History Comes Home: The Story of Toile
Woodcut-Inspired Toile Adds Delicate Color and Pattern to a Room. Is It for You?
Toile has been a decor staple for the last couple of hundred years. So what is it, and how did this decidedly old pattern find its way into so many modern homes?
Toile is the French word for cloth. The toile we're talking about is more properly known as Toile de Jouy, which gets its name from a small village southwest of Paris. It was in Jouy-en-Josas where in 1760 a man named Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf opened a textile mill and began hand-printing cotton fabrics—a scarce and desirable luxury at the time.
When Oberkampf started, printed fabrics were made with woodcuts, a labor-intensive practice that limited the size of a pattern to around 10" square. Woodcut printing is why modern toile has its small pattern. The patterns are complex, but due to their monochromatic nature, they aren't visually heavy.
Toile de Jouy was a huge hit with the French aristocracy, and in 1783 King Louis XVI gave Oberkampf a royal commendation. Today you may love it or hate it, but its popularity shows no sign of waning.
Toile is the French word for cloth. The toile we're talking about is more properly known as Toile de Jouy, which gets its name from a small village southwest of Paris. It was in Jouy-en-Josas where in 1760 a man named Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf opened a textile mill and began hand-printing cotton fabrics—a scarce and desirable luxury at the time.
When Oberkampf started, printed fabrics were made with woodcuts, a labor-intensive practice that limited the size of a pattern to around 10" square. Woodcut printing is why modern toile has its small pattern. The patterns are complex, but due to their monochromatic nature, they aren't visually heavy.
Toile de Jouy was a huge hit with the French aristocracy, and in 1783 King Louis XVI gave Oberkampf a royal commendation. Today you may love it or hate it, but its popularity shows no sign of waning.
Benjamin Franklin first became aware of toile while in England in the 1770s. He bought a bolt to take home to his wife in Philadelphia. One of his fellow travelers chided him for not buying enough toile to decorate an entire room with as many toile patterns as could be fit into it. Toile on toile on toile was THE look at the end of the 18th Century. So it was Ben Franklin who brought toile to the New World originally and it's been coming in and out of fashion ever since.
Curiously enough, it was Ben Franklin's gift to his wife that would bring about the end of Oberkampf's textile mill in Jouy-en-Josas.
The Franklins popularized it in the colonies, and American imitations of French toile eventually put Oberkampf out of business in 1840.
Though Deborah Read, Mrs. Ben Franklin, probably wouldn't have paired toile with gingham, she would have loved this bedroom.
The Franklins popularized it in the colonies, and American imitations of French toile eventually put Oberkampf out of business in 1840.
Though Deborah Read, Mrs. Ben Franklin, probably wouldn't have paired toile with gingham, she would have loved this bedroom.
Though it started out as an upholstery fabric, these days it's just as likely to to be a wallpaper pattern.
Toile's small pattern repeat usually shows pastoral or mythological scenes. Modern versions of toile interpret that tradition in many unexpected ways. This detail of a window treatment shows a toile that's an homage to New Orleans.
If you look closely, you can see Saint Louis cathedral, a streetcar and other scenes reminiscent of the Crescent City.
If you look closely, you can see Saint Louis cathedral, a streetcar and other scenes reminiscent of the Crescent City.
Traditionally, toile had always been printed in black, blue or red inks on a white or cream base fabric.
Today, fabric designers take great liberties with those old patterns and print toile patterns on any color that looks good. The window treatments here are a brown toile printed on a light blue-green field. That pattern plays beautifully over this window seat.
Today, fabric designers take great liberties with those old patterns and print toile patterns on any color that looks good. The window treatments here are a brown toile printed on a light blue-green field. That pattern plays beautifully over this window seat.
The traditional toile pattern on these chair seats are a terrific addition to this otherwise color-blocked kitchen. Traditional toile patterns are a good way to inject some pattern in a room without adding too much color at the same time.
Though toile was once the sole province of royals and aristocrats, these days it can belong to anybody. Toile is a good way to add some tone to a room without spending a whole lot of money.
Combining toile fabrics and toile wallpapers is still popular, though it's done a bit more sedately today than it was in the 18th Century.
Due to its regularly-cycling popularity over the course of the last 250 years, using toile today could be called timeless without the least bit of exaggeration.
Due to its regularly-cycling popularity over the course of the last 250 years, using toile today could be called timeless without the least bit of exaggeration.
Using toile wallpaper in a powder bath is a great way to get a strong but not overwhelming pattern into a small room's design. It's the toile that makes this monochromatic color scheme work.
Toile's been undergoing a resurgence in popularity for the last 10 years, and this time around it's showing up on dishes and other housewares as often as it shows up in fabrics and wallpapers.
Toile is very much a love it/ hate it thing, and few people are indifferent to it. However, it comes to 2011 with a colorful history that belies its monochromatic appearance.
So where do you fall on the love it/ hate it toile scale? Is it anything you'd use in your home? Does knowing a bit about its story change your opinion? Leave a comment, it'll be interesting to hear some opinions.
Toile is very much a love it/ hate it thing, and few people are indifferent to it. However, it comes to 2011 with a colorful history that belies its monochromatic appearance.
So where do you fall on the love it/ hate it toile scale? Is it anything you'd use in your home? Does knowing a bit about its story change your opinion? Leave a comment, it'll be interesting to hear some opinions.