Some of the Basic tips to Set up Furniture for Open Office Space

Some of the Basic tips to Set up Furniture for Open Office Space:

The layout and furnishings have a large role in the overall office design. After all, it contributes to an engaging company culture that is essential in every office space to encourage employee productivity.

It is a well-known fact that people spend most of their waking hours in the workspace, more than at their homes. It is therefore important that the workspace is filled with positivity and inspiration. This does not necessarily come at a high cost, there are simple ways to incorporate ideas in an economic and quick manner.

Open office layouts have been around for decades, and they’ve only grown in popularity over the years. This approach breaks down the walls, emphasizing an open space with large, shared tables to encourage communication. In addition to helping save space and money, open office layouts are easier to design with better space efficiency.

To promote teamwork and ease of effective communication, open space office designs are crucial. It can involve planning the area for both casual and formal sitting. The furniture in the open space also makes it simple to expand or shrink the space as needed. As a result, the available space and budget will be effectively used.

If the organization’s structure and culture do not support employee or client convenience, meeting the business goals while keeping the employees happy can become challenging. So, it is essential and can be beneficial to incorporate these ideas shared below. These will help stay within budget when buying items from furniture shops and help create the best layout for your corporate space.

What Is an Open Office Layout?

Open office concepts are common in creative and tech companies that rely on face-to-face teamwork in fast-paced environments. They’re also popular with small businesses that need to make the most of every square foot. The classic cubicle design for many has been swapped with a shared work environment.

Open office designs work well for accommodating a hybrid workforce, which is quickly becoming the new norm for office workers as offices reopen after COVID-19 lockdowns. Open workspaces allow employees to find a spot when they’re in the office environment without leaving an empty cubicle or private office on days that they’re working from home.

Instead of individual workstations, most open office layouts use large tables with chairs along either side, so multiple employees can use and share the space. These tables may feature low partitions and even some higher desk partitions to help employees focus, but it’s more common to see tables without partitions. Alternatively, you might line up desks side-by-side.

How to Organize Furniture in Open Office Spaces

Determine Traffic Flow

Never set up the furniture in a way that people find it challenging to move throughout the space. It will create frustration. Also, it will reduce the employee’s interest in working in such a congested space.

When creating an open corporate space, consider measuring the walkways, don’t place the furniture items across the entire space. Keep the furnishing minimal, fulfilling the design and seating needs. Besides, make sure the file cabinets are placed near the desks. It will assure open walkways and space created for easy movements.

Assess Your Space Requirements

The type of work your employees do will determine how much space you need for your open floor plan. For example, you may just need workspaces, or you might require a photo studio area, private call zones, and more. Consider how your teams work and what their needs are to make it easier to estimate how much space you’ll require.

You’ll want to include conference rooms, lounge areas, and any other rooms you’ll need in your estimations. Many small businesses use a conference room as a multipurpose space, perfect for team huddles and more.

Address Noise Control, Privacy, and Security

To address the drawbacks of an open office layout, you’ll want to tackle noise control, privacy, and security.

We mentioned partitions earlier, and these can help employees focus. For example, you might have some tables with no dividers, some with low partitions, and some with high partitions, allowing employees to choose what’s best for them.

Creating private spaces that employees can retreat to also helps. Employees might use these quiet spaces in the office as a spot for phone calls, working on important projects, or just some relaxation time to maintain their well-being. Some offices include privacy pods, sofas, and a few individual desks to give employees variety.

Lockers and locking drawers can help solve storage issues employees experience. And if employees find that they need more, wellness-focused company culture with the option to speak with human resources about extra accommodations should cover your bases.

Colorful and Cheerful

Office furniture should have some bright and cheerful color schemes which are uplifting and inspirational. A word of caution here is about not going overboard with too many bright colors, which can have the reverse effect by actually disturbing workers. Some colors absorb and reflect hues which can cause headaches and distraction. There should be the right balance between cool and calm colors, with some excitement created by smaller patches of accents in brighter shades. Infiniti has projects with such balanced color schemes with cool greys and whites accented by lime greens or reds.

Stay Flexible

If you experience pushback from managers or staff who feel your design is too open or cavernous, don’t immediately solve the issue by adding static and costly walls. Instead, try solving the problems in a flexible way that delivers separation without losing the essence of the open space.

Explore options like movable whiteboards or attractive, sound-dampening fabric panels to create private areas. Or insert double-duty office furniture, like tall file cabinets that create demi-walls and provide added storage.

Above all, be sure that your plan solves the key problems inherent in an open office environment namely noise, privacy, and security.

Breakaway Spaces for Easy Collaboration

A change in overall appeal can encourage innovative thinking and brainstorming of unique ideas. The best strategy of all comes from the informal breakaway of the area. Make the space more comfortable and less professional assuring the perfect seating. Arranging small tables and chairs with soft seating can make people have informal breaks and relaxation. Plus, the furniture of bright colors can be great to light up the dull routine of the staff. Alternatively, armchairs are a great option to meet the needs of functionality and comfort altogether.

Design Collaborative Spaces

Team collaborations are essential for business productivity, innovation, and building teamwork principles. Hence, there must be a collaborative space besides the everyday work area. You can add some reception sofas for better relaxation and collaboration. Also, install some upholstery chairs and bench desks, leaving some space for easy movements and having debates or presentations while relaxing.

Furnish Focus Office Areas

Selecting an office corner away from the communal area is great. Such quiet spaces can be used by the employees to make important personal calls, relax for some time, or work on vital projects. But what will make it comfortable is the placing and setting up of the right chair and desk. Additionally, the office areas can include sofas, pods, and individual desks. Thus, what is of utmost importance is its proper placement.

Decide on the Workstation Type

Think of how you want your office settings to be functional. Are you looking to provide each employee with a separate desk? It would be great to add functionality, comfort, and styling to the space. Thus, making the overall open space a flexible look.

In case you want a shareable space, it means shared desks need to be installed. Thus, ensuring regular communication among the staff. This is also great for easy communication. Hence, pick something well-designed, structured, and elegant for multiple chairs.

Utilize the Wall Area Properly

Following this tip can be challenging for the open-office space with small sizes. However, there is still a way for better space usage. Try moving the furniture against the office walls. It will ensure the space to organize guest chairs. Also, the right amount of wall space will make the office look bigger and less cluttered.

Count on Flexible Furniture

The traditional office needs to respond to advancements and switch to the modern workplace. How? Firstly, buy flexible furnishing items like mobile tables and folding tablelands. These will be easy to arrange, fold, and relocate as required. Thus, assuring the maximum support to the open-office space with varying demands.

The same furniture pieces can be arranged in the training area, conference halls, or around the work desks. Besides, these are the necessary pieces for the co-working offices that are trending these days.

Office Desk Realignment

Continuing with one office design for years won’t contribute to productivity after some specific time. Change is vital. While open office space is a trending design, proper furniture setup is what adds up to the overall layout.

Think of where to position the office desk within the meeting hall or conference room. Simply relocating the desk to a new place can add to aesthetics and motivate the staff to stay productive. In case you feel the office, desks are almost jammed into the corners, pull them into the middle of the space. Make the desk face towards the windows so employees have access and can leverage the natural light. Thus, helping them keep up with their well-being.

Offer Standing Desks

An open office provides adaptability and scalability that you can take advantage of to improve employee retention and satisfaction. One way to do this is with furniture that’s as flexible as your office layout. For example, adjustable standing desks fit the bill since most can raise from sitting to standing height, allowing the employee to switch between the two as needed.

Double-standing desks make it easy to create clusters for employees who’d like the option to switch between sitting and standing. In addition to adding standing desks to the main area of your open office, you might also provide them in quiet spaces for those who need help focusing.

The benefits of a good standing desk include improved performance, better moods, more movement, and a lower risk for chronic pain conditions. Standing desks have also been shown to boost workplace productivity by up to 46%!

Consider Visual Balance

Keep the office space visuals and furnishing balanced. It means do not place the decor items in one corner and leave the other half of the space empty with a blank wall and no furniture pieces at all. After all, decor and furniture placement go hand in hand to obtain visual balance. For example, you can have the bookcases placed at the space’s one end. On the other hand, you can hang the art piece on the opposite wall.

Add Plants and Natural Light

Open office layouts don’t have cubicles and walls blocking out the natural light from windows. This allows for brighter office space, improving mood, energy, and productivity for your employees. If you don’t have the option for natural light, try using warm, bright lighting throughout the office.

Another advantage of an open office layout is higher interior design visibility. This can allow all employees to reap the benefits of indoor plants, which may increase worker productivity. You can start by adding easy-care options (e.g., snake plants and spider plants) throughout the office.

Large planters and plants can also serve as sound barriers between spaces, helping to section off areas within an open office layout. This approach can be helpful in quiet spaces, conference rooms, and private offices.

Alternative Office Designs

If you decide that an open office layout isn’t suitable for your business, a cluster or hybrid layout might be better.

A cluster layout adds more privacy while allowing you to group employees together. It typically uses quad desks to seat teams together for easier teamwork.

On the other hand, a hybrid design can include a little bit of everything. For example, you might add some open space desks as well as cubicles, clusters, and even private offices.

Conclusion

An open office concept is excellent to save money and get a flexible workplace, whether you are moving into a new office or simply upgrading the old space. Additionally, you can well utilize the space, encourage teamwork and improve communication and collaboration between the staff. All you need is to simply follow these basic tips and build an inspiring workspace that enhances workforce productivity.

All the best!!

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