Furnishing an office can be a nuanced and tedious process. Balancing competing team needs, taking advantage of all your usable square footage, and building something cohesive and aesthetically pleasing can be a lot to bite off while you’re in the thick of your day-to-day job functions. At Benhar Office Interiors, our services are designed to deliver perfection without spreading you thin throughout your office redesign.
Here are our tips on how to furnish an office in NYC.
6 Tips for Furnishing Your NYC Office
Furnishing an office, especially in NYC, has its challenges, but there are a few principles with universal applications. We’ve put together six essential tips for you to keep in mind as you navigate your office redesign project.
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6 Tips on How to Furnish Your Office in NYC |
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Tip |
The Why |
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Offer Variety |
Supplying several types of workstations, ergonomic seating, and lounge spaces can encourage people to change positions often, improving their comfort and focus. |
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Organize Wires and Clutter |
Wires, office supplies, and personal items are often left as an afterthought. Centering storage from the beginning of your project can prevent clutter later. |
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Lean on Existing Features |
Your office space isn’t a blank canvas; it’s unique. If you don’t know where to begin, look at the natural lines of your building’s architecture, existing wood tones and fabrics, and unchangeable light sources for inspiration. |
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Take Down or Put Up Walls |
Architectural walls can add visual interest and separate spaces, but too many walls can feel claustrophobic. The right balance is crucial to an effective office. |
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Set Up Multi-Purposes Spaces |
Flexibility allows your office space to adapt and grow with the seasons. Reception areas that double as employee lounges or conference rooms that serve as collaborative centers can maximize your space without putting pressure on your budget for more square footage. |
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Consider Soundproofing |
Adding soundproofing to your office can improve focus and functionality in both small and large spaces. |
How to Furnish an Office NYC, According to the Experts
Like any complex formula, furnishing an office needs to be broken down into manageable steps.
Define Your Culture
Before you can furnish your office, you need to decide how you want it to be experienced by your workforce, clients, and any other visitors you may have. Is your office a high-velocity collaboration zone? Is it a heads-down environment with scheduled huddles? Does your office host the same people every day, or is it a rotating hybrid team?
We recommend spending at least a few weeks observing team dynamics, talking to department heads, and surveying your workforce to identify their priorities. Talking to your employees about the things they like best about the office and the areas they’d like to improve can help you better define your culture, ensuring your furniture selections support that vision from the get-go.
You should also use this opportunity to meet with other leaders in your industry so you can learn more about their cultures, perks, and values and ask questions about any improvements they’ve made over the years.
Plan, Plan, Plan
Once you have a basic idea of your culture, you can assemble a team, request quotes from designers and furniture procurement companies, and start mapping out a basic plan to guide all process steps. Your plan should focus on key deadlines for important details like securing a space, receiving deliveries, and finalizing your desired move-in day. You should pre-schedule frequent check-ins to ensure everything is on track and going smoothly. If it’s not, being in the loop will allow you to troubleshoot, make alternative plans, or extend deadlines as necessary. It will also allow you to connect your team to outside vendors, building a rapport and maintaining open lines of communication.
Budget Thoughtfully
After requesting quotes and meeting with your planning committee, you’ll have some figures to create a budget. While you may have a general idea of what you hope to spend, your budget may require revisions once you get into the finer details and start shopping around.
To eliminate headaches, it’s a good idea to take inventory of your “good, better, and best” priorities. For example, you may be comfortable with good furniture for low-traffic areas, like a small beverage counter. Still, you may need a better option for conference rooms where you frequently welcome executives from other businesses. Finally, you may want the best for private offices and reception areas, designed to make maximum impact.
At Benhar Office Interiors, our team will help you define your good, better, and best without jeopardizing the style, durability, and functionality. Reference our office interior design guide to learn more about expected costs and how to account for them.
Explore All Space Planning Possibilities
It’s easy to get stuck visualizing a space in one way, but there are always more options. Trained furniture professionals work in tandem with interior designers and other experts to breathe new life into your office. Space planning is science meets art; it takes just as much intuition as experience to perfect it.
At Benhar Office Interiors, we’ll take measurements of your office, consult your floor plan, and deliver an awe-inspiring furniture design that reinvigorates and shepherds you into a fruitful future.
Learn more in our Complete Space Planning Guide.
Center Technology
Office spaces are the modern computer lab. Everyone needs a laptop and keyboard, at minimum, to do their jobs these days, but many professions need even more to facilitate communication across remote teams, run complex software, and reference data sets. As such, technology can’t simply be added to your designs at the end; it has to be central from the beginning.
Audit your technology needs by taking inventory of everything each employee workstation needs to be successful, then be sure to share that inventory with your designers. Having this knowledge at the beginning can enable furniture procurement teams to place special requests to customize your furniture during manufacturing or instruct delivery teams on augmenting and installing your workstations with technology in mind.
Build Collaborative Spaces
Your office is an ecosystem of living, breathing organisms working toward a common goal. Focusing on collaborative spaces can allow you to create intentional collision areas, which are high-traffic areas that encourage organic connection. Organic connection opportunities can motivate employees to discuss their day-to-day functions and get their creativity flowing, unblocking potential obstacles.
Visit Showrooms
Prestigious manufacturers like Herman Miller and Knoll have NYC showrooms you can visit, which can be a significant unlock if you’re stuck between a few products and need more inspiration. We have long-standing relationships with the entire MillerKnoll family of brands, and we work with more than 300 product lines, so we know the value of seeing products in the flesh.
Rely on Benhar Office Interiors to Furnish Your NYC Office
When you hire Benhar Office Interiors, you don’t have to worry about the minutiae of furnishing your office. We know you have bigger fish to fry and a business to continue running, even as you navigate a change of venue or scenery. Our team is hands-on, so we have a laser focus on the details of furnishing your office, from taking measurements and fulfilling orders to delivering and staging everything for your final approval.
Interested in learning more about our furniture services? Schedule an introductory call today!