Epic Home Ideas

  • About
  • Contact
  • HOME
  • Interiors
    • Interior Design
    • Home Decor
    • Kitchen
    • Living Room
    • Dining Room
    • Bedroom
    • Bathroom
    • Flooring
  • Exteriors
    • Exterior Design
    • Garage
    • Gardening
    • Roofing
  • Home General
    • General
    • Design Software
    • Home DIY
    • Polls-Quizes
    • Product Reviews
    • Recommendations
    • Renewable Energy for Home
    • Celebrity Homes
  • Home Improvement
  • Home Architecture
  • Real Estate
You are here: Home / Interior Design / What is FF&E in Interior Design – Description and Explanation
I may earn a small commission if you buy through the links in this website without any extra cost to you. My Recommendations however are not biased in any way.

What is FF&E in Interior Design – Description and Explanation

Written By Glenn Prescot

FF&E stands for Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment. Think of it as a design concept that is used to furnish and decorate a hotel or a room in a house.

nicely Furnished Living Room

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Most people think that FF&E is all about choosing the right sofa, the right fabric material, and color and so on.

What they often forget is while choosing the furnishings, they need to also focus on other specifications such as functionality, durability, sustainability, technical issues like toxicity, flammability and slip resistance, life safety, and finally the budget.

Following is a step-by-step process of how to use FF&E to design a place:

Table of Contents

  • Research
  • FF&E Types You Should Be Familiar With
    • Textiles
    • Window Treatments
    • Wall Treatments
    • Floor Covering
  • Flammability and Life Safety Testing
  • Architectural Woodwork
  • Design
  • Cost Estimating
  • Items on the FF&E List
  • Finalizing the Purchase Order
    • Related Posts

Research

Researching for FF&E involves finding the right dealer. You might get done with the job at one vendor or meet several of them to find the type of furniture you are looking for.

Researching requirements include:

Making a Selection: Your schematic design will give you a clear idea of what your design requires and what the budget will be

Industry Standards: Does your schematic design meet the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer’s Association (BIFMA) standard? Depending on the location of the project and what kind of property it will be, you need to make sure that the plan meets the industry standards. BIFMA supports safe, sustainable, and healthy environments that help you to make a foolproof plan

Codes / Regulations: Have a look at your local, state, or federal requirements and make sure that your plan adheres to them

Sustainability: LEED requires that your FF&E plan should conform to environmental standards such as energy-efficient building, decreased utility costs, etc.

Samples: Ask the vendors to provide mock-ups so that you can get an idea how the design will look in real life

A living room furnished with an L-shaped sofa, a coffee table, a snack bar and a dining table

FF&E Types You Should Be Familiar With

Following are some areas of FF&E that you need to be familiar with before making your design:

Textiles

  • Synthetic vs. natural fibers (their positive and negative applications and attributes)
  • Specialty fibers (their applications)
  • Martindale and Wyzenbeek test to know how resistant the material is to abrasion
  • Crocking resistance test
  • Fade-o-meter test
  • Familiarity with pattern match, dimensional stability, cushion types, breathability, and shrinking

Window Treatments

  • Fixed window coverings, soft window coverings, shades, and blinds (operation and characteristics)
  • Drapery fullness and its ability to stay back
  • Drapery pleats types

Wall Treatments

  • Paint applications and types
  • Fabric wall covering
  • Commercial vinyl wall covering (width and performance quality)
  • Crocking
  • Scrubbability
  • Chemical resistance
  • Upholstered panels and its appropriate materials
  • Heat-aging and cold-cracking resistance

Floor Covering

  • Carpet quantity calculations
  • Floor types such as wood, tile, vinyl, carpet, stone, etc
  • The coefficient of friction and vitreosity
  • Taber test to find out how resistant the floor covering is to abrasions

A house with pine wood flooring

Flammability and Life Safety Testing

Perhaps the most important thing in FF&E is to find out how safe the materials are that you are choosing. The following tests need to be performed to make sure that the materials match the safety standards:

  • Steiner tunnel test
  • Vertical ignition test
  • Cigarette ignition tests (for furniture composites and components)
  • Flooring Radiant Panel Test
  • Full seating test
  • Methenamine pill test
  • Room Corner Test
  • Standard Test Method (determines the smoke’s optical density produced by solid materials)
  • Woodwork flame-spread ratings

Architectural Woodwork

  • Finish types
  • Finish vs. millwork carpentry
  • Types of veneer cuts and lumber
  • Types of substrates and laminate
  • Running vs. standing trim
  • Actual vs. nominal dimensions

Design

Detail Drawings: Each piece of furniture used should be drawn in detail with its characteristics outlined.

Furniture Drawings: In order to find out how the furniture you bought would look in the room, draw two plans: one that shows the room with the old furniture and another that shows the room with the new furniture.

Furniture Labeling: Label each piece of furniture and don’t forget the technical specifications (measurements).

Cost Estimating

FF&E has its own budget. It does not involve construction details. You need to discuss who will buy the items at the start of the project so that there’s no confusion when the bill is being presented to the client.

Items on the FF&E List

  • Furniture
  • Appliances
  • Decorative accessories
  • Window treatments
  • Free-standing equipment like copiers
  • Entrance mats and area rugs
  • Artwork
  • Table and floor lamps
  • Plants and planters

Finalizing the Purchase Order

When it comes to purchasing the goods, you have three client-designer agreement options:

  1. The interior designer works as a reseller because she/he creates the purchase order
  2. The interior designer works as the middle man and purchases goods on the client’s behalf
  3. The interior designer works as the representative for the owner and gives product specifications and requirements directly to the dealer

You finally enter the furniture installation stage and once the job is done, the owner inspects the place and gives his/her approval. Documents are provided to the owner along with the warranties so that if he/she has any further demands, the designer can make the changes.


Related Posts

  • Some FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) About Wall Paneling for Homes
  • What Color Wall Paint Goes With Brown Furniture – Some Design Ideas
  • What Color Furniture Goes With Hardwood Floors – Design Ideas with Photos
  • Best Paint Colors for Nursery Rooms – Design Ideas with Photos
  • How Much Does it Cost to Furnish a House – Living Room,Bedroom,Kitchen etc
  • What Color Sofa Goes With White Walls – Design Ideas With Photos

Filed Under: Interior Design

About Glenn Prescot

I'm Glenn Prescot, an Interior Designer originally from Kansas USA and now living in Europe. I am a fan of DIY, home design, gardening and anything related to home interiors and exteriors. I'm also interested in crafts and Home Improvement projects.

I have been in the home design industry for more than 17 years. I love decorating and transforming spaces so that people living in them are happy and pleased with their space.

Have a look around and I hope you'll like the content and ideas in this website!!

Here is my more detailed Profile.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search this site

Recent Posts

  • All About Polypropylene – Olefin Fabric Sofa Material
  • Comparison of Granite Composite Sink vs Stainless Steel
  • 15 Main Pros and Cons of PVC Decking – Comparison and Discussion
  • 6 Different Types of Soil for Gardening – How to Identify and Improve Each Type
  • 6 Great Alternatives to HardieBacker Cement Board

Amazon Disclosure

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

Copyright © 2023 | Privacy Policy | Contact | About | Terms of Use | Disclaimer/Disclosure | DMCA Notice | Amazon Disclaimer

0 shares