Call it calm if you want; we call it better walls. A quiet watercolour of a hummingbird and pink blooms does the thing a plain off-white wall never manages on its own: it gives the eye somewhere gentle to land. Put it up and the room reads softer, warmer, a little more looked-after. It suits a bedroom above a chest of drawers, a nursery beside the cot, or a narrow hallway that needs one point of colour. Pair it with linen bedding, pale wood, cane and simple ceramics. Skip the heavy dark wood and busy patterned wallpaper nearby the loose brushwork and pale background need breathing space to work. As a canvas, the matt surface keeps the washes soft and glare-free.