Glossary
Interior Designer Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential interior designer terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key interior designer vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in interior designer training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- ADA
- Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
- BIM
- Building information modeling.
- Egress
- Exit paths required by code.
- Elevation
- A side view drawing.
- FF&E
- Furniture, fixtures and equipment.
- Finish schedule
- A list of materials by room.
- Floor plan
- A top-down drawing of a space.
- Lighting plan
- Placement of lights.
- Mood board
- A collage of design ideas.
- NCIDQ
- National Council for Interior Design Qualification.
- Punch list
- Final items to complete.
- Rendering
- A realistic image of a design.
- Scale
- Proportion in drawings.
- Space planning
- Arranging furniture and areas.
- Specification
- Detailed product requirements.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Interior Designer practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Interior Designer training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.