Shelf Life

A white cat with blue eyes and pink ears sits upright on a cream sideboard, tail laid along the top, casting a soft shadow on the wall behind. Beside it a terracotta pot holds a wiry silver-green plant with a single white flower. Higher up, a floating shelf carries a row of red, green and teal books, a leafy plant in a clay pot, a small green pot and a glossy beige vase.

Duck-egg teal, terracotta, cream and deep green give it a calm, mid-century poise. The top third is bare wall, the shelf sits at the middle and the cat at the bottom, so the eye steps down in three beats. Large, the flat colour stays clean and quiet. It suits a living room, a reading corner or a bookshelf wall.