Making an impression with high-quality reception furniture may be worth the price if you have new clients visit your office regularly. Richly patterned wood veneer, glass, marble, granite, and brushed stainless steel are all great materials. However, it’s not just the surface of the desk that makes your reception office furniture stand out from the competition. Unusual shapes, unique branding, and unexpected finishing touches also make a big difference.
Purchasing custom made furnishings for the lobby ensures that your office has a one-of-a-kind ambience. Unique Concepts is an example of a company that goes all out to give clients what they want - check out the Coca Cola installation on their home page for an example. There are quite a few designer reception desks that you may draw inspiration from online. The Archi-Expo has a collection you can view here.
You could also venture further afield and see an animal sculpture lobby furniture on TravelBlog.org. Are you wondering where the unusual looking “concept” reception desk in the photo comes from? Visit ReceptionDesks.com. Finally, don’t forget to browse the Cubicles Office Environments catalogue for both modern and traditional styles at affordable prices.
An economic downturn is tough on all businesses, but it does provide opportunities for office furniture liquidators. They have lots of chances to pick up workstations that are being sold off in liquidation sales. Resellers also have a ready supply of customers seeking the cost savings that come with purchasing used or refurbished cubicles. These clients want quality, but don’t have the budget for brand new cubicles. This means high-end brands with solid construction can be retouched and sold at a price that works for everyone.
Squeezing as many workers into a space as possible may seem like the best way to make use of expensive office real estate. However, there are other considerations besides square footage that make proper space planning essential from a budgeting and productivity standpoint. For one thing, the way you arrange a cubicle system affects the amount of wiring/cabling required. The orientation of the workstations within the office can increase or decrease the effectiveness of natural lighting and the flow of air. The direction an employee faces inside the cube also impacts the perceived size and privacy of the space provided.
In this example from the Compose line by Haworth, all employees are facing in one direction. Ventilation can be provided from a single angle (say, above and behind) to serve the entire group. Four workstations are combined to create a very stable structure.
These two U-shaped York workstations from Knoll share a central seating area to save space. Since the workers are facing away from each other, there is a greater sense of privacy. Storage can be shared or separate depending on the needs of the employees.
One of the most popular cubicle configurations for efficient electrical and data wiring is the spine setup. Workers can sit facing each other along a single work table for greatest space savings. Panels and workstations can be added along the spine to create separate cubicles in a less collaboration-oriented environment.
The Resolve system from Herman Miller is an example of one of the newer cubicle layout designs. It uses 120 degree joints to create honeycomb shaped workstations. These give employees a sense of having more room while actually conserving space. They can be set up along a zig-zag spine or arranged in clusters.
Are you going through a period of downsizing that involves moving to a smaller office space? You may need to put some of your office furniture in storage. Cubicles are often relatively simple to break down and take up much less space when they are stored as separate components instead of full workstations. Here are a few tips for making sure they remain in good condition and are easy to reassemble when you need them again:
The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum has recognized the contributions of Steelcase as a green office furniture manufacturer in its fourth triennial exhibition series entitled “Why Design Now?” The Cobi Chair is the product selected for inclusion in the current exhibit at the Carnegie Mansion (a branch of the Smithsonian Institute) in New York City. The current exhibition kicked off in May and will run through January 9th of 2011. The designs this year are focused on such themes as Energy, Mobility, Community, Communication, and Simplicity.
That’s why the Cobi is recommended as a collaborative seating option. Most people who will spend 5 minutes making sure their personal task chair is comfortable won’t do that with a chair in a conference room. Now, they don’t have to. A quick touch to ensure the height is set is all that’s required. From there, the Cobi automatically supports the sitter in a variety of postures and positions. You can even drape an arm over the back of the chair comfortably - it’s that flexible. So, if you want green office furniture that will assist employees in working together in a relaxed atmosphere, the Cobi is definitely a contender.
Pine office furniture is a very cost effective choice compared to other wood furnishings on the market. Like most evergreens, pine is very fast growing. It doesn’t take the winter off like deciduous trees do; so it can keep growing when other species have lost their leaves. Because it can be grown quickly and continuously, it is fairly cheap to produce.
Healthcare settings from clinics to hospitals have a need for quality medical office furniture. San Diego doctors, nurses, administrative staff, and patients can all benefit from access to comfortable seating provided by a reliable 
VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are a frequent byproduct of the processes and materials used in creating office furniture. In some new cubicle systems, the adhesives or finishes used may release chemicals such as formaldehyde into the air for a while after installation. This process is called off gassing. Not everyone is highly sensitive to these chemicals, but those who are may have a number of problems unless they work in VOC free cubicles.
Greenguard is a national organization that measures the safety of green office furniture. Distributors of eco-friendly furnishings rely on this Indoor Air Quality certification to ensure the products they sell do not pose a health hazard. Greenguard’s exacting standards limit VOC and particle emissions to extremely low levels. All the components used in a manufacturer’s product line are tested - not just one or two. The website makes it simple to 
Software developer Adam Lane has written an interesting article expressing his personal opinion on the office vs. cubicle debate. He makes a good point that for people in a line of work that requires uninterrupted concentration, an open cubicle layout may be less than desirable. That’s why many employees in his line of work use headphones and music to drown out the noise created by their coworkers.
