No, the mustard yellow doesn’t soften the room. It defines it. Everything around it has to respond. Hang this in a dining room or kitchen and the warm tones in your timber, terracotta and cane suddenly read as deliberate rather than accidental. The diamond pattern and the blue stripes give the wall a rhythm a plain painting never will, so a flat cream or clay wall stops feeling empty. It sits happily above a sideboard, a small dining table or a breakfast nook bench. Pair it with striped textiles, glazed stoneware and warm wood. Don’t put it next to a busy patterned wallpaper or a run of small photographs the shapes start competing and both lose. As a canvas the surface stays matt, so the warm colour holds under kitchen lighting.