Every fill we make, in 20 by 30
A queen pillow is the size nobody explains, so here is the case for it. Two of them measure exactly the width of a queen mattress, and they give you room to turn without the weight of a king.
A queen pillow measures 20 by 30 inches, four inches longer than a standard and six shorter than a king. Two of them come to 60 inches, which is the exact width of a queen mattress, and that is the honest reason most people should buy one. As a fix for waking up at the edge of the pillow it is a modest gain, and anyone who really travels at night should go to king. As a way to make a queen bed look right and give yourself a little more landing room, it is the size that fits. All six fills are made in it, and it takes a queen pillowcase.
The size is a small change. The fill is the large one, and it is where the difference in how you sleep comes from.
Our densest natural fill, and the easiest queen to live with because it holds a flat even plane rather than a mound. This is the one most people picture when they say they want a normal pillow that lasts.
Best for back sleepers, and anyone replacing a queen foam pillow
Hulls take the shape of your neck and then lock, so the pillow holds the same line at hour eight that it had at hour one. A queen holds 13 pounds of them, which is three more than the standard.
Best for waking up with a stiff neck on a queen bed
Crimped wool moves moisture out of the pillow all night, so the surface under your cheek does not turn damp and warm. A queen comes in at 3.4 pounds.
Best for warm sleepers, and anyone who wakes up clammy
A hollow plant fiber that feels close to down and punches back into shape. At 3 pounds in queen it is the one to pick if you handle your pillow a lot.
Best for people who fold, punch and rearrange their pillow
Shredded slow-pour Dunlop that pushes against your head rather than swallowing it, and it holds that response for years rather than seasons.
Best for sleepers who want bounce, and reading propped up
A buckwheat chamber and a certified organic wool chamber in one 30 inch cover, divided down the middle in cotton. Turn it over to change the feel.
Best for anyone undecided between firm and soft
Where the size confusion starts
Pillow sizes borrowed their names from mattress sizes and then stopped matching them, which is why this question comes up more than any other in our inbox.
1
Standard, queen and king are mattress words. Somebody applied them to pillows because two pillows of each size roughly spanned the matching bed.
2
Two queen pillows come to 60 inches and a queen mattress is 60 inches wide. That one is exact, which is the origin of the whole naming scheme.
3
Two standard pillows measure 52 inches and go on beds from twin to king. Two kings measure 72 and suit a king or California king.
4
They put queen pillows on a queen bed because the words agree, without anyone telling them what the four extra inches buy.
What they do is give you a little more to land on when you turn, and make the bed look proportioned. If you need a lot more room, that is what the king is for.
The one size that matches its bed
Lay two queen pillows side by side and they measure 60 inches, edge to edge. A queen mattress is 60 inches wide. Nothing overhangs and nothing leaves a strip of bare bed showing at the sides, which is the reason a made queen bed with queen pillows looks settled and the same bed with standard pillows looks slightly under-dressed.
Two standard pillows come to 52 inches on that same mattress, leaving eight inches of it uncovered. It is a small thing that people notice for years without naming it.
What the four inches do
A queen gives you 600 square inches to sleep on where a standard gives 520, so you gain about 15 percent. That is enough to notice when you turn onto your other side and enough to keep most people off the edge, and it is not enough to fix a serious traveller. If you routinely wake with your head on the mattress, the size that solves it is the king at 720 square inches.
The weight goes up gently rather than sharply, which is the part in the queen's favour. A queen buckwheat is 13 pounds against 10 for a standard, and a queen in wool is 3.4 pounds against 2.8. You are not taking on a heavy pillow to get a slightly bigger one.
What has to change with it
A queen pillowcase is cut to 20 by 30. A standard case will go over a queen pillow if you fight it, and the result is a compressed pillow with a tight band across the middle, so you end up sleeping on something firmer and shorter than you bought. Ours come in queen in the same organic cotton sateen as the sheets.
The protector is made in queen as well. It zips right around the pillow and sits under the case, where it keeps skin oil and moisture off the fill. Moisture is what ages a natural fill faster than anything else you can control.
All three are 20 inches deep and take the same six fills, so length is the only variable and this is what it changes.
| What changes | Queen, 20 by 30 | Standard, 20 by 26 |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 30 inches | 26 inches |
| Surface under your head | 600 square inches | 520 square inches |
| Two of them across a bed | 60 inches, matching a queen mattress exactly | 52 inches, leaving eight inches of a queen bed bare |
| Room when you turn | Two inches spare at each end | Little to spare once you shift |
| Weight in buckwheat | 13 pounds | 10 pounds |
| Weight in wool | 3.4 pounds | 2.8 pounds |
| Pillowcase it takes | Queen case, cut to 20 by 30 | Standard case, sold as a pair |
| Best on | Queen beds, and full beds if you like the overhang | Twin and full beds, and king beds in pairs of three |
Two queen pillows cover the width exactly. Cotton is the easiest fill to live with at this size because it holds an even plane rather than a mound in the middle.
Organic Cotton Pillow ›Queen is the right amount of extra. You get 15 percent more to land on and only a small step up in weight, which is the whole argument for this size.
Wild-Harvested Kapok Pillow ›Length will not fix that on its own. Take the firmest fill you will tolerate, because a neck aches from spending the night out of line rather than from running out of pillow. Buckwheat holds that line best.
Buckwheat Pillow ›Then skip the queen and take the king. Four inches will not catch a sleeper who travels that far, and ten inches usually does.
Organic Wool Pillow ›20 by 30 inches. It sits between a standard at 20 by 26 and a king at 20 by 36. All three are the same 20 inch depth, so length is the only thing that changes between them.
Yes, by four inches of length. That works out at 600 square inches against 520, so about 15 percent more surface to land on. It is a real difference when you turn over and a small one on paper, which is why so few sites bother to explain it.
No, and plenty of people use standard pillows on a queen bed quite happily. What queen pillows give you is a bed that looks proportioned, because two of them measure 60 inches and a queen mattress is 60 inches wide. Two standard pillows leave eight inches of the mattress showing at the sides.
It will go in if you push, and you should not. The case compresses the pillow into a shorter, firmer shape and puts a tight band across the middle of it, which undoes what you bought the size for. A queen case is cut to 20 by 30 and ours come in that size.
Ask how far you travel at night. If you shift position but wake up roughly on the pillow, queen is the right amount of extra and it costs you very little in weight. If you regularly wake with your head half on the mattress, take the king. Six more inches is the difference and it is decisive.
It depends entirely on the fill. Ours run from 3 pounds in kapok and 3.4 in wool up to 13 pounds in buckwheat, with cotton at 3.6 and latex at 5.25 in between. The step up from a standard is about three pounds in buckwheat and well under a pound in the soft fills.
Cotton if you want a dense, even surface that lasts. Buckwheat if you wake up with a stiff neck and want the firmest hold we make. Wool if you sleep warm. Kapok if you like to punch a pillow into shape. Latex if you want it to push back. Every one of them is made in queen.
Two, exactly. That is not a coincidence: the pillow sizes were named after mattress sizes, and queen is the one pairing where the arithmetic still lines up. Two queen pillows are 60 inches and a queen mattress is 60 inches wide.
You can, and three of them across a king bed is a common way to do it, coming to 90 inches on a 76 inch mattress with a generous overlap. If you would rather have two pillows, king pillows are the size cut for that bed.
Yes, cut to 20 by 30 so it matches the pillow rather than bunching inside the case. It zips all the way around and goes on underneath the pillowcase, where it keeps skin oil and moisture away from the fill.
Whichever size you land on, the pillow opens at the side so you can take fill out until your head sits level with your spine. Free shipping. Handmade in our New Jersey workshop.
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