If you’re looking to design a new office, or perhaps redesign your existing one, it’s important to think about colours. Everyone knows that certain colours affect mood, and that is extremely important to bear in mind when thinking about the different shades to compliment your new office furniture.
The way an office is designed has a huge effect on productivity, and by ensuring that you ask opinions from your employees about what they think would work well, you’ll be creating a space which they really feel they belong to. As humans, we all feel we need to belong, and that goes for a working environment too.
When thinking about the colour palette you want to go for, in order to compliment your best office furniture, bear in mind that studies have shown blue to be the most productive colour. Blue has also been linked with increased trust between employees and a boost in communication. Both of these elements are closely associated with productivity, so try and incorporate blue here and there to grab those benefits.
You could also think about green, which goes very well with blue, and also nods towards nature. If you’re a believer in Feng Shui, perhaps you should think about orange. In this discipline, orange is said to increase focus and organisational skills.
Despite that, what colours should you avoid?
Colours to Approach With Caution
The colours to avoid really depend on the space, its size, how much natural light you have entering the office, as well as whether you’re choosing a block colour or you’re going to break it up with a complimenting shade. On the whole however, red, yellow, and grey come with warning tags.
Now, yellow is actually a very creative colour, and when someone is sat at an office desk trying to come up with a new idea, yellow could be just the ticket for inspiration. Despite that, yellow is a very bright colour, and if you get the tone of it a little off kilter, it could cause eye strain and headaches for those sat directly facing it for a long period of time. This is going to make people annoying and irritable, which is not a recipe for a productive office!
Red is ideal for inspiring action, and if you have a space which requires physical activity then red is good; for an office however, you might like to think again. When you have employees who are sat at their glass office desks for long periods of time, all of that energy they want to release (thanks to the effect of the colour on their brains) is going to cause lack of focus and fidgeting. Offices need to be serene places!
Finally, we have grey. Grey might look great when combined with modern office furniture, but the colour itself is said to encourage people to be generally quite passive and fatigued, lacking in energy. Again, that’s not the feel you want in your office space. If you really want to add grey, make sure you incorporate another colour, one with more positive elements, to overtake the possible negative effect; for instance, grey and blue.
The huge amount of science and psychology that is behind a single colour is really quite surprising, and whether your office space is packed with the most up to date furniture choices, or you’ve opted for second hand office furniture, the colour of your space can be the difference between a productive office and a sluggish office.
For instance, a meeting can be influenced in many ways by the design of the conference room. There are many things you can do to alter the mood of a conference space, and therefore attempt to turn the outcome of the meeting to your favour. In that case, why not do the same with your office?
Consider colours carefully and how you arrange your furniture in general. If you can do that, you’ll increase productivity without much effort at all!