In our adolescent years, making the bed was as simple as transferring the pile of items from the bed to a chair, pulling up the doona and you’re out the door. But as the years have added up, so have our pillow collections.

It’s no wonder ‘bedroom styling’ is one of the top searches on Pinterest — we love an aesthetically pleasing, hotel room-esque bedspread. There’s something about styling your bed with pillows that transforms a lacklustre bedroom into an extravagant boudoir fit for the pages of Vogue Living.

From flat to finessed

If you’re a beginner at making the bed and don’t know your European pillow from your body pillow, then you’re in the right place. We’ve compiled a list of standard pillow sizes in Australia and how to style them.

Standard pillow

The standard pillow size in Australia is 38cm by 56cm, but most pillowcases measure at 48cm by 73cm, allowing for a bit of extra room. For example, the Eva Pillow is 40cm by 62cm, which means it plumps up the pillowcase to avoid excess overhang.

As the predominant pillow, they also come in Queen and King sizes to take up extra space on larger beds:

• Queen - 51cm by 76cm

• King - 51cm by 92cm

Your standard pillow is for neck support, spinal alignment and the one you rest your weary head on at night. On a King or Queen mattress, you’ll likely have two or four, depending on your desired look. 

European Pillow

The European pillow size is typically 65cm by 65cm. A perfectly plush square to add dimension, structure and provide a backrest for reading books in bed.

Prop a European pillow behind each of your standard pillows against your bedhead or wall for a luxury hotel look. For additional styling, press your hand on the top of each pillow to create a concave. This will create a more lived-in effect — like when you want it to look like you’ve effortlessly made your bed without even trying.

Body Pillow

As the name suggests, the body pillow is, well, body shaped. Measuring at 135cm by 48cm, you’ll often use a long body pillow to snuggle up with at night, or wrap around yourself when bingeing Netflix in bed.

The body pillow also creates length and plushness when using it to decorate. Use it as a functional alternative to a decorative European pillow or place it in front of your standard pillow as a structure for even more pillows! There’s no such thing as too many pillows, right?

Decorative pillows

With varying shapes and sizes, decorative pillows are for exactly that — decoration. These will sit at the front of the pack and are the perfect way to add pattern and style to the bedroom. Try choosing patterns or different textures to your other cushions to create depth, contrast and complementary hues to your bedroom aesthetic. 

Stuffed and fluffed

Now that you feel like you have a mountain of pillows on your bed and question how long this process will take in the morning, make your bed, take a step back and revel in your plush, cosy bedspread.

When you enter back into your bedroom after a long day, that same mountainous pile of pillows will be there to envelop and support you, all the while, looking like a delectable haven to fall into.