3 Tips for Furnishing a New Office Building

Moving to a new office space is a great opportunity to take stock of your current design, and reimagine how it could be made more appealing to customers and more pleasant for your workers. 

While you can find lots of advice online or checklists to use when moving to a new building, we’re focused on furnishing: here are some big-picture tips you should use to guide your decision making before the upcoming move. 

1. Understand Aesthetics as an Extension of Branding

Designing a new office space is the perfect opportunity to think more generally about the image your company is putting forward. The aesthetics of your space are a primary form of marketing, one that is inevitably going to shape how clients and partners understand your business. 

For this reason, when it comes to basic questions like furnishing, you should be as intentional as possible. How will different furniture choices support or undermine your current branding? How can you use visual and material cues to signal your brand identity and values to potential clients or customers?

Some companies opt for simple or generic designs, while others try to embrace randomness and creativity; while there is no “right way” to design your office, it is important to be intentional about what message different aesthetic choices will send. 

Increasingly, there are affordable options available for businesses that want to purchase high end, attractive, and comfortable office furniture, so if you’re looking for inspiration check out companies like Branch Furniture that specialize in helping small to mid-size companies achieve an upscale, professional look. 

2. Lead with Functionality 

As discussed in the previous point, how your office looks will say a lot about how you want others to see your company. But while you will want to exercise your creativity and taste, it is important to remember that an office is primarily a place where people work. For this reason, you should never put aesthetic ahead of functionality. 

Desks and filing cabinets should be designed with ease of use at the forefront, prioritizing features like adjustable feet for stability on uneven surfaces and stain-resistant desktops, and chairs should be ergonomic so your employees can go about their work comfortably. 

While the craze for open concept floorplans has exploded over the past couple of decades, it is important to remember that open concept offices are not always the most conducive to productivity. Think about what your actual day-to-day needs are, and let those lead your decision making.  

3. Look for Turnkey Services

Moving an office is deeply stressful, and you should assume that just about everything that can go wrong, will. One way to ensure that planning and executing the relocation doesn’t completely distract you from the day-to-day running of your company is by using turnkey services whenever possible. 

When buying furniture, go with a company that will handle everything from ordering and installation to navigating insurance requirements and booking freight elevators. Not only will this free up time to handle other aspects of the move, turnkey services are able to anticipate issues you might not be able to foresee, ensuring an overall more efficient move. 

An office move is an unparalleled chance to step back from the immediate issues of running a successful business to think about the bigger picture. For this reason, it is the perfect opportunity for considering how the aesthetics of your physical space underscores marketing and the role of functionality in office productivity and culture.

If you have a big move coming up, make sure to take the time to think intentionally about how your design can make your company more appealing for clients and workers alike.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/at-work/3-tips-for-furnishing-a-new-office-building/