40d:Furniture

There's a wide variety of furniture that can be created at a variety of workshops. All furniture has a practical use in your fortress. Also, dwarves get good thoughts when admiring high quality furniture.

When starting a fortress most furniture will usually be made in your Mason's workshop or Carpenter's workshop, depending on the materials used. You can also make furniture out of metal at a Metalsmith's Forge, but this consumes expensive materials. Some furniture can only be made from certain materials. For example, beds can only be made of wood. A few unusual types of furniture are made elsewhere, like mechanisms, siege engine parts and ammo, or glass furniture.

Furniture is produced at a workshop through its q (view building) menu.

The function build is not only used for building workshops and the like, but also for placing items like beds, tables and chairs in your fortress. Most furniture must be placed before it can be used, but a few (like bins and barrels) are placed as needed by your dwarves.

When you try to build a bed/door/chair and it says 'needs bed/door/chair', that means none is currently available, not that there has been a problem with producing one. Usually, brand new items are not immediately available because some dwarf has expressed the intent of carrying them to their corresponding stockpile.

All metal furniture requires 3 bars to forge except for chains, animal traps, buckets and blocks.

Building a door from scratch

1. Go to your Mason's workshop and select it in view room (q) mode and "add task".
2. Select "d build rock door".
3. Wait for a dwarf to fetch some stone and carve it into a door. You need at least one dwarf with the Masonry labor enabled. The higher the Dwarf's mason skill, the faster the door will be built (it will also be of better quality).
4. Once the door is finished, then go to the space you want to build the door and press "build".
5. Select "door".
6. Move the cursor to precisely where you want the door to be, and press Enter.
7. If it says 'needs door', that means that the door you made is in the process of being stored in your furniture stockpile and that no other door is available: you have to wait a bit.
8. Select which type of door to put there, and press Enter. The doors are listed in order of distance.
9. Wait for a dwarf (with the Furniture Hauling labor enabled) to come and put the door where you want it.

With the exception of mechanisms, every other piece of stone furniture is built the same way: tables, chairs, cabinets and so on.

Building a bed from scratch

1. Go to your Carpenter's workshop and select it in view room (q) mode then "add task".
2. Select "b Construct wooden bed".
3. Wait for a dwarf to get some wood and build the bed out of it. You need at least one dwarf with the Carpentry labor enabled. The higher the Dwarf's carpenter skill, the better.
4. Once the bed has been constructed, then go to the space you want to place the bed and press "build".
5. Select "bed".
6. Move the cursor to precisely where you want the bed to be, and press Enter.
7. If it says 'needs bed', that means that the bed you made is in the process of being stored in your furniture stockpile and that no other bed is available: you have to wait a bit.
8. Select which particular preconstructed bed to put there, and press Enter.
9. Wait for a dwarf (with the Furniture Hauling labor enabled) to come and put the bed where you want it.

Every other piece of wooden furniture is built the same way. Barrels and bins, in particular are useful to a growing fortress. Keeping an extra bucket around is a good idea.

List of furniture, siege ammo, and other items used in buildings

Furniture/Siege ammo			Other items used in buildings
Anvil Armor stand Ballista arrowhead Ballista arrow Ballista parts Barrel Bed Bin Bucket	Cabinet Catapult parts Chair / Throne Chest / Box / Bag Coffin Door Floodgate Grate Hatch cover	Mechanism Millstone Pipe section Quern Statue Table Weapon rack Window	Animal trap Blocks Bars Cage Chain Enormous corkscrew Logs Stones Glass Gems

Buildings, Constructions and Rooms FAQ
When I try to build a bed/door/chair why does it say needs bed/door/chair?
How do I make and build chests?
How do I construct a wall from a particular direction?
How do I designate rooms or areas?
Help! My doors are stuck open!
Once placed, can furniture be moved?
How do I increase the value of a room quickly and easily?
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