Furniture industry

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v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

The furniture industry deals with the creation and disposition of furniture, which is any item that is stored in a furniture stockpile. Furniture can be made from a very broad range of materials: wood, stone, metal, glass, and cloth or leather for bags (artifact furniture may be made out of unusual materials such as bone). The wide variety of options can at first be confusing and intimidating to many players, but in time you will appreciate the tremendous flexibility and potential this approach brings to the game, both for aesthetic and practical purposes. Many players are inspired to novel approaches to fortress placement and design.

All furniture has a base value, determined by its item type (bed, barrel, anvil, etc.), which is multiplied by its material multiplier (silver, orthoclase, glumprong, etc.) and its quality modifier (fine, exceptional, etc.) to determine it's final value (any decorations on the furniture are calculated separately and added to the final value). All furniture has both a material multiplier and quality modifier. Quality is dependent on the relative skill of the dwarf that completes the job of building the piece of furniture: highly skilled dwarves will produce higher-quality furniture, increasing your fortress' wealth. The number and value of furniture in a room determines the room's value; smaller rooms with more valuable furnishings can be more useful for meeting noble's requirements in fortresses where space is an issue.

For ease of reference, the furniture industry is broken down into discussion by basic material (wood, stone, etc.), and then by workshop.

Wood Furniture

see also: Wood industry

Wood furniture is relatively lighter and more prone to damage than furniture made from stone, metal or glass because wood is both combustible and, in the case of barrels, susceptible to vermin. The great advantage of wood is its ready accessibility and the tendency of trees to regrow over time, making wood a readily renewable resource. Early in the life of a fortress, before the metal or glass industries are up and running, wood is the only material available for the making of barrels, an essential storage device for food and booze. Barring certain artifacts, wood remains the only material that can be made into a bed or siege engines.

For most purposes, different types of wood are interchangeable. However, certain exotic woods have properties that make them more or less suitable for different types of furniture. For example, feather tree wood is the lightest wood in the game, and ideal for furniture that needs to be moved often such as buckets - but it is the worst wood in the game to make ballista arrows from, because ballista arrow damage is determined by weight. Ideally, ballista arrows should be made from the heaviest woods in the game: glumprong or blood thorn.

Most woods are brown, and produce brown furniture. However, exotic woods can be used to make red (goblin-cap), crimson (blood thorn), white (tower-cap, feather tree), yellow (fungiwood), teal (spore tree), indigo (nether-cap), black (black-cap), purple (glumprong), or violet (tunnel tube) wooden furniture.

Carpenter's Workshop

The carpenter's workshop is used to make most wooden furniture, and requires a dwarf with the carpentry labor enabled. One log is consumed to make each item of wooden furniture. The following furniture can be made at a carpenter's workshop: armor stand, barrel, bed, bin, bucket, cabinet, casket, door, floodgate, grate, hatch cover, table, throne, weapon rack.

Siege Workshop

The siege workshop is used to produce catapult parts, ballista parts and ballista arrows, and requires a dwarf with the siege engineer labor enabled. One log is consumed to make either siege engine part or one ballista arrow.

Stone Furniture

see also: Stone industry

Stone furniture is heavy and durable when compared to wood, can be used to make most items of furniture, and vast quantities of rough stone are made available by mining on most maps, making it the staple furniture material of most dwarf fortresses. It is not as versatile as metal or glass, but it also consumes no fuel to make an item of furniture.

Some stones, notably graphite, are quite combustible and any furniture made from such materials should not be located near magma, fire snakes, fire imps, dragons, or any other source of fire. Other stones are designated as magma-safe, and furniture made from such materials will be fire-safe as well.

Particularly valuable economic stones are designated as prohibited for general use by masons and the like for making stone furniture or crafts, being reserved for the furnaces. In some cases, however, it might be desirable or necessary to make furniture from economic stone. A noble might demand a native silver table for their room, or other magma-safe materials being exhausted a bauxite floodgate might be necessary to control the magma flow. Native gold is a peculiar case where the ore has the same material value as gold metal, and making furniture directly from native gold can save both time and fuel (though at a 25% reduction in total value). Whatever the case, if you do desire to make use of economic stone in furniture, you must do so from the z-Status: Stone menu.

It is recommended that you create one or more stone stockpiles near your workshops to minimize the distance between the two; a dwarf will typically grab the rough stone nearest the workshop when fulfilling a job to craft stone furniture (without the benefit of wheelbarrows). You can also link a specific stone stockpile to a workshop to ensure your dwarf grabs stone from that stockpile and prevent other dwarfs from using it.

Mason's Workshop

The mason's workshop is used to make most stone furniture, and requires a dwarf with the masonry labor enabled. One unit of rough stone is consumed in making each item of stone furniture. The following furniture can be made at a mason's workshop: armor stand, bin, cabinet, chair, chest, coffin, door, floodgate, grate, hatch cover, millstone, quern, statue, table, weapon rack, slab.

Mechanic's Workshop

The mechanic's workshop is used to make mechanisms and traction benches, and requires a dwarf with the mechanic labor enabled. One unit of rough stone is consumed in making each mechanism. Mechanisms that are going to be used in magma floodgates or the like should be made from magma-safe materials.

Metal Furniture

see also: Metal industry

Metal furniture is even more durable than stone, and can be used to make a wider variety of furniture. Crafting metal furniture requires not only bars of metal but fuel for the forge or access to magma. Metal furniture made from adamantine, platinum, aluminum, gold, and steel are the most valuable in the game, based solely on material multiplier (quality modifiers and decorations will vary). Barrels made from metal, even low-value metals like nickel or lead, are significantly more effective at keeping vermin from gnawing at food supplies.

Metals with low melting points like copper and its alloys are not magma-safe and should not be used to make furniture that will contact magma.

Unlike with wood or stone, you may specify the precise type of metal used to make an item of metal furniture, which removes the necessity of creating specific stockpiles and burrows. It may still be a good idea to adjust the workshop profile to restrict certain workshops and their associated tasks to your most experienced blacksmiths, and schedule practice with low-value metals before attempting to create high-value furniture. Also, a blacksmith with a preference for a particular metal or type of furniture will produce higher-quality results when working with that metal or creating that type of furniture.

Metalsmith's Forge

The metalsmith's forge and magma forge are used to make all metal furniture, and requires a dwarf with the blacksmith labor enabled. Three bars of the specified metal is consumed in making most items of metal furniture; a metalsmith's forge will also consume one unit of fuel per job. The following furniture can be made from any metal at a forge: armor stand, barrel, bin, bucket, cabinet, chest, door, floodgate, grate, hatch cover, sarcophagus, statue, table, throne, weapon rack.

Copper, silver, bronze, bismuth bronze, iron, steel, and adamantine may be made into mechanisms; this option is under the "Trap Components" option.

Iron, steel, and adamantine may be made into anvils; this option is under the "Other Objects" option.

Despite being listed under furniture at the forge, chains, animal traps, cages, pipe sections, splints, crutches, and blocks are not furniture. They do not require the blacksmith labor to create, and they do not go into the furniture stockpile once created.

Glass Furniture

see also: Glass industry

Glass furniture is comparable to stone furniture in most respects, but has a higher material multiplier than ordinary stone (economic stone is another matter entirely). Making glass furniture requires not only sand, but access to fuel or magma. However, a magma glass furnace and a sand layer can produce an infinite amount of green glass furniture without consuming any materials whatsoever.

Glass is not currently considered magma-safe and glass furniture should not be placed in contact with magma.

Glass Furnace

The glass furnace and magma glass furnace are used to make all glass furniture, and requires a dwarf with the glassmaker labor enabled. One unit of the specified raw glass (green, clear, or crystal) is consumed in making each item of glass furniture; a glass furnace will also consume one unit of fuel per job. The following furniture can be made from any glass at a furnace: armor stand, barrel, bin, box, bucket, cabinet, coffin, floodgate, grate, hatch cover, portal, statue, table, throne, weapon rack, window.

Cloth Furniture

see also: Textile industry

Cloth bags are counted as furniture and will be normally be deposited in the furniture stockpile, unless they are used as containers for seeds, flour and the like. Giant cave spider silk cloth is the most valuable in the game, and it may be wise to designate a special stockpile and workshop for working with it, restricted to your most highly skilled clothesmaker to ensure a higher quality modifier.

Clothier's Shop

The clothier's shop is used to make cloth bags, and requires a dwarf with the clothesmaking labor enabled. One unit of the specified cloth (silk, yarn or plant) will be consumed in making each bag.

Leather Furniture

see also: Meat industry

Leather bags are counted as furniture and will be normally be deposited in the furniture stockpile, unless they are used as containers for seeds, flour and the like. You cannot designate the specific type of leather used to make a bag, and leather from rare and dangerous creatures can be particularly valuable, so it may be wise to designate a special stockpile and workshop for working with it, restricted to your most highly skilled leatherworker to ensure a higher quality modifier.

Giant cave spiders and giant desert scorpions give chitin instead of leather, and it cannot be made into bags.

Dragon and fire imp leather appear to be magma-safe, and any bags made from them should be magma-safe as well. This can be a bad thing if such an object gets stuck in, say, a floodgate that is letting a torrent of magma through.

Leather Works

The leather works is used to make leather bags, and requires a dwarf with the leatherworking labor enabled. One unit of the leather will be consumed in making each bag.

Decorating Furniture

Furniture can be decorated by many different materials so as to improve its value, record the history of the fortress, and give dwarves happy thoughts from looking at them. Furniture will only be decorated if it is in a stockpile, not while it is currently in use. To ensure a given piece of furniture gets decorated, designate a special stockpile for the furniture near the workshop and link it to the workshop (make sure the dwarf can still access the raw materials for the decoration by linking that stockpile as well).

Buying and Selling Furniture

Furniture is generally heavy and will diminish how much you can trade with the caravans when they arrive; well-crafted and decorated furniture made from valuable materials will get you more bang for your dwarfbuck. Trading in booze, leather, cloth, flour, and the like usually results in a certain amount of exchange in barrels, bags, and bins. Beware trading elves any piece of furniture derived from wood, as this may start a war. Dwarven and human caravans will occasionally carry anvils.

Industry Overview

Wood industry	Metal industry	Stone industry	Glass industry
÷ π ÷ X ÷ ╤ X û Wood Furniture	π π Ω Ω Ω ╤ ╤ Ω Metal Furniture	π π Ω Ω Ω ╤ ╤ ╤ Stone Furniture	π π Ω Ω Ω ╤ ╤ ╤ Glass Furniture		╤ Ω Ω Ω π π Ω ╤ Decorated Furniture
					decorate
		build rooms and buildings	sell to traders
Barrels, Bins Store food, drinks and items	Buckets Used to carry liquid	Construction industry	Export industry

V · T · E Buildings
Workshops • Furnaces
Furniture	Animal trap • Anvil • Armor stand • Bed • Blocks • Box (chest • coffer) • Bucket • Cabinet • Cage (aquarium • terrarium) • Coffin (casket • sarcophagus) • Restraint • Slab • Statue • Table • Throne (chair) • Weapon rack
Tools	Altar • Bookcase • Display (display case • pedestal) • Hive • Nest box
Access	Bars • Bridge • Door (portal) • Floodgate • Grate • Hatch • Road • Window
Constructions	Floor • Fortification • Ramp • Stairs • Wall
Machine and trap parts	Axle • Gear assembly • Lever • Mechanism • Millstone • Pipe section • Pressure plate • Roller • Screw pump • Support • Trap • Water wheel • Windmill
Other buildings	Archery target • Vermin catcher's shop • Siege engine • Trade depot • Wagon • Well
Related articles	Design strategies • Bedroom design • Furniture industry

V · T · E Industries
Primary	Beekeeping · Farming · Fishing · Gathering · Meat · Poultry · Stone · Wood
Secondary	Alcohol · Armor · Arms · Ceramic · Extract · Finished goods · Fuel · Furniture · Gem · Glass · Metal · Paper · Soap · Textile
Tertiary	Military · Health care · Noble · Trade · Tavern
Quaternary	Library · Temple