What's the study missing? Deep blue with some nerve. Three butterflies, hand-painted in the early 1900s by Kamisaka Sekka for his book Cho Senshu (One Thousand Butterflies), drift across a soft cream ground in blue, green, black and lilac. On the wall, the room feels a shade quieter and a shade more considered — the cream reads as light, the black gives the room a proper anchor, and the small lilac dots do the lifting. It sits happily above a low writing desk, a linen bed or a slim console in a hallway. Pair with pale oak, warm walnut, cane, linen and a stoneware lamp. Skip it in loud, primary-coloured rooms — this one wants breathing space around it.