Office Interiors Don’t Have To Be Staid

Far too many businesses rely on the tired and trite floor plans that have been joked about for years. Are you surrounded by gray cubicles and cheap looking motel style carpeting? Is an exciting addition to your office space another silk plant in a basket? Do your customers politely decline to take a seat and wait for appointments outside or at a nearby coffee shop?

Fortunately, this is the type of accident that can be easily overcome with a bit a planning and an eye toward image. Most companies either already have an image to focus on, or are desperately seeking an effective image to focus on. Where your work gets done is an ideal place to begin honing this image conscious ideal. You can begin by, literally, thinking out side of the box, as in cutting down on cubicles. Open spaces foster open minds.

How about hosting arrangements? Where and on what are your colleagues and customers lounging? Are they comfortable enough to stay for that extra pitch or to work on a problem? Or does you furniture scream at their bodies to take flight? Creating relaxing and easy-going areas shows concern, and it removes that dental appointment feeling that so many dread. While you are at it, splash some color around a bit.

What about cutting edge companies? How can you appeal to the technophiles and the eager eggheads you covet? If they are your employees, simply give them free reign. Your place will look like a manic panic in no time. If this is too extreme, then just go industrial bold, with hard colors and lights, and sheen on everything. Disco balls might even work somewhere.

Speaking of lights, it is absolutely essential to get the proper lighting in your working areas. Research proves that bad lighting, particularly bad fluorescent lighting, strain the eyes, hurts the brain, and creates bad moods. No one needs any extra bad moods at work. Use light that recreates natural sunlight. Better yet, open the blinds and shades and let that healthy sun shine in.

Using select color can improve a space dramatically. Color affects moods ranging from the usual happy and sad types, to the ready to buy compulsively and spend a lot of money types. Colors color our world, to borrow an old phrase. Discover which ones best reflect your business world and ways of doing things, and let the subliminal messages sing.

Finally, the bottom line may well rest on your bottoms. Seriously, the chairs you sit on can mean the difference between production and the need for security protection. When forced to captain a seat for large portions of the day, that seat should be of the highest quality. When designing office interiors, remember the posteriors.