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Brief Guide to Planning a small office |
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With ever more people setting up businesses and working from home, the role of the small office has grown exponentially in recent decades. Every business has its own profile and its own needs: some involve a number of people; others, just one. Some require a lot of equipment; others, little more than a desk and a filing cabinet. Some attract a constant stream of visiting clients; others conduct their affairs exclusively by phone or by email. Despite such variety, there are a number of general principles that are always worth considering when planning an office.
For advice about working from home, see our Brief Guide on the subject. |
| Small space, big ideas |
| By definition, a small office implies a highly efficient use of space. You have to get the most out of this limited space, so everything must be finely tuned to its function - compact and earning its keep. When buying furniture and equipment, measure up carefully; draw a ground plan. Maximise the space available, and the appearance of space, by minimising clutter. And in particular, keep clutter out of the pathways between functions (for instance between your desk and the photocopier, or shredder). |
| Private space or public face? |
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An important factor to establish at the outset is the number of visitors that you expect to come to your premises. Are they key clients? Is it important that you make a positive impression on them? If so, you need to consider how this impression is delivered. Do you need some kind of reception area or meeting room? Is there a place where visitors can sit and spread out their papers or wares? Do you need to keep them apart from the workings of your business? If public impression is very important, you may need to consider calling in professional interior designers who specialise in small offices.
Even if your business has very few visitors, the way your office looks will have an impact on how you feel. Some people can work efficiently in an office that might be mistaken for a car boot sale, but everyone works better in an attractive environment. Whatever your taste and style, try to make your office as visually pleasing as possible. Aim for serenity: if you want a sense of energy and business buzz, leave it to the workers to provide it. |
| Plugs, wires and equipment |
| Consider what electrical equipment you need. Wherever possible, use multifunction equipment - such as a printer that also serves as a scanner and photocopier, rather than three separate machines. How are they going to be wired: where are the nearest sockets? You should have a mental picture of your usage of the various bits of equipment. Those that you require most should be the most accessible. Try to avoid having loose cables running across the floor: route them where they won't get in the way, or - better still - won't be seen. Or can you cut down on wires by using wireless technology? |
| Light |
| Most offices need plenty of light. You should make full advantage of natural light. But think through the location of computer screens, which are best sited where light comes in from the side. Remember that the sun will shine from different positions throughout the year: if sunlight falls directly on your computer screens, you are going to need window blinds - or some alternative - to shield them. Overhead lighting is good for general use, but can be brutal and wearing - especially neon strip-lighting. You may be best served by a mixture of light sources - overhead, spot-lighting, angle-poise, table lamps - offering flexibility for a variety of tasks and moods throughout the day. |
| Desks |
| This is probably your most important piece of office furniture. Simple, flat, rectangular surfaces could be your best bet. These allow a degree of flexibility to accommodate design changes in the future: plain desk surfaces, for example, have proved to have worked best in the evolution of computer screens from the cathode ray tube to flat panel monitors. A simple and efficient desk can be made using two half-size filing cabinets (two-drawer) set apart to provide a kneehole, and covered with a flat surface, made for example of plywood or laminated (or veneered) MDF. Your choice of desk will, however, very much depend on your working practices: what equipment you need to keep permanently on it, what you need to spread out on it, what needs to be within easy reach, and so on. In any case, there are countless commercially-made desks, at all prices, catering for a huge range of uses and demands. For instance, some have shelving or cupboards attached; and pull-out surfaces, available in many desk designs, can allow you to temporarily extend your usable work-surface area. See www.desk.co.uk. |
| Chairs |
| If you are going to spend hours in your office chair, get a good one - one that has good back support and adjustable height. You should aim to sit at your desk with your back, upper legs and lower legs all more or less at right angles to each other, feet firmly on the ground. And, to avoid neck strain, your computer screen should be straight ahead, at about eye-level (which may well mean raising its base on a box or stand). Swivel chairs with castors make it easier to get in and out of a seated position, but these work best on hard, flat floor-surfaces. |
| Fold it, hide it |
| For pieces of furniture that are not in constant use - such as chairs and work tables - consider models that can be folded and stacked against a wall, or hidden from sight in a cupboard. |
| Communication and privacy |
| If there are a number of you working in a room, give careful thought to how your individual work stations are placed. You may not want to be constantly in the sightlines of other members of your team; but it may help if you can swivel round to communicate with them across the room. You should consider also the degree of privacy you require for telephone calls and meetings. Screens can provide a flexible way to break up a room. Note that if you go for an office design that is very pared-down and spartan (stripped pine floorboards, melamine worktops), it may be stylish, but it may also be noisy. |
| Shelving and storage |
| Get that clutter out of the way. Filing cabinets, although cumbersome, are the tried-and-tested way of storing large quantities of paperwork in an efficient and accessible manner. Shelving is good for storing all kinds of items to which you require regular access. Always buy rather more shelving than you currently need: the shelves will fill up. Cupboards are good for hiding away unsightly clobber - box-files, merchandise samples, and so on. |
| Stationery |
| There are thousands of different forms of stationery out there - from staples and paperclips to florescent markers and padded envelopes. The best way to create a checklist of your requirements is to get hold of a stationery catalogue, or look at the websites of stationery suppliers. It is often much cheaper to buy stationery in bulk from specialist office suppliers - but you will have to have somewhere to store the large boxes containing 500 envelopes or five reams of copier paper, and so forth. See www.stationers.co.uk. |
| Take a break |
| Don't forget to think about what you'll need for tea and coffee breaks, or even lunch at the office, for both colleagues and visitors. And last but by no means least, give some thought to your washing and toilet facilities. |
| Comments, copyright and linking |
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