Scholten & Baijings has created a collection of interior fabrics for Maharam with a pattern repeat large enough to upholster an entire sofa.

She drew, he explains, on an understanding of pattern derived from Goethe and the German art historian Wilhelm Worringer.

Imagine a single-coloured piece of cloth that suddenly displays a colourful pattern when the ambient temperature changes. Upon further temperature change, a completely different pattern shows up.

The most common challenge facing any novice home decorator has got to be choosing paint color for walls. But right up there next to that is mixing patterns.