---- What You Need to Know Before You Buy
Perhaps, it is best to define "toile" before displaying our bedding selections. What is toile? For our purposes it is a pattern or a design that has been around for three or four centuries, originating in France. The pattern is usually a pastoral scene, very complicated and intricate, often showing a couple beside a lake enjoying a picnic or perhaps a display of flowers that repeats in a regular fashion across the fabric.
When discussing toile bedding, it is imperative to say that the pattern itself creates a more formal decor, almost royal in nature. Solid colors, either matching or accent, works well with toile. Additionally, more and more striped accents, such as a bed skirt, with a toile comforter or duvet is making its mark on bedding designs and bedroom decor.
Traditonally, toile is a pattern in a single color, perhaps incorporating several shades of the color, on a white or off-white background. However, many bedding sets reverse the traditional color scheme, using the lighter colors for the pattern on a deeply colored background. For this reason, toile is occasionally confused with Damask when shopping. To clarify, the toile pattern appears on one side of the fabric, while Damask is a pattern that is actually in the weave of the fabric and is reversible.
