Glossary

All A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Habitable Room	A room occupied or designed for occupancy by one or more persons for study , living , sleeping , eating , kitchen but not including bathroom , water closet , store , pantry , corridor etc.
Hadley Chest	A colonial chest with a drawer that was used as a hope or dowry chest.
Haitian Cotton	A highly textured woven material with a loose, rolled cotton weft.
Half-Timbered	A method of construction that uses timber frames (post and beam) for internal and external walls. Brick and plaster are normally used to fill the gaps between timbers.
Hall Tree	A piece of furniture that's usually placed in an entryway or hallway to hang coats and hats on. Hall trees often have a mirror back and a table surface or storage bench seat. Find a hall tree.
Halogen	A light that emits true color characteristics, unlike fluorescent and other lighting that tend to give a room a yellowish cast, halogen's light remains neutral.
Halogen Lighting	A type of lighting in which a tungsten filament is sealed into a compact transparent vessel and filled with a small amount of iodine or bromine to create a chemical reaction that produces light. The light from a halogen bulb is better at displaying colors than traditional incandescent or fluorescent bulbs. Often used in retail application or display cabinets.
Halving Joint	This joint is used in members crossing or meeting at an angle. In this method, each member on opposite sides is cut to half of its thickness, at the joint and lapped.
Hand	The feel of cloth or leather, the sensation of its textural qualities.
Hand Distressing	Creating a marred surface, which lends an aged look to furniture.
Hand Printing	Processes such as batik, tie-dye, block printing, and hand silk-screen and stencil printing.
Hand Tied	Coil springs that are attached to the webbing with links and then "hand tied" to each other and the frame to achieve differing amounts of elasticity in the seat. Two, four, and eight way hand ties are commonly used.
Hand-Blocked	Block printed wallpapers have prints that are applied by someone using a wooden block. These blocks were traditionally made of pear wood. Some companies today still implement this way of making wallpaper since the look and quality of the papers are distinctive and luxurious.
Handkerchief Table	Term refers to a single leaf table with a leaf and a triangular top. Closed the table fits in a corner, opened it's a small square.
Hand-Planned Finish	A distressing treatment by which a new floor or board is scraped with blades by hand to give an undulating and worn effect.
Handrail	It is provided to render assistance in negotiating a stair-way. It is supported on balustrades and usually run parallel to the slope of the stair.
Hard Window Coverings	Art glass, blinds, screens, shades, and shutters.
Hardboard	Compressed wood fibers formed into panels with embossed designs or a wood/plastic laminated surface.
Hardware	Wood, plastic, or metal-plated trim found on the exterior of furniture, such as knobs, handles, and decorative trim.
Hardwood	A botanical group of trees featuring board leaves. The term does not necessarily refer to the hardness of the species.
Hardwood Frames	Upholstered furniture frames made from hardwoods such as oak or birch. These woods are normally kiln dried and resist splitting.
Harmonious Color Scheme	Also called analogous, a combination focused on neighboring hues on the color wheel. The shared underlying color generally gives such schemes a coherent flow.
Harmony	A congruous combination of parts into a pleasing whole; the result of unity and variety balanced together in an orderly, agreeable arrangement.
Harvest Table	A narrow rectangular table that has hinged drop leaves, this design takes up very little space and offers a nice amount of surface area when the leaves are up. Find dining furniture.
Hassock	Upholstered footstool large enough to be used as seating, often referred to as an ottoman. Find chairs and ottomans.
Haunch Of An Arch	It is the portion of the arch situated centrally between the key and skew backs.
Hazardous Buildings	These shall include any building or part of building which is used for the storage , handling , manufacture or processing of highly combustible explosive materials or products which are liable to burn with extreme rapidity and which may produce poisonous fumes or explosions.
Head Room	It is the clear vertical distance between the tread of a step and the so fit of the flight or the ceiling of a landing immediately above it and it should not be less than 2.14m.
Headboard	A headboard is a vertical board or frame that is usually finished wood or upholstered, and placed at the head of the bead.
Header	It is a full brick or stone, which is laid with its length perpendicular to the face of the wall.
Heading	The hemmed, stiffened, layered portion on the top of a curtain or drapery.
Heading Bond	In this type of bonding , all the bricks are laid as headers on the faces. The overlap , which is usually of half the width of the brick is abstained by introducing a three
Hearth	The paved or tiled floor of a fireplace.
Heartwood	The wood that extends from the true center of the tree to the sapwood is referred to as heartwood. This wood is normally darker and more resistant to rot and decay than the sapwood.
Heat Gain	Solar heat that penetrates the interior through glass; desirable in winter and undesirable in summer.
Heat Loss	The interior heat lost in winter back through glass to the outside. To prevent heat loss, movable insulation or insulative window treatments are employed.
Heat Setting	The setting in of permanent creases or folds in polymer fabrics by heating the fold to the point of polymer flow (beginning to melt), then rapidly cooling the fabric.
Heat Transfer Printing	Method of printing fabrics by transferring designs to fabric from special pre-printed paper.
Heat-Transfer Printing	Decals that are dispersed-transferred from waxed paper to a cloth under heat and pressure.
Helical Wire	Thin wire spirals that hold adjacent rows of mattress coils together and may be used to hold coils to the border rods. They can run horizontally or vertically. Not present in mattresses with individually pocketed coils. Find a new mattress.
Hepplewhite	A neo-classic furniture style that followed Chippendale from the late 1700's to about 1820. It overlaps with Sheraton styles and shares similar elements of restrained design, tapered legs and classical ornamentation like urns and shields.
Hepplewhite, George (D. 1786)	An important English furniture designer who produced a series of drawings published as The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide.
Herculon	A registered trademark of Hercules for olefin.
Heterogeneous	Stone formed from several types of material.
Hibachi	An indoor brazier used to provide warmth, boil water for tea, or warm sake. It is made in a variety of sizes and materials, especially wood and ceramic, and is filled with sand and ash. Charcoal is arranged in the center under a trivet, which supports a kettle.
Hid (High-Intensity Discharge) Lighting	HID lamps establish an arc between two very close electrodes set in opposite ends of small, sealed, translucent or transparent glass tubes. The electric arc generates heat and pressure high enough to vaporize the atoms of various metallic elements inside the lamp, causing the atoms to emit large amounts of visible-range electromagnetic energy.
High Contrast	The difference between small areas of light and the dark area surrounding it.
High Key	All colors in an interior that are light or high in value.
High Relief	Term refers to deep carving of the plane surface of any material.
High Resiliency Foam	A pure foam with a cell structure different from conventional foam which results in more durable and more supportive material. This foam will retain its shape longer.
High Rise	A building containing several levels or floors of apartments, condominiums, or offices.
High Tech	A product of high technology.
High Values	Light variations of a hue; a hue with various amounts of white added.
Highboy	A tall, narrow chest of drawers usually placed in bedrooms.
High-Contrast Values	A wide division of color value in an interior?very light colors contrasted with very dark colors.
High-Efficiency Furnace	A furnace that uses less energy and delivers a higher output. The unit costs more initially.
High-Gloss Paint	Any paint that dries to a very shiny finish.
High-Intensity Discharge	Produce light by passing an electric current through a gas or vapor under high pressure.
Highlighting	A color-removal technique in the finishing process, which is used to highlight natural grain characteristics.
Hiking Up	The shrinking of a fabric that has absorbed moisture, then dried.
Hinged King	A king size mattress with a divided border rod in the center to allow for slight bending or folding without causing damage. Find a mattress set.
Hip Rafters	These are the rafters which form the hip of a sloped roof. These rafters run from the ridge to the corners of the wall to support the covering over the hip.
Hipped Roof	A roof without a gabled end that slopes in four directions.
Hispanic	Having to do with Spain or Portugal.
Hitchcock Chair	A black-painted/finished chair of the 1800's with gold powdered stenciling of fruit and flowers on the backrest, named after its designer Lambert Hitchcock. Heavily influenced by Sheraton designs. Web site of the Hitchcock Chair Company.
Hitchcock Style	Style created by Lambert Hitchcock of Connecticut from the early to mid 1800's. Although most famous for the design of Hitchcock chairs, Lambert also produced stools, settees, rockers, cabinets and cradles. The Hitchcock chair is still reproduced to this day.
Hitchcock, Lambert (1795-1852)	An American furniture designer known best for his Hitchcock chair with its black painted finish, stenciling, rush or cane seat, and delicate lines.
Hock Leg	A cabriole leg having a broken curve on the inner side of the knee.
Hoffmann, Josef (1870-1956)	Member of the Vienna Secession and founding member of the Wiener Werkstite. He is best known for his design of the Prague chair and Fledermaus chair.
Hollofil	A registered trademark of DuPont for polyester.
Hollow-Core Door	A veneered door with a hollow core filled with cardboard honeycomb.
Hologram	A three-dimensional image projected by splitting a laser beam.
Home Automation	Central control of all energy-using fixtures and devices.
Homogeneous	Stone formed from just one material.
Hood	The canopy overhanging a fireplace to increase the draft.
Hooded Fireplace	A fireplace with a projecting hood to catch the smoke.
Hook-And-Loop Fasteners	A two-part fastening system of nylon loops on one tape and a fuzzy nylon surface on another that stick together and can be pulled apart. The best-known brand is Velcro.
Hooked Rugs	A traditional method of making decorative rugs of strips of fabric, punched through a jutelike backing with a special hook.
Hoop Back Chair	Hepplewhite or Queen Anne chair with a top rail curving directly into its arms.
Hope Chest	Traditionally a hinged-top chest for storing items such as household goods and textile items in anticipation of marriage. Also referred to as a dowry chest. Find a hope chest.
Horizontal Lines	Horizontal lines serve to visually widen or lengthen an interior and, when dominant, produce feelings of relaxation and repose.
Horizontal Satin	See sateen.
Hourglass	A piece for telling time with two globes of glass connected by a narrow neck that allows a quantity of sand to pass during a specified time.
Housed Joint	In this joint , the entire end or thickness of one member is let into the notch in another. This is commonly used in works of heavy nature.
Housed Stair	A stair attached to walls on both sides. Also called a closed stair.
Hue	The pure state of any color.
Humidifier	An attachment to a furnace that adds moisture or humidity to the air. (Heating interior air strips it of moisture.)
Huntboard	Designed to be light and portable so it could be moved outdoors. Originally used for serving food and drinks after a hunt.
Hutch	Enclosed cupboard with shelves resting on a solid base such as buffet or desk. Find dining room furniture.
Hvac	Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning. In nonresidential architecture, it is the system that maintains an even temperature (around 72 degrees Fahrenheit) and circulates fresh air through the interior.
Hybrid Solar Energy System	A passive solar system augmented with fans, ducts, blowers, or other mechanical devices.
Hydrophilic	A fiber that readily absorbs moisture, such as natural and man-made cellulosics and natural protein fibers.