March 2012 Putting the Finishing Touches to Dar Finn, Boutique Riad, Fez Morocco!

Hi again Finn,

It seemed to take an age to get back to Fez and again I’d been away from you, it felt, for too long.  The end of the building has brought another challenge to us. There is of course the “final finishing”, which is especially the case in the “lounge” and garden areas, but also completing soft furnishings, tables, sofas and wall decorations.

It also meant that we had to complete our website and begin a marketing strategy. As you’ll know, we had tried working with Omar without success and finally we asked Sarah to come over and put her professional photographic skills to the test at Dar Finn. Beccie organised the show, I did the narrative and Sarah took and edited the images. A team effort. The result has been impressive, have a look for yourself. (www.DarFinn.com)

In side Dar Finn, with money running out and a time lag in people making bookings,  we’ve been using our resources as efficiently as possible. This means exchanging nights at the hotel for services, with Sarah and Josh (websites) in the development of the website and using windows to make new tables.

We’ve decided to call the names after Babs/Gates in the medina, as a means of publicising and orienting guests. This window came from a room called Rcif (aka Pashas suite).Having cut it out to access the balcony, we talked to a metal mwalem to make it in to a convertible table. The idea is that the leg frame of the table top has two levels of fittings, so that it can either be used as a dining or a lounge table. Here they are, with our glazier putting the final touches in the dining room.

 

Of course we also need to move things like this and bags through the house so we’ve put in a jerara to haul everything up through the garden or through the courtyard, without using the stairs and bashing the plaster/tadlakt on the walls. This isn’t perfect yet, but we’ll get there!

What is nice to see is the slow but steady finishing of the garden. We’ve added, seats,  plants, zuaked iron railings, for climbing plants, and a few pieces of West African art. The pool has now been filed and we’re preparing other seating. This has meant designing chairs, repairing sofas that we bought and drove up from marrakesh and building in traditional seating for the lounge. 

As ever all these things need to be designed, materials locally sourced and made by local artisans. For the lounge sofas, it meant bringing in specialists who use recycled clothes to fill sofa cushions. With all this work, the garden and lounge are showing their potential. They’re lovely places…hopefully other people will think so too.

As we develop our marketing strategy we also need to gain a clearer understanding of our identity…what is Dar Finn? Obviously we want to create an environment that is fun, cool, funky and relaxing. But we also want to engage people in our and their interests. Thus we are focussing on music, food, culture and travel, I’ve said so many times that one of the things I love about Fez and Morocco as a whole, are these things and the food is simply wonderful.

It’s currently strawberry season and we’ve been making the most of this. Mummy is a genius at cake making and we’ve been making pots and pots of jam. We’ve also cured some wild boar and made our own tomato ketchup. You’ve got to love it.

It’s not always so easy to be open about what we want to promote in Dar Finn, local sensitivities have to be considered. Mohammed’s been very generous in sharing his bed space to clandestinely store our wine stock. But I look forward to being more public with and posting our recipes….we’ll be thinking of all sorts of ways to develop our marketing strategy…you’ve obviously got your own opinions and methodologies! Thanks for that Mr Finn of Dar Finn, Boutique Riad in Fez Medina!.