Furniture and Textiles Lecture Notes

Flashcards covering furniture classifications, upholstery construction, textile components, and industry standards based on the lecture transcript.

Residential Furniture

Furniture that typically features a lower thread count in upholstered fiber blends.

Commercial Furniture

Furniture designed for heavy duty use and durability, featuring higher thread-count upholstery.

Case Goods

Box-like furniture pieces such as desks, chests of drawers, tables, bookcases, china cabinets, and armoires.

Casework

A term usually used to refer to cabinets, cases, storage units, or built-in fixtures.

Modular Casework

Prefabricated casework units.

Architectural Casework

Custom built casework.

Upholstery

Furniture pieces made with a frame, padding, springs, and a surface material such as a textile.

Occasional furniture

A wide variety of small pieces used to decorate a space, such as coffee tables, end tables, and magazine racks.

Sets

Pieces of furniture that are designed to be used together, such as matching furniture pieces.

Bariatric furniture

Furniture that is now usually referred to as accessible.

Fibers

Fine strands that resemble hair; can be natural or synthetic/manufactured.

Staple

Fibers that are short in length.

Filament

Fibers that are long in length.

Finishes

Processes that modify the properties of a textile.

Coloration

The process of adding color to a textile.

Systems Furniture

A generic term for bundles of panels, work surfaces, and shelves sold as a single manufacture package for furnishing offices.

Action Office

An inventory system and workstation design property of the Herman Miller company.

Hotelling

A method of office management where workers do not get permanently assigned seating.

Reservation

A method of office management involving unassigned seating.

Wool

A natural fiber from the hair of domestic sheep, often containing lanolin (wool grease).

Cashmere

A natural hair fiber from the Indian Cashmere goat.

Angora

A natural hair fiber from the North African Angora goat, known for softness.

Silk

A fiber made from the cocoon of the silkworm and spun into fabric.

Rayon

An artificial textile fiber made from plant pulp, wood pulp (pine, oak, or bamboo), or coconut hair.

Asbestos

A mineral fiber used for stage curtains, fire-fighting suits, and fire blankets.

Solid Wood

Wood where the surface is the same species as the interior; it can be more than one species and still be described as solid wood.

Wood Veneer

Thin slices of wood bonded to composite wood boards or plywood to construct furniture.

Artificial Laminates

Materials made of plastic film or paper with a picture of wood bonded to particle board or MDF.

BIFMA

Acronym for Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers.

ASTM

Acronym for American Society for Testing and Materials.

Hardwood

Wood from deciduous trees that offers superior strength and durability.

Clear finishes

Finishes intended to make wood look good and protected, such as Natural Wax, Danish oil, Varnish, Polyurethane, Shellac, and Lacquer.

Shellac

A natural resin secreted by the Lac bug, processed into flakes and dissolved in denatured alcohol.

Lacquer

A solvent-based coating made from the Chinese lacquer tree, applied layer by layer.

Highboy

A specific type of tall case good.

Chiffonobe

A furniture piece combining a chest of drawers and a wardrobe.

Commode

A specific classification of case good furniture.

Curio Cabinet

A case good used for display.

Kiln-dried hardwood

The best material for traditional upholstery frames, typically using oak, maple, or ash.

Sinuous Spring Systems

Z-shaped wires fastened to the top of furniture frames, running from front to back to provide a comfortable seat.

Padding

Layers that affect comfort and prevent the upholstery fabric from coming into direct contact with the wooden frame.

Spring Down

A cushion construction where inner spring coils are surrounded by foam and wrapped in Dacron.

Full Grain/Aniline

The highest and best performing leather grade; more susceptible to scratches but with a more consistent appearance.

Woven fabric

A textile made of multiple yarns crossing at right angles; usually wrinkles more easily when balled up.

Knit fabric

A textile made from one continuous yarn looped repeatedly to create rows of braids; it can stretch but crushes easily.

Tufted fabric

Fabric constructed by stitching through a backing cloth, such as velvet, chenille, or boucle.

Felt

A non-woven cloth produced by matting and compressing wool or other fibers.

Double rubs

A device-aided test to evaluate fabric strength; fabrics for commercial use should rate at $\text{30,000}$ double rubs or more.

Flame spread index

A comparative measurement of surface flame spread; Class A is a rating of $\text{0-25}$, Class B is $\text{26-75}$, and Class C is $\text{76-200}$.

NFPA 701

A National Standard test where fabric is burned at a small scale to measure flame, char, and weight loss.

CAL 117

A legally binding fire test for upholstered furniture flammability in California.

TB133

A standard for public building assembly areas that tests the amount of heat and smoke emitted by a piece of furniture.