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Moroccan furniture is usually solid timber and stylish. Morocco is an ex-French colony, but it is very close to Spain as well. In fact, two small parts of Morocco, Melilla and Ceuta are still under Spanish control.

This means that Moroccan furnishings and decor has Berba, Arabic, French and Spanish influences. These Mediterranean influences are prominent in traditional and modern Moroccan furniture.

When combined with Moroccan decor and colours, Moroccan furniture can transform your home. Walls are normally emulsioned plain white or cream and lightly decorated with old carpets or tapestries with one or two photos or paintings hanging between them.

Reds and browns are the principal colours. Poignant writings from the Koran or other Arabic philosophers are often written out in bold script and framed.

Moroccan decorations such as lamps, lanterns, mirrors, benches, vases, mosaic end tables, ottomans, rugs and ceramics can add that remarkable local flavour to the decor, setting off the solid timber or padded cloth furniture.

Pillows feature large in Moroccan interior and garden decor, but they also use settees and chairs in the European fashion. Morocco is well-known for its leather craft and leather is often used to cover chairs, sofas and footstools or poufes.

Scatter rugs are important for sitting on and they are taken out and beaten each day to keep them clean as Morocco is a hot, sandy and dusty country when you travel a few miles inland from the coast. Camels are still used for transport in rural parts and camel hair is turned into rugs, blankets and wall coverings.

Moroccans like tiles and mosaics and Arabic style tiles are quite distinctive if you would like to use them in your bathroom and kitchen. If you would like to dine in Moroccan style, they usually eat at a very low round table with the primary dish in the centre from which everyone helps themselves, although in a family, some members will feed others as well.

Following convention and hygiene, you may only touch food with your right hand, although everybody will have washed both hands before coming to the table. Bread, rice and couscous feature highly in Moroccan food as does potatoes, carrots, lamb and chicken.Water is served during the meal and tea and coffee afterwards frequently with very sweet cakes sprinkled with icing sugar and syrup.

People take it easy at home wearing long, loose-fitting garments and lounge on benches or on rugs on the floor surrounded by cushions. In the evening, lighting will be low offered by low wattage bulbs concealed behind red and brown stained glass or cloth. Candles, scented or not also feature a great deal in living rooms and bedrooms unless someone wants a stronger light to read by.

Candles in wall sconces are popular methods to highlight special areas and light up corridors and some doorways. Often these sconces do not contain candles, but hold scented oil with a floating wick which is cheaper to leave burning between the hours or twilight and bed time.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of subjects, but is now involved with outdoor dining tables. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Solid Oak Dining Tables.

Those who have garden furniture prefer to spend as much of the summer sitting in their garden as possible. For these people, the summer months are too short and so they spend every spare moment of sunny weather enjoying the flowers in their garden and the good weather.

Some people eat in the garden too and it is also widespread practice to read the paper in the morning over a cup of coffee and a book or magazine in the evening with a drink on the patio as well. Depending on the type of furniture that you have, this can be pretty tiring for the backside, so it is a good idea to get a couple cushions to make your life easier.

If you do not have any garden furniture yet, you have the choice of plastic, metal or wood. Plastic garden furniture is inexpensive to buy, but it does not last a long time. Plastic will often only last for two or three years after which time it goes brittle and breaks due to extremes of hot and cold.

Metal furniture looks better than plastic and can be more comfortable to sit on because it frequently has a fabric seat, but it can be a bit rickety and it looks so austere. I think that metal garden furniture should be avoided. Once it starts rusting, it looks awful as well.

There are two types of timber garden furniture: softwood and hardwood. Some softwood chairs, such as the deck chair or beach chair have a fairly comfortable cloth chair, but most softwood and hardwood garden chairs are hard on the backside after a short while. It is for these chairs in particular that you will need cushions.

If you are buying a new garden table and chair set, you may find that it comes with matching cushions otherwise you will have to buy or make your own. This is not difficult, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

The cushions are likely to get caught in the rain sometimes, so it is best to have them made from materials that will not rot and will not retain water. The stuffing can be that non-absorbent fibre that you often find in cheap cushions. It is ideal for use in the garden. The covers should be removable and washable. Cotton or man-made fibre is all right here, because you can run them through the washing machine.

Waterproof textile is not recommended because if water does get inside, you want it to be able to run out, not remain stuck inside where it will turn brackish. If you want to dry them in a tumble dryer, be careful about using some man-made fabrics that might melt. You also do not want to use a cloth that may shrink as you will be washing them frequently. The colours must be fast for this reason as well.

While we are talking about colours, the colour or patterns of the cushion covers should be fitting for the colours around them. Please, give this a little consideration: it makes all the difference between great, average and awful cushion covers, but it is where you can express your personal taste.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a variety of topics, but is now involved with large dining tables. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Solid Oak Dining Tables.