If you’re subscribed to our Love Letter, you’ve seen that I’ve been on a wallpaper journey last week. I had the downstairs back hallway (that connects the kitchen to the bonus room to the garages to the laundry room!) in mind when I ordered grasscloth wallpaper samples from Spoonflower (launching next month), but when the samples arrived, I couldn’t help but tape them up in the dining room! Here’s a picture of the back hallway for reference. To the left is a swinging door that enters into the kitchen, straight ahead is a garage door, the far-back right entrance leads up stairs to the bonus room, to the right of that is a storage closet, and to the right of that is a second garage door. This photo was taken standing in the laundry room!
I quickly narrowed it down to my favorite two: an elegant stripe, and an organic toile. Very drastically different to each other! The stripe felt very bold, masculine, classic and (if I’m being honest) safe. Toile, on the other hand is more feminine, organic, still incredibly classic and a bit more of a risk for me. I honestly thought stripes were the way to go, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this house was made for toile, and if not here in the dining room, then where??
The tricky thing about making a decision based on a sample is that I wasn’t sure how the pattern would look, repeated as a tile. My heart was leaning towards the toile, but seeing the pattern repeated could make or break it. Time to mock it up!
A Toile Wallpaper Mock-Up
Note: a mock-up won’t show shadows or true color, but Wow, wow, wow! I got excited about this idea. I’m not totally sure I landed on the *right* toile, but this makes my heart pitter-patter. I also feel more confident with the toile decision, when I picture all the hard, strong lines in the kitchen, as well as the geometric shapes in the neighboring living room–this room really needs some organic movement to soften the spaces.
The dilemma with this exact toile is the white space “lines” running through the pattern as a whole. I think the pattern needs to be tweaked so it’s more seamless, and also the color might be too strong for every day. Also, I can’t help but think of the seasons when I’m choosing wallpaper for a main space. How will I feel about this come the holidays again? Spoonflower said that the designer could make any tweaks needed. So I’m now deciding if we should move forward with altering the design a smidge, or hunt for a perfect paper toile.
Speaking of hunt, I couldn’t help myself and searched far and wide for MORE toile wallpaper and ones that lean more organic! Literally ANY of these would do. I’m excited to go down this road with you. My head is spinning with options, and my goodness, I can’t keep these to myself!
My Favorite Toile & Organic Wallpaper
1. Red Burkhead
2. Blyth Blue Toile
3. Floral Twine
4. Chinoiserie Toile
5. Scenic Toile
6. French Nightingale Blue
7. Seasons Toile
8. Inez Bird
9. Ludlow Ecru
10. Florencecourt
11. Pure Acorn
12. Marigold
13. Shengyou Toile
14. Snakeshead
15. Pure Strawberry Thief
16. Opia
I love the #5 Scenic Toile!
I am in love with the opia! I have to admit I am not loving the toiles. If perhaps you could find a toile with a tiny bit of a modern twist, maybe something in a non-traditional toile color or even with a dark background rather than the white. I know you will figure it out and it will be gorgeous. 💕Cyber Hugs from Lindon, Utah
All gorgeous but I am absolutely swooning over #5 and would 💗 to see that one mocked up in your space. Can’t wait to see what you decide! It will be gorgeous no matter what!
8 and 12 for me!!!
Hi Julia! I completely understand what you mean about considering the seasons when choosing wall coverings—I do that with paint colors. I get very nest-y around the holidays, but I worry if I will still like the cozy, wintry colors come spring when I’m craving light and bright!