| Le Marche Furniture Fair: A grown-up’s candy shop |
| By Randa El Tahawy |
| When it comes to weddings, people often tend to think that it is all about flowers, dresses and food catering — glossing over the whole preparation frenzy. What they forgot to mention is that here in Egypt, the most important step for the wedding to happen is the house. As my fiancé and I came to discover with our first interior design trip to Le Marche fair, what a draining step that is too.Before you can get married, you have to pick out a house, and even worse, the furniture. In fact, I think the house preparations are maybe the worst you have to endure — at least for me, a person who is impatient and never pays attention to details. When you are finally done with house hunting, which is horribly tiring and stressful, you need to figure out what you are going to do with that new residence of yours. There you are in what they call a core and shell apartment, with completely unfinished walls and empty compartments that you somehow are going to make into bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens. It’s just pillows and sofas For someone who has zero design and visualization skills like me, this all looks like a blank page to be filled. Except you don’t have to create words to fill it —which comes easy to me— you need to paint walls, add flooring and furniture to fill your house, which tends to be far more difficult for me. To get some inspiration and understand what furnishing a house is all about, my fiancé and I decided to head to Le Marche, an annual fair hosting most major interior and exterior design names in Egypt. The idea is brilliant: Everything is grouped in one huge space under one roof — but it is also too overwhelming for our non-design-oriented minds to take. From flooring to bathtubs, garden supplies and wallpapers, the choices are so vast, it is more mind-boggling than convenient. But sadly, we seemed to be the only ones not walking purposely around for hours looking at pillows and doors. Judging from the excitement, the majority of the crowd looked like they were in home furnishings heaven. Overwhelmingly Diverse Le Marche, to me however, seemed like an overwhelming grown-up candy store, with all sorts of delightful exotic and traditional treats for those embarking on married life, but very little guidelines to help me sort through the endless choices. Unlike everybody else at the fair, we were really just browsing, and it all looked the same to us; couches in a million shapes covered with pillows of every size and color. Although we didn’t seem half as productive as others there, we did have a goal: We wanted to get as many flyers and brochures as possible without necessarily knowing why. Around us, eager couples were thinking, talking and writing down colors and measurements. We, on the other hand, were laughing, trying out the fluffiness of the couches and making fun of the horrible design taste some places had. Whenever we walked through an interesting place, we would just say that it’s nice and add it to our list of stores. We did make some choices, but it all seems so chaotic: How do you make big decisions like these? It is a house after all; you can’t just change your mind and go buy different flooring if the end result is not what you wanted. So my choices, up until now, are pretty vague. I have picked out dark flooring and also light ones, a rainbow of nice colors for the pillows and carpets, and at least three or four types of wooden furniture ranging from African-inspired designs to modern minimalistic items and all the way to Arabesque. Take it from the girl whose criteria for her living space is largely how fluffy the sofa is: Choosing your furniture is confusing, overwhelming and time-consuming. So plan ahead and start early. If you don’t have an idea of what style you are going for, it’s a good idea to thumb through some interior design books and magazines before heading out to the wonderland that is a furniture exhibition. Newsstands are filled with magazines like The Gallery, Ask and others that feature design ideas and styles. That way you will at least have a vague idea whether you want wooden floors or funky tiles for your dream living room. All I can tell is: Go armed with vague ideas of what you might want and a lot of imagination. It all seems like a giant candy display: You like them all, but you’re not sure which ones to pick and where to begin. As for me, I am pretty sure that furnishing my own home won’t be as easy and enjoyable as tasting all the different candies and keeping the best ones for last. |
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