What Style of Office Furniture Is Best for Your Small Business?

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We all spend at least 8 hours per day in the office. That’s 40 hours per week, 160 per month… you know the drill. And since we spend all this time at work, we should do everything we can to set up the office as the most pleasing work environment possible. That’s why you should think long and hard about the type of office furniture you want.

Think about how your office is set up

Before you make any choice about office furniture, you should take stock of your workplace. How big it is, where it is located, and what kind of feeling do you want to create at your workplace? Before you start setting up proper furniture, you need to know what your limitations are. So, how big is your budget? Can you really afford that fancy futon? How about affording that and the movers bringing all your stuff to the 15^th floor?

Getting the stuff can be an issue as well. Can your furniture move through your door, or do you have to disassemble everything? Can you even disassemble any of the furniture? If not, congratulations, you just bought something you can’t use without destroying your door frame.

Next, think about whether you need an open office, mobile, cubicle or private office furniture. All these types essentially depend on the type of work and management style you want to nurture.

Privacy vs Collaboration

Do you need constant privacy due to confidentiality (or any other) reasons? Does your line of work necessitate one on one meetings with every client? While this type of setup gives you lots of privacy and room to focus, it doesn’t really facilitate co-worker communication. Employers won’t be able to manage and oversee employees which, while being a hassle most of the time, is sometimes still necessary. Then you will need an office set up in multiple completely separate rooms. That also means that you won’t need cubicle walls or things of that nature, but you will need proper desks, bookshelves, and comfy chairs. This also means that you won’t be that efficient with the space in your office, but each employee will have the most room. That means extra-large and comfortable chairs and big fancy desks. You can get proper office furniture in Sydney for a good price if you just look hard enough, no need to spend a fortune.

On the other hand, if you work in a creative field where collaboration is necessary, like graphic design or video game development, an open office setup is a pretty good choice. Here, getting smallish desks with low walls (or no walls at all) is an excellent choice. In this way, people can always talk to each other and easily go back and forth with some ideas. This means desks that are a bit cheaper and easier to install. The chairs should be smaller. Know that the lighting set up in this place is very important, but you will also, luckily, have more flexibility with setting it up when compared to the private office system. However, you will need to also find some desks or trays that allow your employees to draw better if stick to the graphic design example. In any case, specialized equipment is out of the scope of this article.

Something in between these two is the cubicle setup. While hated and made fun of in pop culture, cubicles have a bad rap. They give you just enough privacy to let you focus on your work, while at the same time giving you room to collaborate and talk with your coworkers. A cubicle is, essentially, a happy medium. However, try to think about how tall you want the cubicle walls to be. The height influences how much privacy they are going to get, but can also cause them to feel almost claustrophobic.

Mobile vs Fixed

This is somewhat of a strange section but bear with us. Some companies function the best without actually getting a proper workspace. Instead, they simply lease a small office that they use for meetings and conferences. People whose work can be done from home don’t generally need an office. This is just an extra unneeded expense. Because of this, getting furniture that is mobile, that is small, and on wheels, is a great idea. You can keep these in a storage unit and just prepare them when you need to rent an office for a meeting.

Conclusion

We hope this article has been informative. Know that this is the most fundamental part of setting up your office, but that there are other things to think about as well. The colors, the windows, the natural lighting, the tech needed. A proper office needs to facilitate optimal employee motivation and productivity. In other words, gets the people to work hard, and be happy and motivated to do so.

About the Author

Chloe Smith is a design enthusiast and a part-time writer always willing to share tidbits of advice. She believes that passion, courage, and, above all, knowledge breed success. When she’s not working, she’s probably somewhere cuddled up with a good book and a cup of lemongrass tea (or more honestly binge-watching the newest Netflix hit show).

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