Velvet Bolster Pillow – Tobacco, Olive or Navy, 20x8 and 48x8

A bolster is not a flattened cushion. It is a cylinder, and it works structurally rather than decoratively. At 20 by 8 inches it is a neck roll for a chair or a daybed. At 48 by 8 it runs the full back of a bench or the width of a bed. Four Monte velvets are offered: Tobacco, Chocolate, Olive and Navy.

Velvet is a pile weave, made by cutting through loops so that cut fiber ends stand up from the ground cloth. On a flat cushion that pile all lies one way. Wrapped around a curve it faces every direction at once, so a single color shows its full range from near-black to bright along one continuous surface. Deep shades gain the most from this, which is why all four here are dark.

Bolsters go where a square cushion cannot: along the back of a narrow bench, at the head of a daybed, or across a bed beneath the sleeping pillows. The 48-inch length needs a matching span to look right.

• Material: Velvet
• Colorway: Monte Tobacco, Chocolate, Olive or Navy
• Size: 20" x 8" or 48" x 8"