In recent times, the house was inhabited by the local Mellakh family (which included the painter Abdelhay Mellakh) since at least 1954 before being bought in 2012 by Patrick Manac’h and Hamid Megani, co-founders of another museum in the city, the Maison de la Photographie ("House of Photography").[1][2][3][4] Although some of the old wooden doors and ceilings were visible, Manac'h suspected that the original walls of the house might be hidden beneath the recent layers of plaster, and recruited the help of Xavier Salmon, a curator at the Louvre Museum, to investigate.[2] They conducted tests and discovered that under the thick layers of modern white plaster was the original pinkish gypsum-based stucco of the historic douiria.[2] With the help of Salmon and other experts, a team of craftsmen were recruited to carefully remove the modern plaster and painstakingly restore the original decoration.[2][1] Even some of the original colours had been preserved;[2] an uncommon case for Saadian-era buildings.[5]:280 The historic house was opened as a museum and cultural venue in 2014 and in 2019 it also became a museum of Moroccan music, in addition to hosting regular musical performances.[3][6]