Persian Home & Furniture: Room by Room

The first time I visited my grandmother's house in Tehran as a kid, I didn't sit at a table for dinner. There was no table. Instead, my aunt rolled out a plastic sheet on the floor. the سفره (sofreh). and within minutes it was covered in rice, stew, bread, and more plates than the floor could hold. After eating, I tried to leave. That goodbye took thirty minutes. My mom was already putting her shoes back on when someone brought out tea. Shoes came off again. Another forty-five minutes. If you want to talk about an Iranian home, you need more than persian home vocabulary from a textbook word list. You need to understand what the rooms actually mean. because an Iranian kitchen isn't just where you cook, and the living room floor is where life happens.

This post gives you 55+ Farsi house words, room by room, with the spoken forms your textbook skips. I'll also explain the stuff that confused me even as a native kid. like why there's a korsi in the living room and why dastshui and hamâm are not the same room.

Rooms of the House

Let's start with the rooms themselves. Here are the 10 you'll hear most:

اتاق. otâgh. room آشپزخانه. âshpaz-khâne. kitchen (literally: "cook-house") حمام. hamâm. bathroom (for bathing/showering) توالت. tavâlet. toilet (separate room in most Iranian homes) اتاق خواب. otâgh-e khâb. bedroom (literally: "room of sleep") هال / پذیرایی. hâl / pazirâyi. living room / reception room بالکن. bâlkon. balcony راهرو. râhro. hallway زیرزمین. zir-zamin. basement پشت بام. pushte-bâm. rooftop

A few things that trip up learners: the toilet and bathroom are usually separate rooms in Iranian homes. حمام (hamâm) is where you shower. توالت (tavâlet) is the toilet. often a squat toilet in older homes. And دستشویی (dastshui) literally means "hand-washing" but in spoken Farsi it's become a polite way to say "toilet". the way English speakers say "restroom" when nobody's resting.

The زیرزمین (zir-zamin, literally "under the ground") deserves a mention. In many Iranian homes. especially older houses. the basement isn't storage. It's a cool, tiled social space where the family hangs out during the brutal summer heat. Some families basically live down there from June to September.

Kitchen Vocabulary

The آشپزخانه (âshpaz-khâne) is the engine of any Iranian home. If you've read our Persian food vocabulary guide, you already know the ingredients. Now here's what you cook them with:

یخچال. yakhchâl. refrigerator (literally: "ice pit". a word borrowed from the ancient desert ice houses) گاز. gâz. stove/gas cooker قابلمه. ghâblameh. pot قاشق. qâshogh. spoon چنگال. changâl. fork کارد. kârd. knife بشقاب. boshghâb. plate لیوان. livân. glass (drinking glass) قوری. ghuri. teapot کتری. ketri. kettle ظرفشویی. zarfshui. sink / dishwashing area سینک. sink. sink (yes, it's the English word, used in spoken Farsi) مایکروویو. mâykroveiv. microwave مخلوط‌کن. makhlut-kon. blender فر. fer. oven

The قوری (ghuri) and کتری (ketri) are not optional in an Iranian kitchen. The kettle boils water, the teapot brews the tea, and together they sit on the stove all day long. Tea is not a beverage in Iran. it's the background music of every conversation.

Living Room: The Sofreh vs the Table

The Iranian هال (hâl) is the center of home life. Here's what you'll find in one:

مبل. mobl. sofa / couch (from French "meuble") فرش. farsh. carpet/rug (Persian rugs. you've heard of them) تلویزیون. telvizion. television سفره. sofreh. floor spread / dining cloth میز. miz. table صندلی. sandali. chair کاناپه. kânapeh. couch (another French loan) پشتی. poshti. floor cushion / backrest

The distinction between سفره (sofreh) and میز (miz) is cultural, not just linguistic. Many Iranian families. especially older generations. eat on the floor. The sofreh is a cloth (plastic or fabric) spread on the carpet at mealtimes. Food goes on it, everyone sits around it cross-legged, and after the meal it gets folded up. Younger families in Tehran apartments often use a miz (table) now, but the sofreh is still alive, especially during holidays and family gatherings.

The پشتی (poshti) is a large cushion you lean against when sitting on the floor. You won't find this word in most Farsi textbooks, but you'll find one in most Iranian living rooms.

Bedroom & Bathroom

تخت خواب. takht-e khâb. bed (literally: "platform of sleep") بالش. bâlesh. pillow پتو. patu. blanket ملافه. malâfeh. bedsheet حوله. hule. towel صابون. sâbun. soap شامپو. shâmpu. shampoo آینه. âyeneh. mirror دستشویی. dastshui. restroom / sink area کمد. komod. wardrobe / closet چراغ. cherâgh. lamp / light پرده. pardeh. curtain

One note on پتو (patu) vs لحاف (lehâf): a patu is a regular blanket. A lehâf is a thick, traditional quilt. the kind your grandmother keeps in a stack in the closet and pulls out when guests sleep over. In modern Tehran apartments, patu is what you'll hear most.

The Iranian Home: Korsi, Balcony, and the Rooftop

Some features of Iranian homes don't translate well because they don't exist in Western houses.

کرسی. korsi. heated table (a low table with a heater underneath, covered by a blanket) بخاری. bokhâri. heater / radiator کولر. kuler. evaporative cooler (the rooftop box, not AC) پشت بام. pushte-bâm. rooftop حیاط. hayât. yard / courtyard در. dar. door پنجره. panjereh. window پله. pelleh. stairs / step

The کرسی (korsi) is something I have to explain to every non-Iranian friend. It's a low wooden table. maybe knee-height. with an electric heater (or traditionally, hot coals) underneath. A large blanket or quilt (lehâf) is draped over it, hanging down on all sides. You sit on the floor, slide your legs under the blanket, and the heat from below keeps you warm. In winter, the korsi becomes the center of the house. People eat there, do homework there, nap there. My grandmother's korsi was basically a second living room.

The پشت بام (pushte-bâm). the rooftop. is not dead space in Iran. Families sleep up there on hot summer nights. The کولر (kuler) sits on the roof too. it's an evaporative cooler (not an air conditioner) that blows wet air into the house through ducts. If you've been to Iran in summer, you know the sound.

The بالکن (bâlkon) in Iranian apartment culture is half storage, half garden. You'll find drying laundry, potted herbs, a spare yakhchâl (fridge), and sometimes a small sitting area. The rituals of arriving and leaving an Iranian home often play out on the balcony too. your host waves goodbye from there while you wave back from the street, sometimes for several minutes.

House Verbs: Clean, Cook, Fix, Move

Knowing the nouns is half the job. Here are the verbs that bring a house to life:

تمیز کردن. tamiz kardan. to clean جارو زدن. jâru zadan. to sweep (literally: "to hit with a broom") آشپزی کردن. âshpazi kardan. to cook تعمیر کردن. ta'mir kardan. to fix / repair اسباب‌کشی کردن. asbâb-keshi kardan. to move (house). literally: "to pull belongings" شستن. shostan. to wash خشک کردن. khoshk kardan. to dry اتو کردن. otu kardan. to iron

The verb اسباب‌کشی کردن (asbâb-keshi kardan) is one of my favorites. It literally means "to pull/drag your stuff". which, if you've ever moved apartments in Tehran traffic, is exactly what it feels like. There's no gentle English equivalent. You don't "relocate" in Persian. You drag your life across town.

Quick Reference Table

Want to practice these words with spaced repetition? The ZabanYar app has vocabulary sets built around real categories like these. not random word lists.

FAQ

If you want to practice these words with someone who'll correct your pronunciation in real time. not just flash cards. I'm on Preply. We can do a whole session just on describing your house in Farsi. It's a good way to make vocabulary stick. because you'll actually care about the words when they describe your own kitchen, your own bedroom, your own mess.

Get it wrong and the worst that happens is a warm laugh and a story they’ll tell for years. Get it right — refuse the tea twice, accept on the third — and you’ll watch a face open up. You didn’t just speak Persian. You played the game.