Put bluntly, your living room can carry more soft blue than it thinks. This is Manarola, one of the Cinque Terre villages, with painted houses stacked on a cliff above a swimming harbour. The colour does the work apricot, butter yellow, pink and rust against a hazy sea. Hung up, a quiet room gets a holiday window. The eye lands on the village, follows the cliff down, then settles on the water. Best at eye level on a clear wall above a sofa, a console, or in a hallway you walk through every day. Pair with linen, oak and a bit of brass. Skip anything too busy on the same wall. On canvas, the surface softens the light and reads as a relaxed, lived-in scene.