When considering your office design it is worth planning ahead; after all you don’t want to have to redesign everything just a few months later because of an increase in staff headcount. Allowing for flexibility within your workplace design, particularly through including alternative workspace environments (such as breakout, hotdesk and touchdown areas), means that should you have a requirement for additional fixed desking in the future, you could replace some of the flexible spaces with desking. We often include maximum density space plans in our projects, and although these are rarely actually implemented (as they are literally at the limit of what can be safely and legally accommodated), they are very useful as they show what the absolute capacity of your office space is, allowing you to plan for the future. For example if you know that your office could hold a maximum of 120 staff, and you have 100 currently, then you know that you could potentially fit in an extra 20, but no more. Therefore if you are predicting a headcount increase of 40 staff in the next 2 years, it would be worth looking at additional office space, or implementing a desk share, hotelling or home working policy.

If you would like us to advise how to make the most of your office space, just give us a call.

Office chairs are often overlooked when considering the ideal office design, but they are actually a very important tool to the office worker. Every day there are many thousands of people across Britain that are away from work due to bad backs, and often these problems are due to poor office chairs. Many staff remain seated for hours at a time in inadequate office chairs and this leads to poor posture, and eventually back pain. The first way to alleviate this problem is to ensure that staff are aware that they should get up and move around every hour. It is possible to promote this via office space planning by having office storage that is not right next to each member of staff. If you are having to get up and go to a central storage area to collect and replace files, then without realising it, you are exercising your back, and preventing strain. Centralised storage is also sensible to allow you to get the best out of your space planning as it allows you to group staff together, and storage together giving a much more efficient layout.

There are many hundreds of different types of office chair, so how do you know which one is the best for your staff? Basically there is no one chair that will be perfect for everyone has different requirements and body shapes, but as a general rule the more adjustable the chair is, the more likely you are to find a setting that suits the user. As a minimum the office chair needs to be height adjustable, and intensive users would ideally have some level of seat pan tilt and lumbar support. It is actually the responsibility of employers to ensure that all users of PCs have adequate office furniture for their job role (a DSE assessment- Display Screen Equipment), and we are able to send our staff to carry out these risk assessments at your office, and to make recommendations as to the most suitable furniture and office chairs for your staff. Call us to discuss how we can help.

The size and shape of the office desk plays a major part in the final office design. Obviously, the larger the desk, the fewer you can fit in, but also the shape can play a big role is the layout too. The most common office desk type in the UK is still the “L-shaped” desk, also known as a corner (or sometimes crescent) desk. This desk type has a deep corner section, which is designed to house a large CRT monitor. However, the majority of monitors are now flat screens, and so this space is in effect redundant. The large return of the L-shaped desk means that you need to space them further apart in order to allow for adequate access between desks. This is especially important due to the DDA regulations (Disability Discrimination Act), which state that the office should be planned in such a way that it is useable by wheelchair users and the less able bodied. It therefore makes sense when planning an office layout to consider the type of office desk and go for something that allows for adequate surface space, but doesn’t require a huge amount of space between desks. A solution here would be a wave type desk, which has a slightly deeper end at one side, which is usually 200mm deeper than the rest of the desk top (compared with 800mm deeper for most L-shaped desks). In fact due to the ever shrinking size of desktop PCs, many companies are even going for rectangular (straight) desks, or even flexible bench type desking. These can further help to improve your office design by being very space efficient, whilst still useable. There are many other types of office desks available too, such as the double wave, the 120 degree desk, and the call centre pod, so if you would like advice as to what would work best in your office, just give us a call, or drop us an email (see contact page for details).

We are often asked what materials are best to use in a modern office for flooring. This is an area where you can introduce a bold colour or design, and even use different colours to indicate different zones, or fire routes. Traditional carpets on a roll are not really ideal, as they can be tricky to repair (wear and tear and coffee damage happens far quicker in an office environment than it would in a domestic one due to the increased traffic). However carpet tiles are a good solution as they allow the user to replace single tiles at a time. If the carpet is made with a thick pile, then it is often hard to see any joins and the finish is similar to that of a roll, but without the drawbacks.  Carpet tiles can also be useful when used with a raised floor as they can allow easy access to the wiring below the floor, and are usually supplied at the same size as the raised floor grid tiles (600×600mm). For areas such as coffee points where a carpet could quickly become stained a vinyl floor-covering works well. You can get a realistic wood effect vinyl that is actually laid in strips (like wooden planks) which allows for access under the floor should it be needed, and has several advantages over traditional wood, or laminate flooring products. One of the key advantages here is that the vinyl is quiet when walked upon; this may not seem a big deal, but many offices that were refurbished in the late 1990s with laminate floors soon found that the constant sound of heels on the wooden floor became a real problem.  Vinyl is also very hardwearing and water resistant and so is a good choice for offices looking for a modern appearance. There are even companies that produce vinyl floor tiles that look like steel flooring for an industrial effect, or you can even get tiles with  holograms set within them for a futuristic feeling.

For advice on office interior design, give us a call and we can discuss how we can bring your space up to date.

Office furniture has changed significantly over recent years; whereas a simple desk was sufficient in the pre-IT days of the 1980s, the 1990s saw ever increasing monitor sizes and therefore much bigger desks. As more staff were spending increasing amounts of time at their desks using the IT equipment, ergonomics played a bigger part in office design and the large corner desk became commonplace. However since the flat screen TFT monitor has become the norm, such large desks are less necessary, and with more offices going paper-less the actual workspace is now getting smaller. Most people now order wave type desking (rather than corner type), or even straight desks or benching.  The space freed up by smaller desks can then be used to fit in alternative working zones, such as hotdesks and breakout areas. There are also changes to the trends in the furniture finishes, with a sleek minimal look being the current vogue. The shiny white “Ipod” look has become very popular replacing the standard pale wood finishes in many modern offices, and this is often offset with a few designer style chairs to give a contemporary look.

If you would like impartial advice on your office furniture, give us a call. We are fully independent and so not tied to any single supplier or product range and so can recommend the best possible solution for your needs.