LibGuides: Interior Design Materials and Technology: Materials & Surface Finishes

Materials & Surface Finishes

Subscription & electronic resources (ebooks and databases) require current FIT username and password for access.

Visit the Materials Resource Lab, 6th floor of the Gladys Marcus Library | Goodman Resource Center (enter via the 5th floor)

Materials Resource Lab
The open collection includes physical samples of interior design materials that include soft materials (e.g. upholstery textiles and vinyl wall coverings) and hard materials (e.g. wood finishes and stone tiles).
Interior Building Materials - Books
Interior Building Materials - Keyword Search - MultiSearch - OneSearch - Books
Textile Fabrics and Interior Decoration - Books

Image from Material ConneXion 2.26.2018 blog
5 Materials You Need to Know About Now: February

Materials & Surface Finishes (Books)

Materials for Interior Environments

Paint and Color in Decoration

The Cutting Edge of Wallpaper (History)

Touch Wood : material, architecture, future

Textiles for Residential and Commercial Interiors 5th Ed.

Jan Christiaan Sepp. the Book of Marble : a representation of marble types, 1776

The Style Sourcebook: the Definitive Illustrated Directory of Fabrics, Wallpapers, Paints, Flooring, Tiles

Paint Box : 45 palettes for choosing color, texture and pattern

20th Century Pattern Design : textile & wallpaper pioneers

Find Materials, Resources and Images (FIT Databases)

Artstor on JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Digital library of art images from museums and other institutions.

Registration for an individual account is required for some features.
Fashion Snoops This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Trend reports & forecasting for fashion.
Users are required to create a MY FS account
Use Mozilla/Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari
Material Connexion This link opens in a new window
A material database with access to innovative, sustainable materials and technologies from 75+ industries.

New users may set up an account by clicking on “Log In” at the upper right corner and following the prompts.

Faculty may book class tours to visit Material Connexion. Appointments are required. Please contact Lana Bittman - lana_bittman[at]fitnyc.edu for details.
Vogue Archive This link opens in a new window
Contains every issue of Vogue from 1892 to present. Each issue can be browsed cover-to-cover in searchable full-text format. Each page and image is reproduced in high-resolution color with indexing, enabling images to be searched by garment type, designer, and brand names, among others. All covers, advertisements, fold outs and pictorial features are captured as separate documents,which are also indexed, searchable, and viewable in high-resolution color.
WGSN Interiors This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Trend reports & forecasting for lifestyles and interiors.
Students must create an account and re-activate their account every 90 days: click to create or re-activate account
Locked out of your account for too many incorrect login attempts? Reset your password here.
To access WGSN Lifestyle & Interiors:
- login via the proxy and then with your WGSN username and password select the part of the site you wish to use from the top menu
Use an incognito browser to access this resource

Material Sample Resources

Material Bank
Resource for samples from leading brands. Products - Brands - Inspiration - Workspace Register for free.
Material ConneXion
A material database with access to innovative, sustainable materials and technologies from 75+ industries.
Spec Simple
Resource for samples: Materials, Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment (FF&E) and CSI. Explore Inspiration Types:
Innovation, Introducing (New Products), Sustainability, Palettes, Trends
Students must sign-in with their personal account assigned by the Interior Design Department.
Decoration & Design Building (DDB)
The DDB is home to over 100 luxury showrooms and 750+ product lines and offers an unparalleled line - up of residential and commercial products.
Students: Stop by the Marketing office on the Concourse Level upon arrival to receive a list of Student-Friendly showrooms. This office also has samples of discontinued textiles from the showrooms which students are welcome to take. No appointment is necessary, just drop in any time.
Location: 979 Third Avenue, Concourse Level, New York, NY 10022

Fabric Science -- Textiles for Interiors

News and Resources (online) - Materials

Material ConneXion (MCX) Insights
See News updates about NEW materials
Mindful Materials Library
Search for building products, components, materials and systems. Sign up for a free account to see full library.
Core77
Innovations in Materials

Texture Image Sources

Textures.com
Textures.com is a website that offers digital pictures of fabrics, wood, metal, bricks, plastic, and much more. These images are called textures and can be used for graphic design, visual effects, in computer games and any other situation where you need a nice pattern or background image. You can download up to 15 images for free every day with account creation.
Pixabay
100% Creative Commons Zero, free to download images for manipulation. Includes photography, vector graphics, and video. Use advanced search to limit by texture / background.
A Library of 100 Downloadable Photoshop Textures - ArchDaily
ArchDaily article with Materials and Texture images from Flickr.