How To Arrange Your Reception Furniture Effectively

Making a good first impression is essential for any business. As the reception area is commonly the first space seen by guests of your company, it's essential to have your furniture arranged in a professional manner. This article highlights simple and easy ways to coordinate, arrange, and layout your professional reception furniture and seating. Enjoy!

Place Your Reception Desk

The reception desk should be used as a main focal point of any guest area.  Any well designed business entry space will provide visitors with a clear method of first contact, and the reception station provides just that. The preferred method of placement for larger reception areas is at a central point in order to provide a welcoming appearance from any angle. Smaller reception areas typically utilize back wall placement to maximize the amount of usable square footage for seating. This is also acceptable. Areas designed with side entries will want to utilize an L shaped reception desk configuration along the opposite wall to provide an open feel. Top reception desks from manufacturers like Mayline, Offices To Go, and Cherryman Industries provide solutions for areas of any size. Keep in mind, most large and small reception desks are somewhat heavy. Measure your space properly to ensure a proper fit and minimize movement efforts. Essentially, the first place you put your desk is where it should stay.

Layout Your Seating

When planning your reception furniture makeover project, it's best to pull out a note pad to make a few practice sketches. Plot out your area in a variety of different ways to see what feels most effective. Remember to identify important factors like the number of guests you hope to accommodate, power access, and child entertainment.

Popular reception seating layouts include the wrap around look, which consists of guest seating configured around the border of your space accented by a center table. The back to back look essentially combines the general theme of the a wrap around layout with chairs placed back to back through the center for additional seating. No matter your choice, it's always smart to draw out a few ideas no matter how poor your drawing skills may be! Professional design services are also available from most reputable office furniture providers.

Once you've chosen a reception seating layout for your space, you'll need to determine what style of chair works best for your business. A variety of wood reception chairs are available for traditionally styled spaces. Modern businesses will prefer contemporary solutions like modular beam seating from brands like OFM Office Furniture for their space. A modular product is always a wise investment. Mobilized chairs, gang seating, and stacking office chairs make for easy to clean spaces that can rearrange in minutes.

Arrange Your Accent Furniture

Shopping for new reception tables and matching accent furniture can be fun! This simple step really allows office employees the chance to let their interior design skills shine. Popular items for accenting your reception, lounge, or waiting room furniture include magazine displays, lighting, and versatile end tables from a variety of top brands. As a side tip, if you choose wood reception tables, makes sure they are cohesive with the reception station finish you've chosen. One form of accent furniture can also double as yet another focal point. The coffee table, if arranged in the center of a seating layout can showcase business style and get the style compliments flowing! Using any of the office coffee tables provided from brands like Lesro Industries are a great way to achieve just that.

When accenting your reception space ask yourself a few simple questions. Does this item improve the look of my business? Does it improve efficiency and effectiveness? Will it improve our guests visit? If you answer yes, the product is probably worth purchasing. If the answer is no, it's more than likely a luxury item that can be left out to save your budget. In the long run arranging accent office furniture should be a fun step that allows your professional ingenuity to shine. Strive for a welcoming space that offers a great first impression. The rest will fall in line!

Office Furniture Installation Tips To Remember

So you've decided to undergo an office makeover project for your business. Excellent! The purchase of office furniture is often overshadowed by the fear of the installation portion of any project. Not to worry! Furniture installation is typically quite easy and with the simple tips included in this article, your office will be up and running in no time.

Tip 1: Prep Your Space

The first tip is an absolute essential. There is nothing worse than being surprised by a semi truck at your business looking to drop off thousands of dollars worth of furniture when you are ill prepared. The best way to avoid this is to track your shipment accordingly and prepare your space. By removing old furniture and properly storing important documents, you will already be ahead of the curve! On a side note, consider taking pictures of your old furniture for listing on classified websites. Selling your used business office furniture is an excellent way to add additional funds to your corporate budget.

Tip 2: Staging Your Furniture

Once the applicable office environments have been properly prepped it will be time to receive your new furniture. In most cases, furniture delivery only includes a curbside service unless otherwise specified and requested. If you've opted for curbside delivery it will be your responsibility to bring your new office desks or seating into your business. As most work environments are limited on space, it's incredibly important to dictate a staging area to get your installation plan situated. Once you've made a plan, you'll be able to un carton and pre build major components and move them into your space. With larger items like conference tables, it's best to stage and build out products in the main area to minimize heavy lifting and dangerous carries down the hallway! Another important benefit of the staging area is organization. You'll be surprised at just how much debris and cartoning comes along with a major furnishing makeover. The staging area will provide an excellent place to organize parts and instructions for your project.

Tip 3: Helpful Tools

While several of the top office furniture collections for home and business use come standard with the tools needed for installation, some do not. Lines like the Marque series of OFM Reception Desks actually require no tools at all for assembly! Regardless of the furniture you purchase and what's included arming yourself with a few basic tools will make your job much easier. A box cutter is great for getting into cardboard packaging and removing pallet straps for larger furniture like the reception desks mentioned above. A screwdriver is also nice to have on hand for obvious reasons. A multi purpose driver with a variety of bit options can be purchased for around $10 and will pay for itself over a variety of projects. The last essential item needed is a decent set of allen wrenches. Everything from executive office chairs to small computer desks feature some form of allen related component. In most cases, the included allen wrench will work okay but a back up set is always advised as you might be over zealous and strip your one and only wrench! It's never fun to stop a project midway for a trip to the local hardware store. Additional tools like power drills are nice to have but not necessary in most cases. Any reputable manufacturer will be happy to recommend helpful tools for any specific project.

Tip 4: Work With a Friend

Small office projects like building out a few computer chairs can easily be handled by a single person. Larger jobs like the installation of office cubicles often takes a team of professionals. This tip refers to those medium sized projects that involve some heavy lifting! On average, executive desks weigh over 100 lbs when built out. The individual components can often be tricky to work with individually. For this reason, requesting the help of a trusted friend will be a huge help. Adding a coworker to the makeover project will also help you improve the overall safety of the installation. Holding pieces in place to be connected is a benefit that should not be overlooked. While most installations will only take an hour or two, adding a trusted helper will cut down your overall work time by helping to share the work load.

Tip 5: Odds & Ends

A few minor things will help your project in a major way. The use of a furniture dolly will provide ease of mobility when moving furniture of any kind. Positioning heavier products on furniture sliders is also a great way to improve the modularity of any office. Furniture sliders can be found at any local hardware store for around $10 and are truly back savers! Be mindful of your walls and the finish of your furniture. Blankets are a great way to protect both when moving. Lastly, doors stops will save you some tricky maneuvering through tight spaces. It's easy to imagine the difficulty of holding a door open while trying to move a desk though safely. If any job becomes to difficult or seems unsafe in any way, stop. Evaluate the situation, ask for help, and call the professionals. No furniture is worth getting hurt over. Industry professionals will always be available to provide helpful advice to get you through your project with ease.