Toile Wallpaper
Toile is wallpaper that tells a story. Fine single colour engravings of pastoral scenes, figures, gardens and birds repeat across a pale background, drawn with the delicate linework of an old printed cloth. It brings quiet charm to a bedroom, a guest room or a hallway, and modern versions prove it can be just as much at home in a contemporary scheme.
Casadeco's Les Belles Toiles De Jouy collections are inspired by original documents, with Scene D'Ete depicting scenes of rural life, and continue in Les Belles Toiles De Jouy 2. Laura Ashley's Tuileries was first introduced in 2002 as a furnishing fabric, drawn from an antique Toile de Jouy print in the Laura Ashley archive.
English houses do it beautifully too. Sanderson's Highgrove has Highgrove Toile, inspired by an archival toile document, and Woodland Walk has Woodland Toile, a scene of native British trees. Colefax and Fowler's Toile Chinoise, in the Ashdown collection, is recreated from an archive document, and Nina Campbell's Honfleur offers a modern toile of a garden scene.
Toile shares a sensibility with chinoiserie and classic and traditional designs, and looks lovely in a bedroom. For history and styling ideas, read The Story in the Cloth on Decorating Notes.
