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You probably are a big fan of toile just like I am. And if you love toile fabrics, then you’ll love them even more when they’re combined with medallion prints. Medallion toile valances prominently feature the medallion as a focal point on a window. If window treatments were a piece of fine art, they would come in the form of a medallion toile valance.
Let’s take a look at some amazing custom valances that featured this unique fabric design.
Fragonard Toile Valance in a Soft Lilac Color
I love sewing flat valances, especially when there is a unique pattern on the fabric that can be centered. There’s nothing more rewarding (at least to me) than seeing how the shape of a valance follows the outline of the pattern on a fabric print to exact precision.
I might be getting too far ahead here, but my point is that this gorgeous toile fabric (Fragonard by Richloom) works great on this scalloped valance. The valance style, by the way, is called the Julia valance.
Notice how the yellow medallion curves are followed by the shape of the bottom hem. Beaded trim in dark purple and light yellow was added to give visual emphasis to this shape.
A close-up of the cotton fabric reveals the romantic French scenery of the design.
Blue and Yellow Chinoiserie Toile Valance
Following the same cheerful yellow color as seen on the wall paint, this toile medallion fabric seems to blend in perfectly in this master bedroom. Each medallion on the fabric depicts a gazebo that’s infused with Chinoiserie style design elements. The rest of the bedroom has vintage country elements, so to give this valance a country look, blue plaid fabric was introduced to the bottom of the rod pocket and the oversized bows on each side of the valance.
Here is another look of the valance on the other double wide window of the room.
Notice the unique gazebo print in each medallion. The fact that it’s outlined in the bright blue rather than another color that’s more closely related to the yellow really brings out the medallions.
Chicken and Rooster Medallion Wrapped in Harvest Theme
A balloon valance is the perfect candidate for toile medallions. First, balloon valances and medallion toile go together since they’re both commonly used in country designs. Second, balloon valances tend to allow a medallion to be centered on their poufs. By the way, poufs are the sections that project out from the window in a balloon valance.
In this case, the dark red wall allows the yellow in the valance to stand out. The maroon colored medallions pull the design of the entire room together. I created this valance with an upscale country dining room in mind, but this kind of fabric could easily be used in kitchens and living rooms, too.
The fabric is Waverly’s La Petite Ferme. It features a casual farm scenery with a chicken and rooster print prominently centered in each medallion.
Sophisticated Black and White Farm Valance
La Petite Ferme can be used on other valance styles, obviously. Here, it was featured on a flat, arched valance. There was no need for a complicated type of window treatment here. The black and white color combination tends to add richness whenever it’s used in window treatments almost by default. Additionally, the bottom of the hem included a rich tassel fringe in black, white and gold.
The fabric upon closer inspection, again. This colorway is called Blackbird.
Pheasant Bird Valance in Intricate Paisley Medallions
P Kaufmann’s Wilderness is a fabric that features a large pheasant bird print that’s encased by a paisley medallion in an earthy orange color. Centering it on an M-shaped valance was the obvious design choice.
You probably figured by now that I love to design valances based on the pattern of the fabric. Most designs follow the path of window to valance pattern to fabric. In other words, you’d first look at what kind of window you have, then determine which valance pattern will work on it, and only after that focus on the fabric.
And when you do that, you typically don’t pay attention to the valance but rather focus on how the fabric fits in with the rest of your room. I personally like to pick a fabric first and let it “speak to me” first. Not to sound too esoteric here, but sometimes the truly custom way to do custom window treatments is to create a design that can only work with the fabric chosen.
Case in point – I created this valance following the outline of the medallions. Here’s a closer look at how the bottom hem looks:
Small Bird Medallion on Floral Fabric Valance
In case you’re looking for an example of how to properly put face fabric, coordinating fabric and fringe together, look no further than this board-mounted valance. The best metaphor for choosing the right design combinations is to treat the process like a fictional book (bear with me here, I’ll make sense soon).
In every book, there needs to be a continuation of the story through each successive chapter. And so in every room design, each element must be a continuation of another. Notice how the fabric chosen for this window treatment was black and sandy white. That same color combination was chosen for the accent fabric, but this ticking stripe fabric included a greater percentage of the sandy white color.
It’s still a continuation of the color scheme, but it’s a new chapter of the design because of this subtle shift towards the lighter color. Tassel fringe continues the same color scheme in the black and sandy white, but notice how some of the tassels now are almost white. This too is another shift towards a lighter color.
So, in summary, by carefully choosing the toile fabric, ticking stripe fabric, and tassel fringe, there now is a nuanced progression between black and white. This creates depth to the window valance and overall design in the room. It’s these small details that are only available in custom valances.
The fabric is Waverly’s Country House Toile. It’s 100% cotton, with deliberately made slubs to give the fabric a texture.
I have been blessed to have worked with this fabric on other projects, too. In this case, the red colorway was chosen. The valance was decorated with elaborate tassel fringe with acrylic crystal beads. Notice how the tassel fringe was slightly darker than the off-white part of the fabric. By going a bit lighter or darker, an extra layer of depth is created. We saw this in the previous valance, too.
I talked about the slubbed texture of this fabric. You can really see it in the red colorway.
Oversized Medallion Valance with Romantic French Country Theme
Now here’s a rare find. Medallion toiles aren’t very common when it comes to home decor fabrics (and tend to be priced accordingly considering the details required to design one). But to see an oversized medallion like this one truly warms my heart. Just like the Fragonard design from above, this fabric also features a romantic toile print placed in a medallion setting.
Here, I decided to keep the color theme more consistent. I selected a tassel fringe that was an exact color match to the blue in the fabric.
The jabots feature a small blue and white gingham check. (By the way, here’s a great resource if you’re looking for window treatment ideas for your dining room.)
It’s hard to show you this fabric up close since it is a rather large print, so this is the best part that I could capture for you. As you can see, the fabric is a work of art on its own.
Waverly Vignette Toile Valance in Dark Red and Maize
Going back to Waverly’s beautiful red and white country toile fabrics that feature roosters, here’s another example of how this type of fabric looks when sewn into a window valance. This fabric is rich on its own, so it looks beautiful in a design that’s as simple as the M-shaped valance.
How beautiful this fabric would look in a French country kitchen! In case you want to buy it go out there and try to persistently hunt for it for your own home, it’s called Waverly Vignette Toile. I’m not kidding. Some of these fabrics are really hard to find and even discontinued. I hope they go into print again soon.
Double-Layered Valance in Olive Green Chintz
I’m not sure who the manufacturer of this fabric is. I was a bit too eager to get started on this valance, so I don’t remember. But what I do know is that it’s a gorgeous cotton chintz. In other words, it’s a medium-weight home decor fabric with a protective layer that gives it an overall sheen. Chintz fabrics aren’t flimsy since they’re a separate layer on top of a medium-weight cotton.
They still have the proper weight needed for a window treatment. In this valance, I created a scalloped valance with two fabrics, essentially giving the window valance four total layers. As you can tell in the picture below, the toile has various depths of green, ranging from a light golden sage to a dark olive green.
I picked the darkest of the greens for the accent fabric below to give the valance some added depth.
How adorable is this fabric with the two young women sitting on the swing set and reading together?! Although, I’m not sure how one rope is able to hold both of them. It must be some sort of magical rope.
Asian-Inspired Stork Toile Valance in Deep Indigo Blue
Indigo blue is another rarity when it comes to home decor fabrics. I’m amazed that this color isn’t used more often in home decorating. In this fabric design by Richloom (named Sapporo), we see a Chinoiserie take on the popular bird toile theme. The Asian design gives itself away by its urns and happiness medallions that are also scattered on the vibrant fabric design. And in case you’re wondering what the window valance is, it’s the standard London valance.
I am impressed by the color combination in this fabric. Every color in the design is specific, it’s almost hard to describe the fabric. Hopefully, your screen colors are the same as mine.
Arched Rod Pocket Valance in Black and Gold Country Toile
Now it’s time to get to the fun part of the post (at least from my point of view). Let me show you some valances made in fabrics designed by yours truly. As you can tell, I love toile medallions. I was also a bit exhausted by always having to chase down discontinued fabrics for my clients and having enough to only made one window valance.
So I made sure to (disproportionately) include this type of fabric design in the Priority Home and Design collections. Let’s see how that project turned out…
The French Toile pattern is available in 8 colors. The black and gold combination is a classic and is rich on its own. So it was as easy as using this fabric on a simple arched valance. No trim or fancy embellishments necessary.
A close-up of the French Toile design. Designed by yours truly.
Taupe Toile Valance with Brown Accent Fabric and Tassel Fringe 
The next colorway of the same fabric is taupe. Here, I used it on the Emily window valance, which is a simple tab top valance. The coordinating fabric was a medium brown. I made sure to add a light gold tassel fringe to bring out the overall shape of the valance.
Another closer look, but this time of the taupe colorway.
Bird Toile Valance with Harlequin Checks and Cherry Blossoms
I wanted to do something unique with this fabric design. The Priority Home and Design Bluebird Vignette wasn’t going to be just another bird toile print. So the first thought that came to me was, “Well, I never see any vibrant blues in these bird toiles!” And that’s how this design came about. I have used it to create the Parisian valance, which is a valance with a sharp arch shape at the bottom.
A closer look at the Bluebird Vignette. The fabric has been updated to include more detail, an additional butterfly, and a lot more cherry blossoms. It’s available in our custom valance section.
