Traditional Bedrooms
For Every Decorating Taste

Tasteful Toile Bedroom

Written and produced by Candace Ord Manroe

Traditional design is not a single look, but many. When designing a bedroom, it’s the go-to style for capturing the nuances of individual tastes. For example, French toile fabric and feminine bedroom decoration are synonymous. But there is more to traditional toile than the pretty reds and blues and fanciful fabrications like balloon shades or puddling bed and window panels. Toile’s wide span of colorways means there are palettes appropriate for a more masculine sensibility. And a restrained or tailored application results in the man of the house feeling as comfortable in his bedroom as does his wife.

This showhouse bedroom in the San Francisco Decorator Showcase was designed expressly with a man in mind. Two layers of black-and-ivory toile lined in flannel for weighty, masculine appeal cloak the walls and windows. “I was trying to go in the opposite direction of how toile would typically be used,” says designer Michael Burg. The tailored applications are hung from brass hooks attached to the ceiling. Even the Louis XVI-style bed upholstered in taupe mohair and topped with a wool bedcover doesn’t pose a “girl cave” threat. Gentlemen, relax. Women, rejoice. As used in this space, traditional toile is a compromise made in design heaven.

Interior design: Michael Burg