For a long time, office design was pretty bleak. But in the last few years, we’ve seen massive changes with office furniture trends shifting more towards designing attractive, collaborative, and ergonomically correct pieces.
There is more and more research about how space design, lighting, colours, and furniture affects our attitudes and productivity. We’re thrilled to see this shift towards an environment that promotes health and wellness for employees. Most of us spend a significant chunk of our lives in the office, and we think that should be a positive environment that inspires us and helps us stay healthy.
Office Furniture Trends 2019: See the Top 5
There are lots going on in the world of office design, but we’ve narrowed it down to our 5 favourite office furniture trends of 2019.
1. Flexible Collaborative Desk & Table Space
Yes, we know, people are tired of open-plan offices, but hear us out. The keyword here is flexible. Instead of assigned cubicles, many offices are shifting to open table spacing with no dividers, and flexible seating. Allowing their employees to work with laptops means they can easily pick up and move to a new location, near whomever they might need to collaborate with. Flexibility also means fewer cubicle and divider walls to deal with, so construction time is faster and easier. Not only is construction time faster, but less materials are used, and more sustainable options are available.
2. Private Flexible Spaces
Again, the keyword is flexible. Traditionally most offices had huge boardrooms that sat empty most of the time. More recently, some offices have introduced tiny phone booth type rooms that can be reserved for phone calls. Growing on this, the new trend is to have several size options for smaller bookable spaces. Rooms that you can comfortably work alone in, or that you can have a small group meeting or collaboration session in. Having several of these spaces means introverts can still escape for some productive quiet time or small teams can do focused work together. With larger open spaces the need for a separate board room is basically eliminated because large meetings can be held in the main workspace.
3. Smart Furniture
You probably love your bluetooth headphones and wireless charging station at home; the newest trend is to bring this connectivity into the office. Adjustable sit-stand desks with bluetooth mean you can change the height of your desk from an app. A wireless charging station on your desk means your phone will never die in the middle of an important call.
4. Casual Lounge Areas
While it might seem weird to see comfortable couches and chairs in your office, it’s for the best. One of the most important things for health is to make sure you’re moving around and not sitting in the same position all day long. While you shouldn’t sit on a couch all day either, being able to relax on the couch while you meet with a coworker, or scroll through your morning emails is a good break from your default office chair position.
5. Nature, Nature, Everywhere
Nature might actually be the top office design trend for 2019, and beyond. Connecting with nature helps us calm down, lowers our blood pressure, and reduces stress. Taking a 5-minute walk outside in nature can shift our mood completely. So, office designers are bringing nature inside. Whether that’s a low-maintenance green moss wall, or potted plants near workstations. The added bonus is that plants clean the air, so no more stuffy recycled air spreading germs around the building.
Office furniture trends 2019 are exciting, because they’re making offices friendlier, more comfortable, and more flexible. More open spaces and less dividing walls and furniture also means faster construction time and lower construction budgets.