Linen-Look Pillow

A matte face scatters light instead of returning it

A smooth woven face acts a little like a mirror. Put a window opposite the sofa and a bright patch appears on each pillow, washing out whatever color is underneath it, and a lamp does the same at night from a different angle. A slubbed weave breaks the surface into thousands of small irregularities, so light scatters in every direction and no single bright patch forms. The color you chose stays the color you see from any seat in the room, which is the whole reason this texture exists.

• Rooms with big windows. The matte face is the one that does not glare back at you in the afternoon.
• Rooms lit by lamps. No hot spot forms where the shade points at the sofa.
• Photographs and video calls. A non reflective background behind you stays even instead of blowing out.

What the weave does to printed artwork

Ink lands on an uneven surface unevenly, and at close range that is visible as a very slight softening of every edge. It suits some artwork and works against other artwork, and it is worth knowing which before you choose. Painterly, abstract and watercolor designs gain from it, because the texture reads as brushwork. Hard geometric lines and small typography lose a little crispness, because the slub interrupts the line.

• Abstract and painterly designs. The weave adds to them rather than competing with them.
• Fine lines and small text. These read slightly softer than they do on a smooth face.
• Solid color blocks. The slub gives them depth instead of leaving them flat.
• Compare with a smooth face. How a design behaves on a tighter weave is set out on the printed pillow page.

What the polyester gives you instead

This is a polyester woven to look like linen, and once you know that, most of the trade runs in your favor for a cushion. Linen's real advantages are about wearing it and sleeping under it. A cushion cover sits on a sofa in daylight and gets leaned on, and that is the job this fabric was built for.

• It creases far less. Polyester keeps its surface where linen wrinkles the moment somebody leans on it.
• The color holds in daylight. A cushion lives in the light, and a synthetic fades far more slowly there than a natural fiber does.
• It hides lint and dust. The slub texture breaks up small debris between cleanings, though it does give pet hair something to grip.
• Where linen would win. It does not breathe the way linen does, so for something you actually sleep against, that is the difference you would feel.
• Match the size to the seat. Which square belongs where is set out on the 14x14 and 18x18 pages.