Four months ago I was still shoving a couch throw pillow behind my back every time I sat down to read, and it slid out again inside of ten minutes. Too round, too soft, never where I put it. So in July I ordered the HOMBYS lumbar support pillow for my lift recliner, and I have used it almost every afternoon since. This is not a piece about how a cushion changed my life. It is the list I would give a friend at Sunday lunch, in the order I noticed things.
The short version: the HOMBYS pillow is 5 inches thick, 20 inches wide and 13.5 inches deep, filled with memory foam, with a 100 percent polyester cover that comes off and goes in the washing machine. My chair is a MCombo lift recliner I bought in February, and the pillow sits in the small of my back when I am sitting upright. I take it out and set it on the couch before I lean back for a nap. If you are shopping for anything that goes on a lift chair or a recliner, and especially if you have had a surgery or a fall, ask your doctor or a physical or occupational therapist about fit before you buy. I am not a nurse and I am not a therapist. I am just a woman who sits in her chair a good deal.
The gap at your back is the first thing to fix
HOMBYS lumbar support pillow: 5 inches thick, 20 inches wide, memory foam, with a cover you can wash. Mine has been in the chair since July.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →It fills the gap a recliner back leaves at your waist
When my MCombo is upright, the back of it is fairly flat, and there is nothing at all behind my lower back. Five inches of memory foam is about the depth of that gap. The first afternoon I used the HOMBYS pillow I noticed I was no longer arching my back to reach the tablet on my lap desk. I was just sitting. That was the whole point of buying it, and it did that one job.
Twenty inches wide covers more than the middle of your back
The listing puts the width at 20 inches and the depth at 13.5 inches. My old couch throw pillow was maybe half that wide, and I was forever hitching it back to one side or the other. This one reaches past the middle of my back on both sides, so there is no edge of it sitting under my ribs. It sounds like a small thing. It is the difference between a cushion I notice all afternoon and one I forget is there.
Memory foam comes back to shape, a throw pillow does not
The fill is memory foam, and four months of daily afternoons has not flattened it. The throw pillow it replaced was a pancake by the second week, which is what a couch pillow does when a grown woman leans on it every day. I press this one flat with my hand and it rises back up. That is the reason I stopped borrowing from the living room and bought something made for a chair in the first place.
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The five inch profile does not push you off the seat
Some back cushions are deep enough that you end up perched forward with your feet hunting for the floor, and that is the last thing I want in a chair I have to get out of. Five inches is enough to fill the gap and not so much that I lose the seat. I still sit all the way back against the MCombo. My knees are where they were before July. Walt tried it once and said it felt like sitting on a bench, so it is not for everybody, but it suits me.
The cover comes off and goes in the washing machine
The cover is 100 percent polyester and the care instructions say machine wash. I take it off about once a month, wash it on gentle with the rest of my light load, and put it back once it is dry. It has not shrunk and the seams have held. A back cushion you cannot wash, in a chair where you drink your morning coffee and eat your crackers, is a cushion you will be sorry about by spring.
It is light enough to move with one hand
The listed weight is 0.88 kilograms, which is a shade under two pounds. I lift it out with one hand when I lean back for a nap and set it on the couch, then drop it back in place when I sit down again. If a cushion is heavy or awkward, I will not move it twice a day, and then it is just clutter in my chair. This one I move without thinking about it, which is the only test that matters.
The rectangular shape sits flat against the chair back
The shape is rectangular, 20 inches long by 14 inches wide, and that flat back is why it behaves in a recliner. A round throw pillow rolls, and once it rolls it works its way sideways and you are back to hitching. A rectangle stays put against a flat chair back. I set mine in the chair in July and I have not had to square it up since, apart from pushing it back after I stand.
It stays clear of the lift and the recline
My chair is a lift recliner and I was careful about adding anything to it. The pillow sits flat against the back. It does not touch the mechanism, and it does not touch the hand remote, which stays in the chair's side pocket where it belongs. The chair lifts and reclines exactly as it did before July. I checked that the first day, and I check it again every time I put the cover back on after washing.
The cover is not clammy in a Carolina August
The listing calls the cover breathable, and I can only tell you what I noticed. In August, with the window unit running and me in the chair from two o'clock until supper, the back of my shirt was not stuck to the cushion the way it used to stick to the couch pillow. The fabric is polyester, not slick like some I have felt in stores. That is all I can honestly report, and it was enough for me.
It makes the chair you already own easier to settle into
I am not going to tell you a cushion changed my life. What I will tell you is that I read the Gaston Gazette on my tablet, do the crossword and watch the evening news in that chair, and the difference between a pillow that stays put and one that does not is the difference between settling in and fidgeting. One honest annoyance: it slides down if I do not push it back after standing. Pushing it back takes one second and I have not found a way around it.
What I'd Skip
Two things I would skip. First, do not buy this hoping it will firm up a soft, sagging old chair. It fills the gap at your back, and that is all it does. If the seat itself is worn out, no cushion will rescue it. Second, if you spend your afternoons leaned back rather than sitting upright, you will be taking it out every single time, the way I do before a nap, and you may not want the bother. Walt sat in my chair once, leaned back, and handed the pillow to me without a word. He is happy on the couch with nothing behind him. Start with one and see how you actually sit. And before you buy anything for a lift chair, especially after a surgery or a fall, ask your doctor or a physical or occupational therapist whether it fits you and fits your chair.
Four months in, the HOMBYS still sits up on its own. The throw pillow it replaced was flat by the second week.
If the gap at your back is the thing that bothers you, start there
The HOMBYS lumbar support pillow is 5 inches thick and 20 inches wide, with a cover that goes in the washing machine. Mine has been in the chair every afternoon since July.
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