CasaCinco by Angela Moore

Vejer de la Frontera is a town of secrets and surprises. The streets are a narrow jumble of thick, white walls that seem to silence all sound. As you walk you keep finding things: a section of ancient city wall, a sudden view of the hills of Morocco, a seductive glimpse of a beautifully tiled courtyard.

CasaCinco is just such a surprise. The house is marked by a discreet sign and hidden behind a wooden door twice the height of a man. It’s a Moorish townhouse that its charming owners, Glen and Colette, have converted with care and imagination. Lots of original features remain – huge wooden beams, archways and alcoves, terracotta floors. There are discoveries everywhere – light from unexpected windows, accent colours of deep red and blue, little objets, candles.

Below a square of sky there’s an inner courtyard, riad-style, complete with an 11th-century well. Upstairs, the sitting room has an honesty bar, a beautifully stocked bookshelf and very comfortable leather sofas and armchairs. It all feels relaxed and generous-spirited.

Further up still there’s a roof terrace, with fat cushions under a billowing white shade tent and a few smart wooden recliners. By night, you see the stars and the lights of Tangiers; by day the coastline and countryside and the tumbling flat white planes of Vejer’s rooftops.

The rooms
There are currently four rooms, soon to be five with addition of a ground-floor twin. Three of the rooms fan off the open stairwell on the fourth floor, and the fourth is tucked under an original section of roof at terrace level. Each room is different and they are loosely themed around the five senses. They are in good, comfortable, plain style, with touches of imagination.

“Touch” is an extremely spacious rectangular room with an iron bedstead at one end and a semi-open plan bathroom hidden behind a curved wall at the other. Light streams in from wooden-shuttered windows on both sides of the room. There are an imposing wardrobe and chest of drawers and an antique trunk which holds spare blankets. Behind the bed, there are objets in little alcoves with wooden pelmets, which are lit at night. The ‘touch’ is lightly referred to with fuzzy, fur-covered lamps, a strokeable, unusual bedspread and feather boas hung around a mannequin.

Upstairs, “Aroma” - which does smell delicious! - is the smallest of the rooms but does not lack for charm. It’s like a little Parisian garret, under the white-painted wooden beams of the eaves. The bed is draped in mosquito netting; very romantic and pretty. The bathroom, also smaller here, has a walk-in shower.

“See” is another large room, with the addition of two huge arched French windows that open out onto a tiny balcony and views of a section of the old city walls. “Hear” is midsized, with a walk-in shower, wind chimes and a couple of African instruments for the musically inclined.

All rooms have a CD player; you can borrow from a large collection down in the dining room. Also, each room has an antique trunk and a couple of interesting, eclectic pieces of furniture – here a fifties armchair, there an antique dresser. Throughout, the bathrooms are elegant and roomy, tiled in pale caramel, with fluffy white towels and smart Parisian toiletries.