Office furniture - more than just a workplace

We spend a large part of our everyday lives surrounded by office furniture. Regardless of whether it is the study at home for the freelancer, home office worker or self-employed person or the open-plan office in the company - the furnishing of the office contributes significantly to how motivated, committed and also healthy we are in our professional activities. The following guidebook and guideline with many tips will help you to choose the best office furniture for you.

What is office furniture?

Office furniture is all those pieces of furniture with which an office, study or work area is equipped. Office furniture supports us in carrying out our professional activities and facilitates or accelerates the organisation of various administrative tasks, processes and procedures.

Which types of office furniture are distinguished

Seating furniture

  • mostly height-adjustable, flexible swivel chairs are used, but normal chairs or unusual models such as knee stools or even beanballs can also be found in offices.
  • Visitor's chair or visitor's armchair - are usually of high quality, representative, comfortable and colour-coordinated and aesthetically matched to the other office furniture
  • important are a generous seat so that your visitors do not have to sit tightly packed, a stable frame, good suspension, as well as a hard-wearing upper material in harmonious colours.

Tables

  • Desk - with a sufficiently large work surface, load-bearing, sometimes height-adjustable, with an insensitive, easy-care surface - so that, for example, coffee stains are easy to wipe off.
  • Visitor's table - for discussions with interlocutors, customers, suppliers, with an emphasis on representative design.
  • Storage table - rather functional, solid, usually for magazines or files

Storage space

  • Drawer or roller containers - can be placed individually, in groups or under the desk.
  • Cabinets - various sizes, heights, depths with hinged or sliding doors usually with as many shelves as possible for archiving documents and storing office materials.
  • Shelves - wall shelves, hanging shelves, free-standing shelves are hardly missing in an office and hold reference books, office materials, folders but also decorative elements or plants for a feel-good ambience.

What office furniture styles are there?

Timeless, functional classic office furniture is often desired. However, individual wishes and solutions tailored to your furnishing style are also easily possible nowadays.

Office furniture is most often offered and demanded in the following three styles:

Modern - stylish, unusual, surprising design elements, a play of colours and shapes.

Classic - timeless, functional, clear silhouettes and lines in reduced colour tones that you never get tired of.

Natural - earthy natural tones, harmonious colour variations, high-quality materials and a variety of wood types, such as oak, beech or cherry tree

Who needs office furniture?

Of course, every company or administration needs office furniture for its employees. But the workplace has also long been the norm at home.

Examples of groups of people who have a workplace at home are

  • Freelancers - from architects to web designers
  • Self-employed craftsmen - who still write invoices or enter orders after office hours
  • Home office workers - more and more companies allow their employees to work days at home in the office
  • to prepare lessons or correct schoolwork
  • Almost every occupant of a flat or house - to do banking, prepare for the football club's general meeting, send invitations for parents' evening, archive photos...

Office furniture manufacturer

List of members of office furniture manufacturers

What should I look for when buying office furniture?

In our guide, we explain below what you should pay particular attention to when buying office furniture. We also inform you about the most important regulations if you use the office furniture commercially, i.e. not exclusively for yourself and not only for your personal, private affairs. In addition, we give you tips for the optimal positioning of your office furniture.

What role do quality, functionality and aesthetics play?

Office furniture is often used for many hours every day. Cabinet doors are opened and closed, people work at their desks for hours or sometimes make a phone call sitting on them, drawers are sometimes pulled out roughly. It therefore makes sense to choose high-quality office furniture that you can enjoy for a long time, which will also have a positive effect on your motivation to work. When choosing your office furniture, look for quality seals such as the Golden M to ensure that a high standard of quality is guaranteed.

Are there regulations for office furniture?

If you have a workplace at home where you manage personal matters in your free time, then of course you don't have to follow any regulations. For companies, administration or even if you have your own employees, laws apply to the furnishing of office workplaces in Germany, which are specified in more detail by standards.

However, we would also like to give you some tips for your private home office for the sake of your health:

For the desk

  • A surface of at least 1600 x 800 mm is optimal, 1200 mm x 800 mm the minimum.
  • Sufficient legroom, no distracting objects such as mobile pedestals in the centre.
  • Matt desk surfaces are easier on the eyes
  • Rounded corners are recommended

For the office swivel chair

  • Stable and tilt-resistant
  • Shock loads on the spine should be reduced by good suspension.
  • Seat depth between 38 and 44 cm, seat width at least about 40 - 48 cm
  • Adjustable backrest to support the back
  • Armrests relieve the strain on shoulders and neck

What is the best way to place office furniture?

Start with the desk, the heart or command centre of your office. It should be placed so that the light comes in from the side. Once you have found the ideal position, arrange the office chair, mobile pedestal and storage table accordingly or in the vicinity. The cupboards can be placed against the wall, as can your shelves. Visitor chairs, sofa and visitor table also need a lot of light, but it does not necessarily have to come from the side. It is also important to put yourself in your visitors' perspective and create a pleasant atmosphere. This means that your visitors should not have to look at empty cups, wastepaper baskets or full piles of files. In smaller offices, you can also separate the work and visitor areas with a screen.

What is the correct sitting and working height of desks and office chairs?

Height Desk height

Height of office chair

160 cm

66 cm 43 cm

170 cm

70 cm 46 cm

180 cm

74 cm 49 cm

190 cm

78 cm 51 cm
 

or height adjustable

or height adjustable

 

68-76 cm bzw. 68-115 cm

von 43 - 51 cm

Attention:

Elbow should rest at right angle
rest on table top
Upper leg to lower leg angle
should be slightly more than 90 degrees be

For office furniture for several employees, the following tip: a desk height with a mean value of 72 cm fits 90 % of the population (source: BAuA, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, www.baua.de).

Better results and performance with the right office furniture

People who feel good at their workplace, sit well, comfortably and healthily, have enough space and a harmonious ambience around them are more motivated. This leads to better results and performance. Office furniture of a high quality makes an important contribution to this. This is also confirmed by studies and surveys, for example by Lead-Digital, which state: "Employers can score points by investing in modern office environments: 25 percent of employees can be motivated by contemporary, ergonomic design...".

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