If you are keeping the rug, take the blue or pink out of it, and use that as paint colour. Only problem is I think the rug may be too small. We like to consider each room as a whole, can you post different views please? Leave out things you're not keeping in there.

Suggestions from neutral colours: https://www.dulux.com.au/colour/colour-trends/2018/essential Ceiling & walls the same colour is a good choice for square set. There will be subtle hue difference in various lighting situations anyway, which provides depth and makes for an interesting look.

Hi Louise, I did a little mock up for you. I would look at using some more greys and whites and brightening up the room. I mimicked your lamp and just "sprayed it gold" and changed the shade colours to draw your eye up to the artwork. I liked the bedding so played off that a little and added more textures and I love black, white, grey together, super chic and glam. It's amazing what a lick of paint can do. You would need to get permission to do anything to the woodwork, if you're a tenant its maybe best to leave it as is. I dont know what colours the other walls are but if theyre neutral enough you could leave them as is. Hope you like my attempt and happy to answer any q's. You're welcome to follow me too, more projects coming up soon! Amy

Hi MaxCC, Your 'artwork' is called a wall niche. As far as I know, they were originally used to display religious icons, such as The Virgin Mary. I'm not religious but I do admit that I have a special love for wall niches. I have used them twice in homes that I've built as a place to display my 'Lamplighter' Lladro, so that he is on display to guest. The niches were always placed just inside the front entrance as yours is. Sadly I don't have any photos to show you, as we have just moved house and everything is still in storage. My suggestion, to help you with how to display the object that you will put into your niche, would be to keep the wall itself neutral but paint the niche in a metallic paint. Your want the object on display to be the item of greatest interest and the metallic paint [Resene have some wonderful colours to chose from] will help to draw your eye to that space.