The American Furniture Manufacturers Association offers this list of basic furniture terms to make shopping for your next home furnishings purchase easy and uncomplicated.
Construction Terms for Wood Furniture
• All wood – All components in the piece are wood. May include some combination of solid wood and engineered wood.
• Artificial laminate – A surface of plastic, foil or paper printed with a wood grain pattern and bonded to a composite such as particleboard or medium density fiberboard.
• Bird’s-eye – Markings of small spots that resemble birds’ eyes. Often found in the wood of the sugar maple. Prized as a decorative feature in veneer.
• Burl – A tree knot or protruding growth that shows up as a pattern in the grain when sliced. Used for inlays and veneers.
• Dovetail – A wedge-shaped tenon that fits into a corresponding cut-out space to form an interlocking joint.
• Dowel – A wooden peg that fits into a corresponding hole to reinforce a joint.
• Dust panel – Horizontal panel placed between drawers to keep dust out of the drawers.
• Engineered wood – Wood made from slices of lumber (plywood) or the chips and fibers that remain after a tree is milled into lumber (particleboard or fiberboard).
• Hardwoods – Trees that lose their leaves in winter, including oak, ash, cherry, maple, walnut and poplar.
• Inlay – A design of contrasting wood.
• KD – “Knocked down.” Furniture sold unassembled or partially assembled. More commonly called “RTA.”
• Kiln-dried – Wood that has been dried to resist warping, splitting and cracking.
• Medium density fiberboard – Made by breaking down wood chips into fibers, mixing the fibers with glue, and fusing the resulting mixture under heat and pressure to produce a board.
• Particleboard – Chips of wood coated with glue and pressed into a board.
• Plywood – Three to five thin slices of wood glued together like a sandwich under high pressure.
• RTA – “Ready to assemble.” Furniture sold unassembled or partially assembled. Sometimes called “KD” furniture.
• Softwoods – Trees that remain green in winter, including pine, cedar, redwood and spruce.
• Solid wood – Can mean one single board or plank of wood or also several wood boards or blocks that are glued together.
• Tropical hardwood – Hardwood form a tropical forest, the most common of which is mahogany.
• Veneer – Thin sheets of wood applied to a core, which could be solid wood or engineered wood, for decorative effect.
Construction Terms for Upholstered Furniture
• Corner blocks – Used to strengthen the corners of seat frames. Can be glued, screwed or both.
• Down – Soft, fluffy feathers. Used by itself, down creates a luxurious, soft seat cushion. Down-covered foam is less expensive and offers more support.
• Eight-way, hand-tied springs – Each coil spring is placed in the seat by hand and tied into place with twine using a series of interlocking knots.
• Flexible polyurethane foam – (FPF) A synthetic foam used in almost all upholstered furniture. Generally, the higher the density FPF the more durable and more expensive the cushion.
• Natural fiber – Natural fibers used to create upholstery fabric include cotton, linen, silk and wool.
• Synthetic fiber – Synthetic fibers used to create upholstery fabric include acetate, acrylic, nylon, rayon and polypropylene.
• UFAC – The Upholstered Furniture Action Council. A voluntary industry organization that created manufacturing standards to reduce the likelihood of upholstered furniture catching fire from a smoldering cigarette.
Fabric Terms
• Brocade – Originally heavy silk with an elaborate pattern in silver or gold threads. Has an embossed appearance.
• Chenille – From the French word for “caterpillar.” A plush, fuzzy yarn used to create upholstery fabric, which is also known as chenille.
• Chintz – Originally any printed, cotton fabric. Now refers to fabric with a glazed or “polished” surface.
• Damask – Named for the ancient city of Damascus, where elaborate floral designs were woven in silk. Flatter than brocade and reversible, though the pattern changes color on the reverse side.
• Jacquard – Damasks, tapestries, brocades, matelasse and all upholstery fabrics with elaborate figures woven on a Jacquard loom.
• Matelasse – French, meaning to cushion or pad. Refers to fabric with a quilted surface produced on a loom.
• Moire – A fabric, particularly silk, with a watered or wavy pattern.
• Toile de Jouy – Cotton or linen printed in a single color with scenes of landscapes and people, especially from 18th century French prints.
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