Classification of Furniture From the Perspective of Furniture Design

Since the beginning of the 21st century, with the continuous development of social, economic and cultural undertakings, people's aesthetic concepts are also changing, Chinese furniture manufacturers are also changing the way they design furniture. Gradually from simply satisfying the needs of use to being compatible with cultural aesthetic connotations, pursuing individual aesthetic meanings, and fully reflecting the integration and unity of people's own values ​​and indoor living environments. Therefore, the design of furniture products should make every effort to think, explore, develop and create furniture products that consumers desire. Product art built on the spiritual and aesthetic level is the main task of furniture design.

Types of furniture

With the development of science and technology and the progress of society, various furniture with new functions and aesthetic values ​​have been produced in every historical period. Especially in modern society, in order to meet people's needs to the greatest extent, Chinese furniture manufacturers have created many unprecedented new varieties and styles of furniture to help people create a more comfortable, more beautiful, more scientific, and more cultural and artistic living and working environment. Another feature of modern furniture is the diversification of materials, structures, process technologies and diversified styles. As a result, there are many varieties of furniture, various forms, increasing functions and expanding application environments. For this reason, the classification of furniture is quite complicated, and it is still difficult to classify all furniture in detail. Now we only classify furniture by its use environment and raw materials to deepen our understanding of furniture products.

Classification by furniture use environment

1. Home furniture

It refers to the furniture used in daily life in urban and rural residents' homes and is a necessity for human life. Therefore, this type of furniture has the most styles and the largest sales volume. It can be divided into bedroom furniture, living room furniture, home office furniture, children's room furniture, dining room furniture, kitchen furniture and other furniture.

(1) Bedroom Furniture

Mainly includes double bed, bedside table, five-drawer cabinet, wardrobe or wall cabinet, dressing table or dressing cabinet, sofa, reclining chair and other types.

(2) Living Room Furniture

Living room furniture mainly includes sofa, backrest chair, reclining chair, coffee table, card table, tea table, flower stand, audio-visual combination cabinet, shoe cabinet, entrance cabinet and other types.

(3) Home Office Furniture

The study is also called studio. The main furniture includes desk, typing desk, computer desk, backrest chair, armrest swivel chair, bookcase and other types. A spacious study can also be furnished with sofa and tea table for rest or receiving guests.

(4) Children's Furniture

Mainly includes children's beds, play fountains, children's chairs, toy cabinets, small book fountains, etc.

(5) Dining Room Furniture

Mainly includes dining tables, dining chairs, dining stools, tableware cabinets, etc.

(6) Kitchen Furniture

Mainly includes tableware cabinets, food cabinets, and washing cabinets. Most of them are low cabinets, wall cabinets, or wall cabinets. Low cabinets also serve as stoves, cutting tables, and side dishes. Wall cabinets or wall cabinets can make full use of kitchen space and can hold some uncommon tableware and food with a long shelf life.

2. Commercial Furniture

Commercial Furniture is furniture used in public buildings and indoors. It is determined according to the content of social activities and is highly professional. There are not many types of each type of place, but the number is large. Although some furniture is not much different from daily furniture, the requirements are higher. The shape must adapt to the environment and atmosphere, the function must meet the performance requirements, and the effective space must be fully utilized.

(1) Office furniture

Office furniture refers to furniture used in large-scale public places. Due to economic development, office furniture can be divided into traditional office furniture and modern office furniture. Traditional office furniture is only used in closed rooms, and most of them are single pieces of furniture, such as common desks, armchairs, filing cabinets and other traditional style furniture. Modern office furniture is composed of partitions, screens, desks and chairs, and automated office facilities.

(2) Store furniture

Store furniture refers to professional furniture used for selling goods in business halls, including exhibition stands, display cabinets, display racks, counters, display cabinets, cash registers, etc., which require the correct display of goods to attract customers' attention and create the best conditions for customers to purchase.

(3) Catering furniture

Chinese furniture manufacturers generally divide catering furniture into two types: one is light and simple furniture used in fast food. This type of furniture does not want customers to stay for a long time, but the shape is required to attract customers; the other is formal dining furniture that is used for a long time. It not only requires comfort, but also needs to express certain style characteristics in conjunction with interior design.

(4) Conference and theater furniture

Theater furniture is mainly chairs, which are designed under the conditions of strict requirements on various sizes to meet the conditions of clear viewing and comfortable sitting.

(5) School furniture

Mainly includes desks, chairs, and furniture for dormitories, libraries, laboratories, design studios, and drawing rooms. Desks and chairs must be suitable for students of different ages and heights, and need to be designed for several age groups.

3. Outdoor furniture

Outdoor furniture mainly refers to furniture on the balcony, platform, and garden of the living room, furniture along the tree-lined avenues and in the gardens of residential communities, government agencies, enterprises and institutions, and furniture for tourists to relax and enjoy in parks and urban scenic areas. Outdoor furniture mainly includes chairs and stools, followed by tables. This type of furniture manufactured by Chinese furniture manufacturers must be able to withstand various external climatic conditions, not afraid of sun and rain, and be sturdy and durable. It must also have beautiful shapes and pay attention to color processing to enhance the beauty of the environment and the interest of life.

Classification by raw materials of furniture

Chinese furniture manufacturers classify furniture by material, and it is mainly to facilitate the understanding of the characteristics of furniture made of different materials. Modern furniture is increasingly tending to be a combination of multiple materials, and the number of furniture made of a single material in the traditional sense is gradually decreasing. Therefore, in the classification of furniture by material, only the main material of a piece of furniture is used for classification.

1. Solid wood furniture

The visual sense, tactile sense, unique beautiful texture, thermal insulation, insulation, elasticity, breathability, easy processing and easy carving of wood are unsurpassed by other materials. Therefore, wood has always been the preferred material for furniture design and manufacturing in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, especially the precious wood furniture such as rosewood, red sandalwood, rosewood, etc. with beautiful shape and fine workmanship, which will always be the most advanced furniture and incomparable to any other furniture. China's Ming and Qing style furniture, Europe's Baroque and Rococo style furniture, are still the model of furniture to this day and are loved by people. Root carving furniture is a branch of solid wood furniture, with natural artistic beauty, high decorative effect and ornamental value.

2. Bamboo and rattan furniture

Bamboo and rattan furniture mainly includes bamboo furniture, bamboo woven furniture, rattan woven furniture, wicker furniture, and simulated fiber material woven furniture produced by modern chemical industry. In terms of varieties, chairs, sofas, coffee tables, bookshelves, mats, and screens are the main ones.

Bamboo and rattan furniture has a long history, creating many excellent varieties that are popular with people and have entered thousands of households and buildings. Some have even been put on the elegant lobby, not only as comfortable items, but also as bright decorations.
Bamboo and rattan are the fastest growing green materials, and China has abundant resources. In the contemporary era of scarce wood resources, Chinese furniture manufacturers use bamboo instead of wood to create a variety of green furniture can not only make full use of bamboo resources, but also create higher economic and social benefits. Bamboo and rattan furniture is a model of green furniture, and has unique materials and weaving textures. It is light and comfortable. It will be increasingly loved by contemporary people, especially catering to the international trend of "returning to nature" and returning to nature in modern society, so it will have a broad market.

3. Wood-based panel furniture

Due to the long growth period of wood, especially precious wood, resources are increasingly scarce, far from meeting the needs of production development. Therefore, wood-based panels - plywood, fiberboard, particleboard have become the main raw materials for modern panel furniture, making a positive contribution to the development of panel furniture. There are many types of this type of furniture, and it is widely used. However, due to the use of adhesives containing harmful substances such as formaldehyde, and the disadvantages of fiberboard and particleboard such as large volume, poor nail holding force, and easy wing bending and deformation, people are increasingly resisting. For this reason, artificial boards must use non-toxic or low-toxic adhesives to improve the quality in an all-round way.

4. Metal furniture

Because metal has the advantages of high strength, good wear resistance, non-combustibility, easy bending and shaping, and easy casting, it is suitable for modern large-scale industrial manufacturing, thus becoming an important raw material for modern furniture. The metal materials used to make furniture mainly include various types of steel, aluminum alloy, copper alloy, stainless steel, cast iron, etc.
Modern metal furniture is mostly composed of metal components as the skeleton, combined with parts made of wood, artificial boards, plastics, glass, leather, canvas and other materials. It has the advantages of exquisite shape, durability, easy disassembly and assembly, safety and fire prevention.

Cast iron is mostly used to make outdoor furniture and seat skeletons in public places such as auditoriums, classrooms, theaters, and waiting rooms. Steel sections are mainly used to make the skeletons of public furniture and sofas. Aluminum alloy and copper alloy steel are mostly used to make the frame of glass cabinets and accessories of wooden furniture. There are also many modern bedroom furniture and office furniture that use stainless steel or electroplated steel as frame components. The shape is very beautiful and is very popular with users. Replacing wood with metal materials and saving wood resources is an important direction for the development of modern furniture.

5. Plastic furniture

Due to the rapid development of polymer materials, various organic composite materials with high strength, wear resistance, temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, smooth surface and low cost have emerged, and are easy to mold and demold. Therefore, it has quickly been widely used in the furniture manufacturing industry. As a result, the furniture shape has shifted from assembly and combination molding to overall molding, and many new products such as swan chairs and eggshell chairs have been created, which are examples of plastic furniture.

6. Glass furniture

Glass is a crystal clear man-made material with a unique material beauty of smoothness, brightness and transparency. A popular trend in modern furniture is to combine wood, aluminum alloy, stainless steel and glass, which greatly enhances the decorative and ornamental value of furniture.

Modern furniture is moving towards a combination of multiple materials. In this regard, the use of glass in furniture plays a leading role. Due to the improvement of modern glass processing technology, carved glass, frosted glass, painted glass, car edge glass, inlaid sandwich glass, ice flower glass, hot bent glass, coated glass, etc. have different decorative effects. Glass is widely used in modern furniture, especially in display furniture and small load-bearing dining tables, coffee tables and other furniture. Glass has become the main furniture material.

7. Stone furniture

Stone is hard, wear-resistant, weather-resistant, heat-resistant, corrosion-resistant and durable. There are many types of natural stone, and granite and marble are mainly used in furniture. Granite is divided into Indian red, Chinese red, Sichuan red, tiger skin yellow, chrysanthemum green, forest green, sesame black, flower stone white, etc. Marble is divided into big flower white, big flower green, imperial concubine red, white marble, etc. Due to the different varieties, origins and ages of stones, their bulk density, color, and patterns vary greatly, and the prices are far apart. Some peculiar stones, after being polished by Chinese furniture manufacturers, can emit strange light and become gems, which are priceless.

In the design and manufacture of modern furniture, natural marble is often used as the panels of tables, desks, tables and desks to give full play to the hardness, wear resistance and natural texture of the stone. It is also often used as an inlay material for some high-end furniture, such as inlaying marble and emerald with high ornamental value on the back of the chair, bed screen and wardrobe to enhance the decorative effect of the furniture.

8. Soft material furniture

Traditional soft furniture uses wood as the skeleton and springs and natural fibers as soft materials; modern soft furniture mostly uses steel as the skeleton and foam plastics or high-pressure gas and high-pressure water as soft materials. Compared with the two, the former is green furniture, comfortable to use and has a longer service life, but its production technology is more complicated and the cost is higher.

The main varieties of soft furniture include sofas, sofa chairs, sofa stools, sofa mattresses, sofa couches, etc., which are increasingly widely used.