Attention to Detail

DH and I have been furniture shopping. A lot. We've been looking for something in Tunisian furniture stores that is as rare as the Snipe or Nauga--bookcases.

I learned the two French words that might come in handy: bibliotheque and etagere. Between that and hand signals with "livres" sprinkled in, I was hoping we would be okay. In Tulsa, I had built in bookshelves in almost every room. Although, I severely limited the amount of books that did come with us to Tunis, I still have more books than I have furniture to hold them.

We tried looking online (this whole country has not embraced the Internet for business or selling) and were stymied. I did find that there would be an Expo on January 28th through February 6th that would include all furniture sellers, makers and importers. Looks like it will be worth a walk through... but I digress.

DH and I went into probably 25 storefront furniture stores looking for bookshelves. One of the most interesting was in a building that included this hand painted ceiling. My little digital camera could not possibly get you enough resolution to see this vaulted creation, but I tried to take several shots to capture the glory of this colorful creation.

The reason I think it was hand painted was twofold. First, there was a low row of edging that I could see, and I followed it across the railing. It really appeared to have hand painted, almost tole painted details.

If you look closely at this detail, you can see that the green 'leaves' are not all perfectly similar. I do believe this is a lot of hand painted panels applied to the ceiling and walls, if not completely hand painted in situ. I can assure you that the furniture stores in this office building did not carry furniture worthy of their lobby ceiling. That's for sure. Well, maybe the shiny gold tufted leather chaise lounge.

Part of this ceiling detail that is hard to discern in these crappy photos is the 3-D wooden details. There were all kinds of little wooden pieces that were raised, like gingerbread, and painted with in excruciating detail.

In this picture, you can see how there are corbels lined up along this ceiling elevation, each painted out and detailed into the overall design. It was glorious. The bright colors were a folk art dream and we found ourselves on the landing just looking up, trying to take it all in. I'm sure the pictures do not do it justice.

What's most interesting is that this is a very modern office building. Not more than four years old. There is no detail or construction on the outside that says anything other than 'modern office block'. When you walk inside and find this in the ceiling, it is the only paean to a bygone age of hand craftsmanship that is alive and well in Tunisia.

I'll keep my eyes open to see if I can find any more of this.

--Sandee Wagner