Designing the Perfect Shared Workspace: Tips & Furniture Essentials

Modern office design is very different from what it was a few years ago. The need for ergonomic furniture and creating collaborative environments has led to the popularity of having a shared workspace. 

As such, if you want to keep up with the trends and provide a working environment where your employees will feel comfortable enough to reach their full potential, you will have to find office furniture manufacturers that can supply the products you need. 

The type of décor, furniture, and accessories incorporated when colleagues share office space is quite different from what you would find in individual offices. With collaboration comes the need for inclusion, so the style and décor have to be suitable for a wide range of people. 

Most companies struggle to find the perfect balance between inclusiveness, functionality, and the need to maintain their brand identity. That is why this article will focus on how to select the right furniture and accessories for collaboration, productivity, and comfort. 

By the time you finish reading, you will be able to choose your perfect furniture products and create an inspiring shared workspace. Read on to find out more! 

Importance of Well-chosen Furniture in Creating a Shared Workspace

Why do companies need to choose specific types of furniture and accessories for a collaborative workspace? Well, one thing you have to consider is why you are creating a collaborative workspace at all. 

In most cases, the reason for having a shared workspace is that you want to bring all your team members together so that they benefit from each other's contributions while brainstorming or discussing important projects. 

However, getting your employees to prefer working in a shared workspace rather than private offices is not easy. One thing that can help you implement this idea successfully is having awesome furniture and a comfortable layout that will attract your employees. 

This means choosing unique types of furniture that address the needs of all your workers and create an environment that everyone will enjoy working in. You will also need to cater to the increased use of the collaborative workspace by choosing high-quality robust furniture. 

If you make the right choices, you will have an inspiring environment that will last you a long time while allowing your employees to increase their productivity and level of job satisfaction. However, achieving the perfect shared workspace is not easy. You will need the tips mentioned in this article to help you.

Guide to Selecting Furniture Pieces That Promote Collaboration, Productivity, and Comfort

Once you have identified a good place to set up your shared workspace, you need to start thinking about the type of furniture and accessories you will buy. These items will go a long way in affecting the mood and comfort level of the people who will share office space, so you need to choose carefully. 

Unlike decorating your private office, where you only need to consider your own needs and taste, with a shared workspace, you have to think outside the box so that you include all your team members. The following tips will guide you in selecting the right furniture pieces for your shared workspace: 

1. Consider the Layout

The layout of a shared working space needs to be as open and easily accessible as possible. Since you are expecting many people to be gathered in this area at a time, creating a closed-off and claustrophobic environment is not ideal. 

To feel comfortable, your employees will need wide open layouts, perhaps with some panoramic windows to let in as much natural light as possible. When arranging the chairs, cushions, or desks, make sure it is in such a way that encourages people to form clusters as they discuss projects and share ideas. 

One style of décor that can help you in this regard is taking the minimalist approach. Here, you will only include the bare essentials of office furniture, allowing your employees to have a lot of freedom to move around in the wide open spaces.

2. Choose Comfortable Materials

Comfort is an important part of creating a collaborative workspace. You need your employees to be able to feel at ease so that they get to enjoy working in the same area as their colleagues.

This is why many companies prefer throwing in some floor cushions and bean bags that allow people to relax when they are in a shared workspace. If these seem too informal for your needs, you can get some desks and chairs that are comfortable. Choosing an ergonomic office chair is a great way to ensure that your team is as comfortable as possible while working.

3. Select Robust Furniture

A shared workspace can be one of the busiest areas in the entire office. If you have many employees who regularly meet in the collaborative space to have discussions, you can expect the furniture there to be used a lot. 

This is why you have to make sure that you buy good-quality robust furniture for your needs. The desks, chairs, and other accessories you buy have to be able to withstand constant use by many different people each day. Choose a reliable furniture supplier that offers the best furniture with excellent warranties.

4. Versatility Is Important

A good shared coworking space can cater to the needs of different types of employees. This means the management team has to be as comfortable as the graphic design team even though they are working on different things in the same environment. 

What it means is that you have to be very careful when selecting, for example, the right standing desk/chair combo for your shared workspace. Choose flexible types of furniture that are suitable for a variety of needs. Versatility has to be one of the most important considerations you make when designing your shared workspace. 

5. Go for Functional Pieces

While a lot of focus has been placed on making sure that your collaborative workspace is as comfortable as possible, you must not forget that a shared working space needs to be suitable for getting work done. 

This means the furniture you choose has to allow your employees to remain productive even when sharing their space. Choose functional pieces of furniture, such as an adjustable height desk, ergonomic chair, and other important accessories that employees require daily.

6. Add Visually Appealing Light Systems

One of the things that can affect the mood and comfort level of a collaborative workspace is the type of lighting you choose. If you have large windows, then you will benefit from the natural light filtering in. 

However, if your collaborative workspace requires a lot of artificial lighting, you need to choose your light systems very carefully. The wrong light intensity can have a very negative effect on how people feel when meeting in shared workspaces. 

In general, the cool light produced by LED lighting systems is a great choice for all office environments, including collaborative spaces. If you can include a dimming feature as well, that will be a great way to control the mood of the room by reducing or increasing the amount of light.

7. Create Space Dividers

While the main reason for having a shared workspace is to bring people together, there are some cases where you may need a bit of privacy. A great way to achieve this without necessarily undermining the benefits of a shared workspace is to use space dividers. 

You can arrange your space dividers strategically around a shared common area to that employees can choose whether they are fine working in the open space or they require the added privacy provided by the space dividers. 

Ideally, space dividers used in a collaborative workspace should not be permanent fixtures. It should be easy to remove or move them around the room whenever you need to create more wide open spaces to accommodate more people.

8. Include Decorative Elements

When you buy ergonomic chair accessories or other items for your collaborative space, you need to pay close attention to the decorative elements that you choose. Even with a minimalist approach, some kind of decorative element needs to be included to create a more comfortable working environment for your employees. 

While neutral color schemes are great for creating the kind of inclusive environment that you need, you must be careful not to make the room boring. Some clever decorative elements scattered around the room can help. You could, for example, design unique tile work to add some life to your shared workspace. 

9. Remember Branding

Remember that the shared working space is where you want employees to spend most of their time together. This makes these areas the best places to reinforce your company branding. You can do this by including free-hanging advertising panels promoting your company. 

Branding collaborative workspaces is a great way to remind employees who are working on projects to stay focused on ideas that benefit the business. It also creates a marketing chance when clients are invited into the shared workspace. 

Autonomous - Ultimate Office Solutions

Buying the right kind of furniture for your collaborative space requires finding a reliable furniture supplier. Autonomous is an online furniture store that gives you access to a wide range of functional, comfortable, and high-quality furniture and accessories for your shared coworking space. 

If you have just allocated an area for a collaborative workspace and are wondering what kind of furniture to include in it, Autonomous has the ultimate solution to your problem. By browsing the website, you can pick and choose from a wide range of products that would be great additions to any shared workspace.

Bulk Order Program - Cost-effective Furniture Ideas

One of the difficulties of furnishing a shared workspace is that you will likely need a large number of furniture items to accommodate the many employees who will want to use it. Buying these furniture products one item at a time can become very expensive, which is why you will need a different approach. 

The Autonomous Bulk Order Program is a cost-effective way to get all the furniture you need for your collaborative workspace. Buying bulk furniture from a single supplier has many advantages, such as: 

• Buying in bulk is a lot cheaper thanks to the discounts offered by many furniture outlets, such as Autonomous.
• When you order everything at once, you make the logistics and delivery process a lot easier.
• You can get a chance to brand and customize your furniture when you buy in bulk, which is great for a shared office space.
• Autonomous offers many perks to customers who buy in bulk, such as free shipping, gifts, and assembly services.

What Autonomous Offers for Shared Workspaces?

If you are wondering what kind of furniture you can include in a shared coworking space, Autonomous can help with that too. The following are some of the furniture items that you can buy from the website: 

Standing Desks

One of the most important pieces of furniture for a shared working space is a standing desk. This is the perfect place for people to sit or stand around while discussing various projects. Autonomous has some great wholesale office desks that would be the ideal choice. 

Ergonomic Chairs

When people share office space, they will need somewhere to sit down and relax. Ergonomic chairs will be ideal for this, because they provide great support and comfort, and are good at improving productivity. If you need some great office chairs, wholesale suppliers, such as Autonomous can help. 

Office Accessories

Finally, you cannot have a functional and comfortable collaborative workspace without adding the right kind of office accessories. You will need various items, such as whiteboards, computer stands, ergonomic footrests, desk organizers, and much more.

Design the Ultimate Shared Workspace with Autonomous

When designing a shared workspace, you will need a lot more creativity than when creating an individual office. In your private office, a single leather executive office desk chair might have been good enough, but for collaborative spaces, you will need a lot more furniture items. The Autonomous Bulk Order Program is a great place to start looking for the items you need.