Furniture Style Guides by Furniture Row

Want to learn more about furniture and interior design styles? Then you're going to love our Style Guides! Our Furniture Row Style Guides combine expert insight from our interior designers with helpful information, imagery, and definitions to explain popular furniture styles found on the market today - and we are always adding more styles to the list! 

What Does Style Really Mean in Furniture and Interior Design?

The dictionary defines a style as: “a particular kind, sort, or type, as with reference to form, appearance, or character”. In other words, style is it's a way of categorizing what something looks like. 

So, if someone says a table has a certain “style”, they are really just saying that it looks like other types of tables due to certain physical characteristics it may have. A table could be any piece of furniture with multiple legs and a flat top, but if a table is of a certain style then you know that it has a certain look.

How Do Designers Know Which Style is Which?

When looking at a piece of furniture, an interior designer can tell you which style it belongs to by taking into account some of its exterior design elements. When we say exterior design elements, we mean the shape of the frame, the shape of the arms & legs, as well as the color palette & finishing touches.

The Shape of the Frame
The frame is the innermost support structure of a piece of furniture. The frame has to support the weight of the furniture as well as the weight of the people who use it, so the frame of any piece needs to be sturdy. But, furniture makers can shape the frame of a piece in a variety of ways to give it a certain look that they think customers will like. 
 

Arms & Legs
While arms and legs are important for both function and comfort, they are also strong identifiers of style. Like with the frame, the arms and the legs of a piece of furniture provide support to the user - but, again, they can be shaped in certain ways to make the furnishing stand out from the crowd or fit in with a certain style. 
 

Color Palette & Visible Construction Materials 

Color Palette

The color palette refers to the combination of colors that the furniture shows. Certain combinations of colors are known to work well together, and certain combinations have been popular at certain times in history or in certain regions of the world. Once you know the color palettes of certain interior design styles, then you can start to identify pieces furniture like a pro. Here are some examples of popular color palettes:

 

Visible Construction Materials

When furniture makers are making a piece of furniture, they have choices when it comes to what construction materials will be found on the outside of the furnishing. To use our table example from earlier, a table could be any piece of furniture with multiple legs and a flat top, but if the furniture maker decides to make the table top from glass instead of wood, then the resulting table will have a very different look. Here are some visible construction materials that can have a dramatic impact on style:

• Solid Hardwood

  All furniture styles feature pieces made from wood, but pieces made from solid hardwood are often part of traditional or rustic styles.
   

• Metal

  Metal can be used instead of wood to promote increased durability in furniture, but it is often used to give the piece of furniture a certain rugged or tough look. Furniture that features black metal bars, either as accents or as structural components like legs - usually has has an industrial or urban look.
   

• Glass

  Glass is most commonly found on horizontal surfaces like table tops, but it can also be used as a structural component in certain pieces. Glass is often used to make furniture with a modern or eclectic look.
   

How to Quickly Identify Furniture Styles

So do you have to be an expert to identify furniture styles? The answer: not really! 

While it might take some time to learn all the intricacies of the furniture styles on the market today, our interior designers actually have a tip that can help anyone start identifying styles in seconds! 

What is this secret to speedy style study? Instead of trying to learn all the specific styles on the market today, just learn the four general style categories instead! The general styles categories of furniture are traditional, transitional, contemporary, and modern - and these larger style categories contain all the specific styles within them.

The best part, you can learn most of what you need to know with this handy timeline: 
 

As you can see, the term traditional refers to furniture made hundreds of years ago. It’s most commonly used to describe furniture made between the 1400s and 1800s. A common theme that unites furniture made during this time is that furniture showcased intricate exterior design elements like flamboyant frame shapes and curved, elaborate arms and legs. 
 

The next large category on the timeline is contemporary. In today’s terminology, contemporary furniture usually refers to furniture made between the 1980s and today. Today’s contemporary furniture is almost completely at odds with traditional furniture - it’s made with straight lined, minimalist frame shapes, synthetic materials, and neutral color palettes. 

As you may have guessed from the name, transitional furniture refers to furniture made during the transition period between traditional and contemporary. When shopping, it’s also common to see retailers label pieces as “transitional” when they showcase both traditional and contemporary design elements. 

Finally, modern style furniture is furniture with cutting-edge design elements that appear forward-looking or futuristic. Modern style furniture doesn't necessarily have to be made within the last few years, but it does need to have an innovative look when viewed from today.

For more information on how to tell apart contemporary and modern styles, be sure to check out our Style Guide: Contemporary Vs. Modern, What’s the Difference? blog post!

Happy styling!