Your First Office: What to Buy First

Getting the keys to your first office is a good day. Then you stand in an empty room and realise how much there is to buy.

The temptation is to furnish the whole thing in one go. You don't need to, and you'll usually make better choices if you don't. This is the order we'd do it in.

1. Chairs

Start here, because it's where the hours go. A desk is a flat surface. A chair is the thing your team will actually feel at four o'clock on a Thursday.

You don't need the most expensive chair in the catalogue. You do need one that adjusts: seat height, back angle, and ideally lumbar support and arms. People are different shapes, and a chair that can't be adjusted only suits whoever it happens to fit.

Have a look at our ergonomic seating, and once the chairs arrive, our guide on how to adjust your office chair is worth five minutes.

2. Desks

Measure the room before you look at a single desk. Then work out where people will walk. It's easy to fit six desks into a room on paper and find nobody can get to the window.

A few things to decide:

• Individual desks or benches. Bench desking seats more people in less space and is easy to add to as you grow.
• Fixed or sit-stand. Height adjustable desks cost more, but not as much more as they used to.
• Who puts them together. Some desks arrive flat-packed for self-assembly and some are installed for you. Check before you order, because it changes both the price and your first week.

If you'd like the numbers, we've written up the dimensions and space standards to think about in an office layout.

3. Somewhere to meet

Even in a small office, you need somewhere to sit down with a customer or have a conversation away from the desks. It doesn't have to be a boardroom. A small table and four chairs in a corner does the job.

The mistake is choosing the table for the number of people and forgetting the room. Allow about 1.2m clear on every side so chairs can slide back and someone can still get past. Our guide to what size conference table you need has the sizes from four people up to sixteen.

4. Storage

You probably need less than you think. Most new businesses keep far less paper than an office did ten years ago, so don't fill a wall with cupboards on day one.

Start with a lockable cupboard or cabinet for the things that have to be kept secure, and somewhere for each person to put their own bits. Add more when you know what's actually piling up.

5. Everything else, after a month

Screens between desks, a quiet booth for calls, breakout seating, a coffee table for reception. All useful, and all easier to get right once you've worked in the space for a few weeks.

After a month you'll know where the noise is, where people naturally gather, and which corner nobody uses. Buy for the office you've got, not the one you imagined before you moved in.

Starting from an empty room?

We're a family-run business and we've been supplying office furniture since 1996. If you'd like to talk through what you need now and what can wait, call us on 0800 731 4592 or email info@southernofficefurniture.co.uk. Send us your room measurements and we'll help you work out what fits.