19th c. French Boudoir Screen

Every boudoir needed a screen, the thing you dressed behind and draped a shawl over, the soft wall that turned a corner of the bedroom into a room of one's own. Found in Le Perche, originally from a chateau in the region and dating to the 19th century, it folds across three tall panels with arched tops, covered on both sides in a printed fabric of urns, garlands, and figures in faded browns, golds, and rose, edged all around with twisted braid and nailheads. The word boudoir comes from the French bouder, to sulk, the private room a woman could withdraw to when she wanted the world to wait. Sylvie opens it behind the bed as a soft, patterned headboard the width of the wall, so the whole room wakes up inside the print.