Every fill we make, in 20 by 36
A king pillow runs ten inches longer than a standard, and ten inches is about the distance a restless sleeper covers before an ear finds bare mattress. Same six fills, same side zipper, more room to travel.
A king pillow measures 20 by 36 inches. That is ten inches longer than a standard and six longer than a queen, and the length is what you are buying. It is the size for people who move at night and wake up with half their head on the mattress. It is also the size that makes a king or California king bed look finished, because two of them span the width. What you pay for the extra room is weight, since the fill scales with the surface. Our king holds about 38 percent more than our standard, so a king buckwheat pillow weighs 15 pounds where the standard weighs 10.
Size decides how much room you have to move. Fill decides how the pillow holds you while you do it, and that is still the harder choice.
Hulls wedge against each other and stop, so a long pillow does not sag in the middle the way a soft fill does at 36 inches. It is also the heaviest king we make at 15 pounds, which you notice when you strip the bed.
Best for side and back sleepers who move and want the steadiest hold
A buckwheat chamber and a certified organic wool chamber sharing one 36 inch cover, split by an internal cotton divider. Turn it over for the night you are having.
Best for the buckwheat hold across a king, with a softer face on the second side
Crimped wool holds a king shape at 4.3 pounds, and it moves moisture out of the pillow all night, which matters more over a bigger surface because there is more of it against your face.
Best for warm sleepers who want the long pillow but not a heavy one
Our densest natural fill, so a king holds a flat, even plane from one end to the other instead of a hill in the middle. It is the one most people mean when they say they want a proper pillow.
Best for back sleepers, and anyone replacing a king foam pillow
Shredded slow-pour Dunlop pushes back rather than settling, so it stays put when you prop it against a headboard and read. At 6.8 pounds a king latex is middleweight.
Best for reading in bed, and sleepers who want bounce rather than sink
A hollow plant fiber that feels close to down and weighs 3.8 pounds in king. If a king buckwheat sounds like more pillow than you want to lift, this is the other end of the range.
Best for anyone who wants a soft, light king they can punch into shape
Why you keep waking up at the edge
People who buy a king pillow are usually not chasing luxury. They are solving a specific irritation, which is arriving at morning with one ear on the pillow and the other on the sheet.
1
Head centered, neck level, everything where you left it when you turned the light off.
2
Changing position through the night is normal and mostly happens without waking you. It is how your body keeps a shoulder or hip from taking eight hours of pressure.
3
A turn is rarely a clean pivot on the spot. You travel a little each time, and the travel only goes one way for most people.
4
Half your head is on the pillow and half is on the mattress, so your neck spends the last hours of the night bent across an edge.
The extra ten inches does not stop you moving. It means the moving happens on the pillow instead of off it, which is why people who switch to king rarely switch back.
What ten inches buys
A standard pillow gives you 520 square inches to land on. A king gives you 720. The length reads as a 38 percent jump on paper, and it feels like more than that at three in the morning, because the part you gain is at the ends, which is exactly where you run out.
It also changes what a made bed looks like. A standard pillow sits well inside the width of a king mattress, so two of them read as a gap with something at each side. Two kings close it.
The cost of the size
Nobody warns you about this and it is the one thing people write to us about after a king arrives. A pillow this size holds more of whatever is inside it, so the weight climbs with the fill you chose. In buckwheat that means 15 pounds against 10 for a standard. In kapok it means 3.8 pounds against 2.3.
None of that is a problem while you are asleep, because the pillow is under your head rather than in your hands. It shows up when you change the bed. If you make the bed every morning and you know you will resent a heavy pillow, choose kapok or wool and you will still get the length.
What else has to change
The case you own will not stretch ten inches. A king pillowcase is cut to 20 by 36, and forcing a king pillow into a standard case compresses the ends, which undoes the reason you bought the size. We sell cases in king in the same organic cotton sateen as the sheets.
The protector comes in king too, and it is worth more on a big pillow than a small one. There is more fill in there to keep clean, and skin oil and moisture are what shorten the life of a natural fill.
Both sizes are 20 inches deep and take the same six fills. Everything that differs comes from the extra ten inches of length.
| What changes | King, 20 by 36 | Standard, 20 by 26 |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 36 inches | 26 inches |
| Surface under your head | 720 square inches | 520 square inches |
| Two of them across a bed | 72 inches, which suits a king or California king | 52 inches, which leaves a king bed looking bare at the sides |
| Room before you run out | Five inches spare at each end for a turn | You can be half off it by morning |
| Weight in buckwheat | 15 pounds | 10 pounds |
| Weight in kapok | 3.8 pounds | 2.3 pounds |
| Pillowcase it takes | King case, cut to 20 by 36 | Standard case, sold as a pair |
| Setting the height | Side zipper, and more fill to take out | Side zipper, over a smaller range |
Take the length, and take a firm fill with it. A firm fill holds its shape across all 36 inches, where a soft one can dip in the middle once you have slept on it a while. Buckwheat is the firmest we make.
Buckwheat Pillow ›Two kings span 72 inches of a 76 inch mattress, which is the width the bed was designed around. Cotton is the easiest one to live with at that size because it holds an even plane end to end.
Organic Cotton Pillow ›Kapok is 3.8 pounds in king and wool is 4.3. Both give you the whole 36 inches without the heft of a hull fill, and wool moves moisture out of the pillow while you sleep.
Organic Wool Pillow ›Shredded latex pushes back instead of flattening, so a king stays propped rather than folding down behind your shoulders after ten minutes.
Tree-Tapped Latex Pillow ›20 by 36 inches. That is the standard American king pillow size and it is what ours measure. A standard pillow is 20 by 26 and a queen is 20 by 30, so all three are the same depth and differ only in length.
Two king pillows measure 72 inches across and a queen mattress is 60 inches wide, so they will hang over the sides by about six inches each. Plenty of people do it anyway and like how it looks. If you want the pillows to sit inside the width of a queen bed, two queen pillows come to exactly 60 inches.
Yes. A king case is cut to 20 by 36 and a standard case is 20 by 26, so a standard case will not reach. Forcing it on squeezes the ends of the pillow flat, which cancels out the length you paid for. Ours come in king in the same organic cotton sateen as the sheets.
Two, with room to spare. A king mattress is 76 inches wide and two king pillows come to 72, so you get about two inches of clearance at each side. On a California king, which is 72 inches wide, two king pillows fill the width exactly.
They suit side sleepers who move. Sleeping on your side puts the widest gap between your ear and the mattress, so the height and firmness of the fill matter more than the size does. What the extra length adds is somewhere to land when you turn over, which is the moment side sleepers usually end up at the edge.
No. Size and height are separate. A king is longer, not taller, and both sizes arrive full so you can take fill out through the side zipper until your head sits level with your spine. A king does hold more fill, which means you have a wider range to set it across.
It depends on what you are solving. Buckwheat holds the firmest, steadiest line across the length and suits neck pain. Cotton gives you a dense, even plane end to end. Wool and kapok keep the weight down. Latex springs back if you read sitting up. Every one of our six fills is made in king.
About 15 pounds, against 10 pounds for the same pillow in standard. Buckwheat hulls are dense, and a king holds 38 percent more of them. It is a real consideration if you make your bed every morning, and it is the reason we point some people at wool or kapok instead.
Six inches of length. A queen is 20 by 30 and a king is 20 by 36. Two queens measure 60 inches across, which matches a queen mattress exactly. Two kings measure 72 inches, which is built for a king or California king bed.
Yes, cut to 20 by 36 to match the pillow. It zips all the way around and goes on under the pillowcase. On a king it earns its keep more than on a smaller pillow, because there is more fill inside to keep away from skin oil and moisture.
Every pillow we make opens at the side, so if a king turns out to hold more under your head than you want, take some fill out and set it where you like it. Free shipping. Handmade in our New Jersey workshop.
See the king pillowsYour first pillow
Leave your email and the code comes right over, along with the two-minute quiz that matches you to one of the six fills.
60-night trial · Handmade in New Jersey
Where to send it
The $10 code and the quiz link land in your inbox in about a minute.
From Jacob, the founder. One email, unsubscribe anytime.
That email doesn't look right. Mind checking it?
Done
Check your inbox in a minute. If you want a head start, the quiz takes two.
Start the quiz60-night trial · Handmade in New Jersey
