Are you in the process of setting up an office for the first time, or ordering furniture for a renovation? Here are 7 pieces of office furniture you need.

You will spend somewhere between 21-35% of your life in your workplace.

As a business owner or manager, ask yourselves; what kind of office do you want to spend over one-fifth of your life in? What kind of environment do you want for your employees to invest that much time into?

Not only do you want to create an environment where you and your co-workers will functionally be able to perform their work, but one where they can relax and enjoy it.

Having the right office furniture is a great way to build the work environment someone would feel good about spending a big chunk of their life in. Keep reading and begin building the office of your dreams.

1. Desks and Chairs: The Office Furniture Basics

The minimalist, open floor plan is all the rage these days, and has changed much of what sort of furniture you may need. However, it can never take away the basics: a desk and a chair.

Understand some companies are moving to less structured workplaces where there are no desks. However, this wouldn’t work for every company.

What does work are the tried and true basics.

Which Chairs?

When deciding on a chair for you and your to spend most of your time in, you need to keep two things in mind: comfort and ergonomics.

Comfort is obvious. You’re going to be requiring 10+ people to sit in this chair for 40 hours a week. Might as well make it a pleasant experience.

Ergonomics is a bit more complicated, but perhaps more essential. Ergonomic simply means it’s designed for a certain person or persons and the tasks they are required to perform. Everyone is different and will require different settings to have a chair which meets their individual needs.

Find a chair with a backrest, adjustable seat height and headrest, and good seat depth and stability. If you do, you will be on the right track to finding a chair which should accommodate most.

Which Desks?

When you read “desk,” what you should take away is “a space for someone to work at.” Everyone doesn’t need their own desk, but everyone needs a space which is ergonomic for them and the job they are expected to perform.

Think through what each job requires and what sort of workspace would be ideal for productivity.

2. Meeting Spaces: Communal Work Desk

No matter what kind of office you run, you will need at least one meeting space. Whether it’s a space to brainstorm between co-workers, sitting down with clients, or having a staff meeting, you will utilize this space regularly.

All this to say, you’re going to want to purchase some large desks and tables for these meeting spaces.

In fact, some offices are moving away from individual work desks altogether.

You may want to think through how integral collaboration is in the work of your employees, because purchasing a few communal work desks could help productivity (and your pocketbook) instead of buying endless individual desks.

3. Keep it Casual: Living Space

While taking frequent, short breaks don’t necessarily lead to higher productivity, they certainly make your employees happier.

When an employee is happy they have higher job satisfaction (which could translate to less employee turnover) and are more willing to do things outside of their job description.

Having a culture of taking frequent breaks is important to employee longevity, so encourage it by giving them a place to do it.

Create lounge areas with couches, chairs, coffee tables, bookcases, and perhaps even a TV with video games. This safe space can not only help rejuvenate exhausted employees but build stronger interoffice relationships.

4. Storage Spaces: Keep Them Hidden

Many offices are moving away from endless rows of file cabinets and are transferring to paperless options; keeping their files in the cloud, for example.

How you want to store everything is something you should think through when purchasing office furniture. Less is more these days and the more storage space you can purchase which can be hidden under desks and away from view the better.

5. Printing, Scanning, and Copying: All in One

Welcome to the 21st century, you have computers. This means you need some way to feed and produce physical documentation to and from the digital world.

Meet your all-in-one printer, scanner, and copy machine (heck, most even include a fax machine).

With this device, you’ll be able to print whatever documentation, invoices, flyers, and packing slips you may require. You can also create digital versions of physical documentation with the scanner function, and create physical copies of other physical documents through the copy function.

Even while we are moving in a paperless direction, we have yet to move beyond needing one of these to do business.

6. Smartboards are a Must

Have you tried to use a dry erase board? If so then you know how dirty they get and how hard they can be to read from a distance.

What if you could have a dry erase board, but it functioned more like a giant iPad? This is basically what a smartboard is. With touchscreen technology, their function is the same as a whiteboard, but without all of the things you hate about markers and erasers.

7. Cafeteria Furniture: Because Eating is Important Too

You don’t have to have space for your workers to eat, but not having one will force your workers to leave the office during lunch or worse encourage them not to take a lunch break.

Having space for your employees to eat is essential in building interoffice relationships and creating a more relaxed and fun work culture.

You don’t need anything too major here; people are going to be sitting here for an hour or day at most. These pieces of office furniture are there for function, not comfort.

Home Away From Home

There is a lot which goes into creating a great office space for you and your co-workers. Choosing the right layout for your office and great office furniture is a huge part how your office will feel and function.

Are you starting up a business and thinking of expanding into an office space? Is your office in need of a total rehaul?

Start turning your office from a drab place you need to escape into a home away from home today by buying the latest and greatest.