Tag Archives: office planning

How to Create the Perfect Multifunctional Home Office

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Multifunctional rooms and spaces have topped the charts of design trends in the past year. For every passing day, people have come to realize how helpful and important multifunctional spaces can be. Most working people have had to bring their work to their homes, finding ways they can fit their personal and professional life all in one space. With the help of modern office furniture, creating multifunctional rooms has become a simple task. How exactly can you mesh both comfort and focus in one corner? By following a few simple tips, you’ll have your bedroom, living room, and office all in one!

Choose a Room with Optimal Space

When you plan to combine a home office with your other home needs and activities, you’ll need to find a room that is able to serve several purposes. Space is something you’’ have to consider carefully. You don’t want to be tripping over electronics or toys if your office space will also occupy the game room. Choose a space that provides enough room for all your plans.

Keep Technology Needs in Mind

Whatever room you choose to occupy your office space in, you will have to plan ahead when it comes to technology. For example, you’ll want to provide enough power supply for your computer setup, a television (if there is one in the same room), and other appliances that require an outlet. You should also account for other appliances you may have such as mini-fridges or others.

Choose a Desk that Accommodates Your Needs

The desk that you choose for your multifunctional office should have just enough space for your computer setup and tools and also additional space for other purposes. You could also designate one half of your desk for the computer and the other half for note-taking and filing. This can help your productivity and organization.

Make the Space Comfortable

Since you’ll be combining your office space, it’s important to consider comfort and relaxation just as you would in any other room! Let’s start with the office chair. As opposed to using a stiff and more traditional office chair, you could use a piece of furniture that is both a lovely living room finish and a productive tool!

Choose Furniture that Has Plenty of Storage

You’ll be thinking about how much room you have during this process, therefore, you’ll also have to consider how much furniture you can incorporate. It is best to choose furniture that provides enough storage to prevent clutter and to help with keeping things organized. Furniture that offers storage can also help when it comes to keeping your space multifaceted.

Lighting: Make it Just Right

As we’ve mentioned before, when it comes to multipurpose rooms, you want to make sure it’s just as comfortable as it is productive. Some offices have lighting fixtures that are too uncomfortable to bear. When you’re at home, you want to relax and wind down. For a multifunctional home office, you’ll need a little bit of both to achieve productivity!

Make Sure to Leave Room for Other Purposes

Creating a home office doesn’t really require much space. In fact, all you need is a corner with just enough for a desk, a seat, and other tools you may have. With that being said, if you’re trying to create a multifunctional workspace, you don’t want to go overboard with the office furniture. Planning ahead and laying out your furniture may help.

Dress it Up to Your Liking

Of course, you should always have fun with the process of building your multifunctional office space! Don’t be afraid to throw in some vibrant-colored curtains, a notice board, and other materials that speak your aura. This can encourage your workflow at home if you have trouble focusing outside of the traditional office space. In addition to productivity, you should enjoy working in a home office.

Throw in Some Green

It is proven that having plants or natural elements around can decrease levels of stress during your workday. Not only does having a plant help you manage overwhelming sensations, it can also help you feel more at home and dresses the space up to be more multifaceted.

Contact Indoff Commercial Interiors Today!

The experts at Indoff Commercial Interiors is proud to provide El Paso locals with their professional needs, especially during these unprecedented times. If you’re looking for specific materials or furniture for your office space, don’t hesitate to contact us today.

Myths of The Open Office Concept

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Employees working together in modern open office space, corporate group team employees using computers, talking, discuss project, colleagues in coworking, collaboration, teamwork

Since the 70s, the open office concept has gained lots of traction. In fact, in America, it’s estimated that 70% of all office spaces were open office concepts of some degree. Championed by businesses like Facebook and other Silicon Valley giants, the open office was supposed to be the creative, collaborative workspace of the future. The problem—open offices have done just the opposite. 

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the pitfalls of such a system, as well as discuss potential alternatives. 

Open Office Lack Of Creativity 

It’s rare when a concept does the exact opposite of what it was intended to do; unfortunately, that’s what we have with open offices. 

According to a 2018 Harvard Business Schol research paper, open offices reduced face to face interactions drastically, promoting emails and instant messages (IMs) more. Perhaps more importantly, workers were less productive, efficient, and quality fell to boot. 

Other studies have shown decreases in creativity, productivity, job satisfaction, and attention spans. In an era where everyone’s attention spans are decreasing, the last thing a business needs is even less attention from employees.

If that wasn’t enough, higher stress levels, blood pressure, and job turnover are also associated with open offices. Not quite the office revolution that people were hoping for. 

So…Now What?

So cubicles are drab, but open offices are bad in almost every way. What do we do? Well, as with most things in life, the best option may be somewhere in the middle. Some companies are utilizing open office design in small groups. Each group will have its own sequestered space but will be able to collaborate amongst themselves. This boosts productivity and collaboration without having the noise of the entire office distracting them. 

Getting the Most Out of Your Office With Indoff

If you want the most productive office space for you and your staff, you’ll need to get the best equipment for your staff. Here at Indoff, we ensure that our collection of office furniture and equipment is of quality design and functionality. Contact us today to find the best office furniture for your goals! 

 

Enhance Workplace Creativity With Smart Office Planning

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It was Vincent Van Gogh who said, “Great things are not done by impulse, but a series of small things brought together.” This is especially true in the work environment. Whether you realize it or not, creativity is the driving force behind a company’s success. That is if you want yours to continue evolving.

How we work has a lot to do with fostering creativity. For example, does your office allow workers to move about when they need to change focus or need a space to mentally prepare for another project? The arrangement of your office furniture could be what’s helping or hindering creativity.

If you’re looking for ways to enhance creativity, we have tips on how to revamp your office in small but impactful ways!  

Have a Communal Space for Brainstorming

office space planning

Meetings are always a hit or miss. You either walk away feeling great about the progress made or you leave wondering how the last hour could have been more productive if everything was condensed to a three-sentence email. The formal setting of a meeting can turn people off and deter people from contributing just based on the setup of the room. That’s why we recommend creating a communal space that brings people together rather than physically separating them.

What does this look like? First, consider a circular table or one where everyone present has a place at the table. This creates togetherness. Everyone should have a view of one another so when a person is speaking, everyone can hear and see (if they’re presenting). You also want to have whiteboards nearby so if an idea sparks it can be sketched out right away. The more open and airy the room feels, the more people will feel at ease and ready to think. Consider adding some plants and good lighting. If you can have natural lighting, even better.  

Create a Space for Alone Time

working at desk

Sometimes employees need to be in their mind before they can share their ideas or project. For that reason, we recommend creating a room or space where people can go for some much-needed alone time. The room should have a desk with a computer and plenty of writing utensils. You should also consider adding a shelf with books. When people are looking for new ideas or want to be inspired, they turn to books. Fill a shelf with books related to your company’s line of work. For example, if you’re a marketing firm, invest in the best marketing material around.

This space will also be useful for preparing presentations or working on projects requiring some level of privacy. Again, make sure it feels open and is well-ventilated. You’ll be surprised at what people can accomplish when they take some time to gather their own thoughts.

Make Everything Moveable — The Power of Wheels

teamwork

Innovation is all about change. When your team has the ease of moving things around, they’ll be able to collaborate with everyone and everything. The functionality of a meeting desk, chair, computer, and supplies makes it possible to go from a 10 person meeting to a three-person conversation. Feeling confined can also confine the mind. Have you ever noticed how uplifting it feels to walk out of a room when you need a mental break? Give your team the ease of moving around. All it takes is adding wheels to desks and arranging the office in a way that allows for movement.

Create Your Ideal Work Environment With Indoff Commercial Interiors

Creativity and productivity are vital to any and all workplaces. Enhancing them is what we here at Indoff Commerical Interiors aims to help you with. It’s not always possible to pinpoint what is or isn’t working. That’s why we offer office space planning services for companies here in the Sun City. We focus on creating the best atmosphere for your team’s needs. Everything from the colors of the room to the placement of desks, we take it all into consideration.

Connect with us today to learn how we can help your office!   

Open Office and Closed Workspaces – Why Choose?

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Office space planning sketchIn recent years, many professional experts and studies have devoted themselves to advocating open office spaces and how they improve office productivity and employee morale. It was put forward that open work spaces encouraged more collaboration, as well as removing constricting walls that made some office workers feel more like drones than employees. Soon, office space planning was overloaded with open work space designs. Gone were the square cubicle of past decades- now employers were investing in bright, open spaces and shared desks. Unfortunately, when it comes to office space planning, it is no longer a one size fits all concept. In 2018, we began to see an increasing attention to what works for employees, not what particular trend is being pushed by these “experts”.

Open Vs Closed Office Work Spaces

While many businesses were quick to embrace an open floor plan for their offices, it may not have been the best choice for all industries, or even for all employees. Open floor concepts can work wonderfully for collaborative teams, where a group of people are working on one project to achieve the same goal. It makes it easier to discuss ideas, compare different aspects of a project, and share information.

However, no matter what industry you are in, open work spaces can also run the risk of distractions, noise, and unhappy employees whose different work styles may not mesh well. With this in mind, we are seeing an emergence of a different kind of closed workspace. Individual workstations, as well as a smart use of space are becoming more and more popular. We are also seeing the rise of designated room spaces, like lounges and cafe-like setups where employees can enjoy a quiet space that is respected by everyone else. This provides a welcome respite from a co-worker who has to constantly be on the phone, or to get away from whatever collaborative process is taking place elsewhere.

Considering Your Industry and Your Employee Needs

Not every industry should or can embrace the open office space concept, for varying reasons. For example, a financial advising company who deals in confidential information and deals would not be wise to indulge in such a concept. With so much confidential information floating around, they might consider putting their own spin on it, such as glass barriers and formal meeting rooms to ensure privacy. A marketing agency, which can have different departments and considerations, can consider dividing their departments in a way to fit their needs. Many companies that are concerned with a professional demeanor and appearance can find open offices to be too chaotic to present to clients, therefore sticking to grouped cubicles or different types of enclosed offices.

Office Space Planning Should Be About More than Open or Closed Spaces

When it comes to how you want to handle office space planning, it is much more complicated than choosing cubicles or shared desks. It is about your employees and they way they work, your industry needs, and your own particular taste. At Indoff Commercial Interiors, Kim Gregory will help you decide not just what office chairs and desks will provide the face you want for your business, but she can also help you analyze and choose the best way to organize your office space for maximum productivity and employee morale. Give us a call today!

The Changing Tides of Office Space Planning

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beautifully modern office space with glass partitionsMost people might not consider the fact that smart and successful companies take great consideration in how they organize their employees within their office space. The configuration of workers within a work space can profoundly impact productivity, office morale and culture, as well as fostering territory for creativity and problem solving. At the same time, office space planning reflects the changing trends in how people work and how they feel about their work. Here at Indoff Commercial Interiors we study these changing trends and how they help companies thrive, grow, and prosper.

The Early Stages

Early work spaces tended to put a greater emphasis on strict efficiency and often crowded workers in an open environment while the higher ups watched from an office behind closed doors. This was reminiscent of factory setups where the boss watched the workers from an elevated office. These early spaces focused solely on action and gave workers very little private space, individuality, or room for growth.

This then evolved into the well known cubicle. This was an era of office space planning focused solely on conserving space and resources. This led to rows and rows of square shaped areas separated with modular walls. These setups are infamous for creating a dull, robotic, and monotonous environment where the water cooler was the only respite from the isolating and impersonal spaces of the cubicle.

Modern Changes

The modern office world has made an attempt at tackling these traditional layouts, breaking them up, and integrating the need for a freer exchange of ideas. Many of the new concepts in office space planning include words such as co-working, cross-pollination, an incubation. All ideas that promote creative thinking and a richer environment that propels workflow and progress. The art of office space planning today is a delicate balance between privacy and communal work spaces that allow for more collaboration and engagement.

Design Productivity

Turn your office into more than just a place where people work.  With the right arrangement, your office will not only look great, but it will incite your employees to be more productive, creative, and propel your  company forward to better fulfill your mission and objectives. Call Indoff Commercial Interiors and join the revolution of creative office space planning and transform your business today.