week so we should be live very very soon.
Three days of finally finishing bits of the hotel & also shooting a huge variety of images mean that these are not the final shots forever, but they are a great start & i'm really pleased with them. Do enjoy....

maison mk wig service

Jallel trying on the latest offering from the house of maison mk - custom designed wigs in our corporate colours. As seen in Milan during fashion week 2008...

Latest photos

Took a quick snap of the bathroom once the new lighting was installed - so much better and more dramatic.

Balcony lighting also looking good

Now this is supposed to be the winding mechanism for our dumb waiter up to the roof ! Our so-called experts admitted afterwards that this was probably not their area of expertise - it looks more like a comedy prop from a pantomime !

A few kitchen shots - starting to look like a commercial kitchen...

Christmas visit

Well we spent Boxing Day until New Years Eve in the riad as the first guests. A few small issues with the water supply - first day, no hot water at all. Second day, no cold water at all, so still no shower. Third day, hot and cold water in the taps so it was shower time! Sadly, Alana flushed the toilet and out came steaming hot water....oh well...that's what you call luxury i guess.

Weather was gorgeous & sunny & warm - no floods, no snow, no rain...just like England !

Merry Christmas... (and a Happy Eid in Morocco)

Its now Christmas Eve 2007 so I'll wish you all a very merry Christmas & we will definitely be looking forward to an interesting 2008 !

Marrakech images

Our gas bottles arriving by donkey... the only way to do it

Me looking ravishing & gorgeous - who says the British have no style !!

We will build it ourselves...

The glass shows what happens when you try to change the shape of huge toughened glass doors ! The rusty metal shows what happens if the builder forgets to rustproof the iron before he makes the railings!

So, here is the senior, management, executive, VIP team hard at work...

Yet another ...glossy Sunday Times Travel magazine

And again...this one i found whilst flicking through the magazine at the hairdressers! Nice surprise...

"Sex up your city break

If you'd rather cure urban fatigue by retreating to your room, there's good news from Barcelona & Marrakech.
In the latter, curved walls & specially commissioned paintings make for a super-sophicticated place to hole up at maison mk (with the bonus of the North African climate). Make the most of it with a dip in the round pool, hemmed by slinky banquettes or cosy up round the fire at night on the roof terrace. "

And another article...Sunday Times

Neofile section - sunday travel magazine 

"Marrakech's sensory overload can make anyone feel disorientated, but there'll be no let up in the weirdness at maison mk (www.maisonmk.com), a riad opening on Jan 1. It's owner, photographer Paul Hopkins, has gone for an 'organic' design - walls curve into floors and ceilings, and the pool grows out of the ground. If it gets a bit much, retreat to the spa for its signature massage...in complete darkness. Come to think of it, that might make things worse."

Bit of a strange one this, but they say all publicity is good publicity...so lets just put it down to a slightly strange journalistic style of writing...