How to Decorate With Toile Wallpaper
Toile, short for the term "toile de Jouy," has a signature look. Traditional toile wallpaper and fabric feature cream or white backgrounds and silhouettes in navy, black or another dark color. Images on toile depict daily farm life, nature scenes or even narratives of a sailing adventure or Roman mythology. Despite the highly detailed patterns on most toile wallpaper, its overall look ranges widely, where it can serve as the focal point, as a backdrop or as an accent. Decorating with toile wallpaper looks particularly effective in shabby chic, cottage style, French country, old world European, Victorian and bohemian modern decors. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Toile wallpaper
- Wallpaper adhesive
- Furniture
- Lighting
- Textiles
- Paint
- Paintbrush
- Accessories
Instructions
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Choose a style of toile wallpaper. You can go with the classic French look of medium to navy blue on cream, or venture to one of the more contemporary versions of toile. Try a colorful background for your toile silhouettes, or multiple colored imagery that pops off the neutral background. Fanciful toile patterns encompass designs such as tropical fruits, mythical beasts, parrots on palm fronds, or even Gothic skulls. Achieve a truly classic look by seeking remnants of vintage toile wallpaper, many of which may feature a patina of age or faded surfaces.
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Consider rooms, architectural elements or even solid furnishings that could benefit from the application of toile wallpaper. Give a living room a classic formality by decorating all four walls in toile and accenting it with polished furniture in darkly stained wood. Strike a more informal note by doing an accent wall in toile and painting the other walls bright solids. Cover a headboard in toile for a funky look, and accent it with shabby chic furniture painted antique white and icy pastels. You can make the look more bohemian by juxtaposing toile against other, simpler patterns, such as stripes, florals, checks or even paisley.
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Extend the look with furnishings and accessories. You can use toile on sofas or other upholstered surfaces, but the look can become muddy if all four walls are in toile as well. Instead, try a couch in a bold jewel tone or a bed beneath a sheer canopy to lighten and brighten the look. Florescent lighting can flatten the engraved look of toile patterns on wallpaper, so opt for wall sconces, table lamps, floor lamps, miniature spotlights and pendant lights to emphasize the delicate patterns in the room.
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Try a do-it-yourself project using toile wallpaper as a final finish. You can adhere toile wallpaper to the insides of bookshelves with wallpaper adhesive or craft glue. Line an old desk drawer with toile wallpaper and hang the drawer on the wall to use it as a floating shelf. Cover containers with toile wallpaper to give your storage style.
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Tips & Warnings
For a more restrained look, group only two color families together, other than neutrals.
