As another lover of toile, my first response was going to be, "You can *never* have too much toile.

But then I remembered seeing a Waverly ad (I think) a while back. There was toile wallpaper, toile drapes, toile pillows, and a toile bedspread. I understand they were showcasing several different things in one spread, but *that* was too much toile!

If interspersed throughout the house, I think it always works.

My first thought was also you can never have too much toile!

Laurie

It's a good question, Brutuses, and one I've wondered about myself. I've always loved toile. I decorated my bedroom in remnant blue toile fabric when I was 13 (this was the 70's when big orange, lime green and pink flowers were typical teen decor!).

Right now my dining room has some very elegant light sage/cranberry toile drapes. They make quite a statement, so I hesitate to add any more toile downstairs because I don't want to take away from the drapes (I do have a bit of red transferware in DR as well as adjacent LR which sort of echoes the effect).

I am in the idea/inspiration stage of redecorating my master bedroom which will have a definite 'french country' style (antique armoir, vintage louis xv carved headboard, etc.). I really want toile in this room, combined with checks/damasks. As much as I love toile, I don't want to do full drapes in it, again because of my DR. I'm think upholstering the headboard in toile, doing accent pillows or perhaps the seat cushion of the fauteil chairs I need to have reupholstered, and the wallpapering the master bath walls in toile paper (since I have glass doors you see the bath from the bedroom.) The other thing is that I'm planning to use a toile with very different colors than the red downstairs (I'd love to find a beigey toile). I do plan mix a couple different toile accents in the bedroom--I have a little really cool vintage toile with beiges/reds/gold colors that I want to have made into decorate pillows.

I think how much toile you want to use around the house is a personal thing. Look at photos of Charles Faudree's own homes--he's got floor to ceiling toile in nearly every room and it looks great! But he also has the most magnificent antiques, so the toile serves as a backdrop and doesn't really compete with the furnishings.

My other concern, to be honest, is that while toile is considered 'classic' or traditional, it is also VERY popular right now. I hesitate put it into expensive things like upholstery, so I'm trying to figure out ways to use it that I could change it out easily at some point.

I like your idea of using the toile as accents around the home. You can also get the effect of toile from transferware pottery, and prints. You can cover hatboxes in toile paper, or do lampshades in toile fabric. That way you would get a sense of 'how much is too much' and just add or subtract if it doesn't feel right.

I think using toile as an accent in your rooms is a great idea. It will add some flow to the decor, and you will smile each time you enter a room!

I agree. I think it's fine to use it as accents in other parts of the house. But, I've wondered if it's acceptable to use different colors throughout the house. That is, have blue toile in a bedroom, black toile in a living room, red in a kitchen, etc.

What I've heard is that the traditional way to use toile is to have it be the only print in the room but use it heavily. That's why I initially did not like toile because whenever I saw it in photographs the walls where wallpapered in the same toile as the draperies and pillows and bedding were made of. Now I've gotten used to that look and I can appreciate it more but I think it's an acquired taste. Now I love the look of toile wallpaper enveloping a room with matching draperies. Where I think it goes to far is when the bedding is made of the toile. Now the eye has no place to rest so I think it looks better to have a white matelasse coverlet cover the bed (another large surface area) and have just a couple toile pillow shams to tie in with the walls and drapes. There can be a coverlet in the toile color folded at the foot of the bed. But the chair fabric and the comforter should be a solid white IMO.

I'll never forget a room I saw once done up by Ethan Allen. The walls were papered in black and white toile with matching draperies (so the wallpapering company has to hook up with the fabric company and make the same print). There were two Bergere chairs with ottomans in a seating area of the bedroom, both had dark wood with solid white upholstery. Between the two chairs was a round table draped to the floor with a solid black matelasse tablecloth and a white square topper. The wood on the bed frame was dark and they had a white coverlet on the bed with toile pillows and another coverlet folded at the foot of the bed, I think it was solid black. So the room was a medly of black and white. It was very jarring and the contrast of black against bright white was a bit much for me. It was memorable that's for sure.

I don't know if many people have the guts to put toile wallpaper on their walls (!) but even if you didn't I think I'd still chose to either have the pillows shams in the toile or the comforter in the toile, but not both together. There can also be a padded headboard in the toile. The idea behind it is that you can get away with a room saturated in toile because it's the only print in the room. It's hard to tell the drapes from the walls because it all blends in. I can't remember if they included a black and white checked fabric, I don't think they did because of the walls. That's another option I've seen used many times, have a second print in a non-floral, non-toile design to coordinate with the toile...usually that's a check in the same two colors as the toile.

I have the same question as stargirl, when is there too much toile in a HOUSE...how many different rooms can you get away using a different toile?

I'm so glad there are so many toile "supporters" and "lovers."

In another thread I talk about my present guest room as having a blue and beige/cream border at the ceiling, pale yellow walls and white bedspread sometimes and ecru others. I didn't go all the way with the toile mottif, but love my toile border. It's pretty dingy now, but I'll try to take a photo for y'all to see. I'll hate to have to tear it down when I'm ready for resale, but I know it has to go!!

I won't be doing any toile wall paper in the new house. Not because I wouldn't love to, say in the baths, but my poor DH is killing himself just to get the houe built and it's not really necessary to have wallpaper.

Here is a photo of the fabric I've already bought for the guest bath for the shower curtain and window curtain. Hope you can see it has a 2 tone stripe going through it.

I thought I'd pick the lighter stripe to paint the top of the wall. The bottom will be an off white wainscoting. I think white would be too bright. I'm going to paint the ceiling black and bring it down about a foot or so from the 10' ceiling. The floors will be black and white hex and you've already seen my antique dresser/vanity. The lighting fixtures and faucets are antique something or other. So I have one room completed in my mind.

I also bought a remnent of dark blue and cream toile and am now considering it for the bedroom. I think I've come to the decision to paint the bedroom a beautiful cream/beige that I had special mixed from a fabric swatch. It also will have wainsctoing at the bottom wall, but a different style then the bath. Since I love my white bed spreads I'll just use the toile for curtains, pillows and maybe cover the chair I chose for the room. So that won't be too much toile.

The toile I have planned for the great room is a rooster/hen toile. Sorry, I need to take a photo. It's a very common/popular toile. I was going to use it for the shades I had planned for the windows and some pillows or chair covers. I'm going to have 2 wooden rockers in the great room and want to have seat cushions made for them. I thought this would be an opportunity to introduce the toile and not have it be too much.

So far it's only 3 roooms that I'm daydreaming about the toile, however, that could increase at any time. LOL Also, with all this toile I only have 2 rooster/chicken prints. HA! HA! Link below to view.

Here is a link that might be useful: link to rooster prints

That's a beautiful fabric, Brutuses! Don't think I've ever seen it on a striped ground -- who makes it?

I'm in the same predicament, in a small house -- Can I have toile in every room, lol, but doing different colors? I just always seem to be dreaming of toile ... for every room. It just doesn't seem to sit right in my mind though :( I continue to daydream on how to make it flow nicely with multiple colorways.

In terms of a particular room, I've read the same thing ... the traditional room should be all toile, all over, and with no other prints. Of course, now we've all seen beautiful rooms with just a touch or with a mix, and even multiple colors of toile tossed in pillows or something, so that all seems to be obsolete now (and I, for one, love it! Any ole way it seems :)

I think I would consider sight lines over rooms. Okay to do toile in two adjacent rooms, but I'd only want to be looking at one at a time.

I think it's not the amount of toile as much as how it's used...these rooms both have crazy amounts of toile in them, but they're still beautiful...

and then theres this room, with toile accents, and it's gorgeous...

danielleg, I like to look at those rooms, but wouldn't want to live in them. I'd be dizzy. LOL The one with just the accents is more my speed.

Squirrel, Kaufman makes this particular print. I ordered it now because I could only find it on one web site and was afraid it would be discontinued and I'd have to start my search again.

Interesting, lol, looks like the cat's been at that leather sofa :)

(Have to say I don't like the claws on these new kitties, though they're staying put as Mother Nature intended :)

Bruteses, that fabric is GORGEOUS. I'd love something like that for my bedroom, but without the black. I love the striped background. Good find!