Inside LRNCE’s Rosemary Marrakech – a boutique stay years in the making

The adage ‘good things take time’ could not be a more apt way to summarise the creation of Rosemary in Marrakech. A project that’s taken years to conceive and curate, the boutique stay is a masterstroke of contextual design and an ode to local handcraft.

While in hindsight, the design of a riad makes sense as a natural evolution for an interior and fashion brand (these disciplines lending themselves seamlessly to a lifestyle environment), it came about partly by chance for Laurence Leenaert and her husband Ayoub Boualam, who had never pointedly set out to become boutique hotel owners.

But as co-founders of design brand LRNCE – known, loved and collected globally for its unique and instantly recognisable identity – it was perhaps their ability to straddle disciplines, from loosely handpainted ceramics and textural rugs to eye-popping framed artworks and striking clothing, that made the progression into designing a hotel so natural.

Leenaert had met Rose-Marie, the previous owner of the space, at the LRNCE studio. She was selling it and persuaded them to come and have a look. Once the couple saw the space—its magnificent original features and the limitless design scope it offered—the deal was all but done.