The words on the listing
Glossary
24 terms, grouped by where you meet them. Several of these are seller vocabulary rather than specifications, and where that is the case the entry says so.
Rugs
6 terms
- Pile height
- The thickness of the rug surface measured from the backing to the top of the fibers. It decides whether a door clears the rug and whether furniture legs sit level on it. Almost no listing in this catalog states it as a number; they use words instead.
- See also: Low pile, Area rug, Rug pad
- Low pile
- A seller’s description for a short, dense rug surface, typically understood as under about half an inch. It is the pile that suits a door swing and a walking lane. Because it is a word rather than a measurement, two rugs both described as low pile can differ noticeably.
- See also: Pile height, Runner, Front legs on
- Area rug
- A rug sized to sit under or around a furniture group rather than to cover a whole floor. Its job is to make the pieces standing on it read as one arrangement. An area rug that is too small does the opposite, which is the problem this site was built around.
- See also: Front legs on, Runner, Rug pad
- Runner
- A long narrow rug, commonly 2 to 3 ft wide, made for a route rather than a room. At that width nothing stands on it, so it does not do an area rug’s job and should not be bought as a substitute for one. It is the shape that most often has a lifted end.
- See also: Area rug, Rug pad, Low pile
- Rug pad
- A separate underlay that sits between the rug and the floor. On a hard floor it is what actually stops the rug sliding and holds the edges down, regardless of what the rug’s own backing claims. It is almost never included with a rug.
- See also: Area rug, Runner, Pile height
- Front legs on
- An arrangement where the rug slides under the front edge of each seating piece by roughly 4 to 8 in, leaving the back legs on bare floor. It is the compromise that lets a smaller rug still tie a group together. The alternative arrangements are all legs on and floating.
- See also: Area rug, Pile height, Low pile
Curtains
8 terms
- Drop
- The finished vertical length of a curtain panel, from the top of the fabric to the hem. It is not the same as the rod-to-floor measurement, because the header hangs the fabric some distance below the rod. Panels here are sold in two drops.
- See also: Grommet, Rod pocket, Back tab, Pinch pleat
- Rod pocket
- A sewn channel across the top of a panel that the rod passes through. It gathers the fabric tightly onto the rod and hides it completely, and it does not slide well, so it suits curtains that stay where they are put.
- See also: Drop, Grommet, Back tab, Stack back
- Grommet
- A ring set into the top of a panel that the rod threads through. It slides easily and produces even folds, and it hangs the fabric roughly one and a half to two and a half inches below the top of the rod, which comes off your available drop.
- See also: Drop, Rod pocket, Stack back
- Back tab
- Loops sewn to the reverse of the panel so the rod passes behind the fabric and does not show from the front. It gives a flatter, more tailored top than a grommet and slides less freely. Several panels here offer it alongside a second header option.
- See also: Drop, Rod pocket, Pinch pleat
- Pinch pleat
- A header where the fabric is gathered into fixed groups of folds, usually held by hooks that drop into rings or a track. It produces the deepest, most regular folds of any header type. A listing describing a pinch pleated look without hooks and rings is describing the appearance rather than the construction.
- See also: Back tab, Stack back, Drop
- Stack back
- The width of wall a fully opened panel occupies when it is pushed to the side. It is why the rod is extended past the glass — so the open curtains sit on wall rather than on window. Deeper headers stack wider.
- See also: Pinch pleat, Grommet, Rod pocket
- Blackout versus room darkening
- Two seller descriptions of how much light a fabric passes, with no shared definition behind either of them. Room darkening generally implies less. Neither says anything about the light that arrives around the sides of the panel, over the top and under the hem, which is a matter of geometry rather than weave.
- See also: Thermal insulated, Drop, Stack back
- Thermal insulated
- A seller’s description for a panel with a backing or a lining intended to slow heat transfer at the window. Listings that use it here attach no figure to it. Treat it as a description of construction, not as a performance number.
- See also: Blackout versus room darkening, Drop
Light
5 terms
- CCT
- Correlated color temperature, given in kelvin, describing the tint of a light source on a scale where lower numbers are warmer and higher numbers are cooler. 2200K is noticeably orange; 3000K is a soft warm white. A listing that says 3 CCT is stating that three settings exist without naming them.
- See also: Lumens, Torchiere, Dusk-to-dawn sensor
- Lumens
- A measure of the total visible light a source emits. It is the figure that tells you how much light you get, which watts do not. Most night-light listings in this catalog state no lumen figure at all, which is why the category is hard to compare.
- See also: CCT, Torchiere, Motion sensor
- Torchiere
- A floor lamp with an upward-facing head that throws its light at the ceiling, lighting the room by bounce rather than directly. It is a different tool from a shaded lamp beside a chair, and it is the wrong one for reading. Torchieres are typically the tallest lamps in any range.
- See also: Lumens, CCT
- Dusk-to-dawn sensor
- A light sensor that switches a fixture on when the surrounding light falls below a threshold and off again when it rises. It runs through the night rather than reacting to people. Most plug-in night-lights in this catalog state one.
- See also: Motion sensor, CCT, Lumens
- Motion sensor
- A detector that switches a fixture on when it registers movement nearby and off again after a delay. It leaves the fixture dark the rest of the time, which is a different behavior from a dusk-to-dawn sensor. Some units state both.
- See also: Dusk-to-dawn sensor, Lumens
Walls
5 terms
- Floating shelf
- A shelf fixed to the wall with no visible supports beneath it, so it appears to project unsupported. The concealed fixing is the whole design, and it is also where all the load goes. What the wall behind it is made of decides far more than the shelf does.
- See also: Hidden bracket, Wall anchor
- Wall anchor
- A fixing inserted into a wall to hold a screw where there is no solid framing behind it. Which type is appropriate depends entirely on what the wall is built from and what runs inside it. This site gives no recommendations on anchor selection, because that judgment needs someone who can see the wall.
- See also: Hidden bracket, Floating shelf, Leaning mirror
- Leaning mirror
- A tall mirror rested against a wall rather than hung on it, held in place by its own weight and the angle it sits at. Both of those change when the floor is bumped or the frame is pulled, which is why a leaning mirror should be anchored to the wall wherever the manufacturer provides for it.
- See also: Arched mirror, Wall anchor
- Arched mirror
- A full-length mirror with a curved top edge instead of a square one. The curve removes glass from the upper corners, so an arched mirror reads slightly shorter than a rectangle of the same stated height. Four of the seven mirrors in this catalog are arched.
- See also: Leaning mirror, Wall anchor
24 of the 24 entries link to at least one other. Where the arithmetic behind a term matters, it is on Rules.