Rooms go quieter when soft green is this sure of itself. It holds the whole background steady while gold stems, blossoms and one deep red peony do the talking. Hang it and a plain wall stops being a gap the eye goes to the toucan’s beak first, then travels down to the red bloom, and the room suddenly has a centre. It works above a sideboard, a console or a bed, and it earns a wall of its own in a dining room. Pair it with dark wood, brass handles, velvet or linen, and glazed ceramics in cream or green. Don’t crowd it with other patterned pieces, and skip busy wallpaper behind it this one needs a calm surface to sit against. As a canvas the colour reads softer and more painterly, closer to a decorative panel.