Toile de Jouy, to give it its full name, is a pattern with an address. It was born in the 1760s at the factory of Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf in Jouy-en-Josas, just outside Versailles, where new copperplate printing allowed astonishingly fine, detailed scenes to be pressed onto cotton in a single colour. What those scenes depicted was an entire idealised world: rustic idylls and romances, shepherds and shepherdesses, classical ruins and country pursuits, all in soft red, blue or sepia on a cream ground. It became the height of French taste and it has never really left.
What sets toile apart from every other pattern is that it is narrative. You do not simply look at a toile; you read it. Here is where it came from, and the designs on the site that tell the best stories.
"You do not simply look at a toile. You read it."
Born in a French Village
The classical form is still the loveliest, and it still does what Oberkampf intended. Toile Garden in Red, from Blooming Garden by Galerie, is a proper rural panorama in warm madder red, its figures, buildings and trees drawn together across the wall. Highgrove Toile in Highgrove Oak, from Highgrove by Sanderson, does the same thing for an English estate rather than a French one, worked up from an archival toile document and picturing the Oak Summer House, the yew hedges and a bust of King Charles III. And Tang Walk in Nacre, from Forbidden City by Coordonné, shows that what really travels is the drawing: ladies of the court out for a spring walk among blossoming branches, set down with the same fine, patient line that made the first toiles possible, on a ground the pale gold of mother of pearl.
Toile Garden, Red by Galerie
Highgrove Toile, Highgrove Oak by Sanderson
Tang Walk, Nacre by Coordonné
An Old Pattern With a New Wit
Part of the pleasure of toile just now is how playfully it is being reinvented, keeping the format and swapping the subject. La Quintinie in Indigo, from Honfleur by Nina Campbell, is a fresh, loosely drawn garden of tiled huts, potted topiary and a table under a parasol, and it is named for Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, the gardener who laid out the kitchen garden at Versailles for Louis XIV. Karuna in Apple / Denim, from Ananda by Osborne & Little, reworks the idea through Greek ornamental gardens instead, setting decorative columns and sculpted urns among lush foliage in blue on apple green. And Edo Toile, from Graham & Brown's Imperial collection, is the borrowing that toile has always done best, a sketched eastern landscape in copper and gold on deep matt teal.
La Quintinie, Indigo by Nina Campbell
Karuna, Apple / Denim by Osborne & Little
Edo Toile, Imperial by Graham & Brown
"A toile of impeccable heritage can tell a very contemporary story."
How and Where to Use It
Toile loves to be used generously. Because the scenes are small and endlessly repeating, it wraps a whole room rather than shouting from a single wall, which makes it a classic for a bedroom, a dining room or a cloakroom. Cheng Toile, from Dynasty by Thibaut, shows exactly how far that can be taken, with the red toile carried over the walls and the bed canopy together so the whole room becomes one scene. A small room takes it just as well: Ming Pagoda in Amber, from Forbidden City by Coordonné, sends pagodas, pines and crowned cranes across a cloakroom in warm ochre. And for the gentlest version, Toile Chinoise, from Nina Campbell's Signature collection, redraws the traditional garden scene in watercolour, with birds, figures and palms, and sits beautifully with painted wood and antique furniture.
Cheng Toile, Dynasty by Thibaut
Ming Pagoda, Amber by Coordonné
Toile Chinoise, Signature by Nina Campbell
The traditional blue or red on cream is timelessly elegant, while a bolder colourway brings the same pattern bang up to date. For the full, immersive effect, consider taking it over the woodwork or a blind as well as the walls. Look to Sanderson, Clarke & Clarke and Casadeco for toiles both classical and mischievous, and order a sample first to read the detail properly in your own light.
Every toile is a little world in a single colour. Living inside one is one of decorating's quieter delights.
Ready to Read the Walls?
Browse the full Toile collection, or narrow it down in Classic & Traditional and Country & Cottage.
