14x14 Throw Pillow

Seat depth is the number that decides

Measure from the front edge of the seat to the face of the back cushion. Dining and accent chairs usually land between sixteen and eighteen inches, and at that depth a fourteen inch square touches both the back and the sitter, which is what makes it feel supportive instead of decorative. A sofa seat is commonly twenty one to twenty four inches deep, and once the pillow is pushed into that corner there is more depth than pillow. It tips forward, drops below the arm and stops holding its shape.

• Under twenty inches deep. A 14x14 works on its own and stands upright without help.
• Twenty to twenty two inches. It works as a front layer with something larger behind it.
• Over twenty two inches. On its own it disappears; treat it as the front pillow in a stack, never the only one.
• Back height matters too. On a low backed chair a small square sits at the right height for the shoulder blades rather than the neck.

Where the small square is the right answer

The advantage of fourteen inches is that it stays put. A small square is light enough not to slide down a seat and short enough that it holds its corners rather than folding in the middle, which is what makes it the size that looks tidy in places people use every day.

• Dining chairs. It fills the back without pushing the sitter forward off the seat.
• Benches and window seats. A row of small squares spaced about their own width apart reads as a run rather than a pile.
• Reading chairs. At this size it lands at the small of the back on most adults when the chair back is upright.
• Beds. In front of standard sleeping pillows it makes a front row that stands up on its own instead of slumping.

Layering it so it does not vanish

On any deep seat the job of a small pillow is to be the front layer, and the way it earns that place is by contrast. Put it against something larger and plainer, and the difference in size does the work. Put it against another pillow the same size and the arrangement flattens out.

• Large behind, small in front. Depth comes from the size step, not from the number of pillows.
• Change one thing between layers. Different scale of artwork, or a print in front of a plain face, reads as intentional.
• Keep the back layer taller. A front pillow that covers the one behind it turns two pillows into one lumpy one.
• Pair the sizes. An 18x18 pillow behind a 14x14 is the standard two layer arrangement for a sofa corner.

What the small size gives up

There is one thing a fourteen inch square cannot do, which is anchor a large piece of furniture. On a full length sofa or a sectional it will always be a supporting piece, and buying more of them does not fix that. It is also the size where a busy design has the least room to be read.

• It will not fill a sofa corner. No quantity of small pillows substitutes for one that fits the depth.
• Detailed artwork gets tight. How a design behaves once the square is filled and stood up is covered on the printed pillow page.
• It is the size for chairs. Buying for a chair, a bench or a bed front row is where this size is unambiguously correct.