How we improved our office space
Last November, we moved to a bigger (and fancier!) office close to Liverpool Street Station in London. Our landlords had fitted it out with a kitchen and meeting rooms, but otherwise we were left with a blank canvas.
Rather than hiring in a consultancy to help us fit the space out, we’ve opted to do things ourselves. In case you’re going through something similar, we thought we’d share some of our favourite things we’ve done so far.
Acoustic Panelling
Our new space has a very industrial look with raw concrete floors, glass walls, and exposed duct ceilings. While it looks great, the acoustics of the meeting rooms were terrible, making video calls painful for remote team members.
Rather than opting for an ugly DIY solution with no idea how effective it’d be, we brought in the experts! We found a local firm, Resonics, who were excellent to work with. Within a few weeks of coming out to quote, they’d installed suspended ceiling panels and fabric covered wall panels in each of our meeting rooms.
The panels look great and have completely fixed the problem. The deadening in our smaller meeting rooms was so effective it was almost a bit spooky to begin with!
Prior to installing the panelling, we tried upgrading our speakerphone to the Jabra 810. To begin with it, actually made things worse as it picked up even more of the echo but since adding the panels, it’s been a big upgrade.
Custom Tables / Benches
Our trusty Ikea extending tables were no longer big enough to sit the whole team around, and they were also beginning to show their age. We set out to try and find the biggest table our kitchen could accommodate — 6m long. We wanted something hard-wearing to fit the industrial aesthetic that didn’t cost the earth and was as space efficient as possible.
After a bit of research, we came across Rcc Furniture, a Sheffield-based company. We had them build a pair of custom 3m tables that could be put together to give us a 6m one with as few legs to get in the way as possible. They also built us matching benches, a conference table, and some smaller pedestal tables for the other meeting rooms.
Their lead time was about 8–10 weeks. Delivery was a bit stressful (we now own a company impact driver…) but we’re really happy with the end result!
Opendesk furniture
We have a very open plan office, which is great, but we wanted the ability to slightly separate off some quiet space. We also needed more storage. We’d been eyeing up Opendesk for a while. They design some beautiful furniture, all constructed from CNC routed plywood. Rather than manufacturing themselves, they team up with local makers who quote you to build their designs. It’s a really cool concept. Ours were built by Wilder Creative.
We ordered some lockers and shelves with space for plants to sit on top. They arrived only two weeks after ordering. We love the honest plywood construction and would definitely recommend Opendesk. I’m looking for an excuse to buy more of their stuff!
Plants as a service
We’re fans of the industrial look, but it can feel a little cold. To soften the feel of the office we decided to add plants — lots of them!
We considered buying them outright but were worried about writing off thousands of pounds of plants through incompetent watering. Fortunately, it turns out you can get plants as a service. Who knew!? For a monthly fee, we lease the plants. Someone comes out every couple of weeks to maintain them. If any plant doesn’t make it, it’s replaced as part of the contract.
We used Plant Designs, another local company. They came out and advised us on what would work in our space. We’ve bought a few small plants ourselves as they’re not as cost effective to lease. The big plants from Plant Designs look fantastic, making the few plants we already had look very sad by comparison.
In addition to a load of real plants, we also added a fake living wall to one of our smaller meeting rooms. You can by 1m x 1m mats from Evergreen Direct. It’s not quite as nice as a real one, but it’s far less maintenance and still very atmospheric. To install you just need to nail or staple to some wooden battens screwed to the wall. We used our talented handyman: Razvan.
E-Ink Displays
When we have guests in the office, we’re often asked about the little e-ink screens we have outside our meeting rooms.
They’re Joans. They hook up to your office calendar to show a room’s availability and any upcoming meetings. If the room’s available, they also allow you to book it then and there, rather than faffing around in Google Calendar. They’re e-ink, which means they only need charging every few months, so there are no unsightly wires.
Since we’ve had them, they’ve completely eliminated any confusion around who’s got the room booked and whether the room’s available for an impromptu meeting. They also look really smart.
We’re excited as Visionect, the company who make the Joans, are releasing a larger 13-inch device in the next couple of months. Called Place and Play, it can go a whole year on just one charge. What’s even cooler is that you’ll be able to use it to display your Geckoboard!
