Design an Office Space and Boost Morale Using Natural Materials

Natural Office Design Trends Arcadia Wordsmith Cart

Want to go natural in the office? Smart move. Let’s look at the natural office design trend and how it helps benefit your office!

Bringing nature into the office boosts overall morale and helps workers be more productive. But how do you connect the office space with the great outdoors?

In Southern California’s urban sprawl, we see evidence of natural beauty all around us—from the mountains forming a backdrop behind downtown LA, to the coast, and to the national forests. Don’t forget the sun. A few years ago, the Harvard Business Review referred to natural light as the #1 Office Perk.

It’s one of the elements that should be part of every company’s wellness program.

Light

Sunshine is worth harvesting indoors, especially since downtown LA gets about 290 total days of either full sun or partly cloudy skies, according to most estimates. Benefits of sunshine are proven to reduce employees’ stress and improve their natural sleeping cycle.

If it’s possible, enlarge windows to maximize the amount of sunshine that can filter indoors. Try to have desks and workstations within 25 feet of windows and use center spaces for storage equipment or break areas. Install skylights or sky tubes.

What happens if your office is in a windowless setting?

Advice in CareerTrend says to upgrade your fluorescent lights to a color “’temperature’ that mimics daylight and use focused task lighting to reduce eye strain.”

Regardless of the setting, consider using translucent partitions for cubicles and space dividers instead of solid walls.


Photo: Loftwall Hitch Space Divider

Fabrics and Materials

The most basic of all building materials remain popular. Wood has environmental benefits. “If sustainably sourced,” says a UK design company, Insightful Environments, “wood is one of the most environmentally friendly materials available as it is infinitely renewable and acts as a carbon store, giving it an important role in reducing carbon emissions.”

Pine, oak, and beech are three types of wood that can be effectively used in the office. So can bamboo, a grass, which is a beneficial plant for a variety of uses. It can be used as furniture and grown in pots as space dividers.

Bamboo also absorbs carbon from the environment and releases high oxygen levels into the atmosphere.

You can use wood in strategic ways. Light-grain wood floors can help lighten the office environment, even if little natural light is available.

Use natural fabrics for upholstery like cotton, leather, and wool or wool blends. Hemp is another natural fabric choice that’s described in Better Homes and Gardens as feeling similar to canvas and its resistant to mold and mildew.

Lounge seating has options with natural-looking fabrics like the OFS Realm Lounge Seating. There are fun ways to customize it like adding wood to the curved armrests.


Photo: OFS Realm Lounge Seating

Walls

Imagine natural elements on your walls with rocks, wood, and plenty of greenery. Check the Nevins Bio Canvas Frame that not only brings natural elements into the office, but it helps control acoustics, too.


Photo: Nevins Bio Canvas

Get Naturally Inspired

See these elements coming together in 2010 Office Inspiration’s The Green Office page. Notice how greenery and light are fused to create a welcoming environment.

You don’t have to shut the door on nature when stepping into a corporate office.

Use furniture with natural fabrics and natural wood.

It doesn’t have to take a huge budget to green up the surroundings. Real wood shelves filled with pleasing office plants are an easy way to start.


Photo: OFS Obeya Architectural Structure

Re-imagine cubicles or meeting spaces with office design solutions like the OFS Obeya Architectural Structures. It’s made with plywood cores and real wood grain details, and a great way to incorporate natural office design trends to your office.


Photo: Arcadia Delen Table

Need meeting tables or a breakroom surface? Check the Arcadia Delen Table that’s available in different shapes with solid Ash and Walnut wood finishes.


Photo: Arcadia Livia Bench

The Arcadia Livia Bench has a classic look and comes in both straight wood beams and scalloped wood. Optional removable seat pads can be easily added.

Remember This …

No matter how little or how much sunlight or other natural materials you have in the office, keep an orderly environment. Everyone will think better and feel calmer when their work environment is organized, clean, and orderly.

Here’s an idea from The American Society of Administrative Professionals. Choose a day each quarter when everybody cleans and organizes their personal office space and another day when you team up to clean common spaces.

Freshen Up with Natural Office Design Trends

What do you need to improve your office environment and workflow? How do you incorporate natural office design trends successfully?

Get input from the team at 2010 Office Furniture. They’ve got more than 50 years of combined experience furnishing and planning spaces for clients who are among Southern California’s most distinguished corporations, universities, and small businesses.

They’ll show you how to keep employees engaged and promote their overall well-being.

Contact them with your questions and potential project needs.

Read Also: Designing a Healthy Office
Main Photo: Arcadia WorkSmith Cart
Resources & Special Thanks to Respective Product Manufacturers: Arcadia Contract, Loftwall, Nevins and OFS

Stylish Noise Reducing Office Furniture Trends for 2024

Noise Reducing Office Furniture OFS Intermix Table

Reduce office noise and boost employee engagement by incorporating noise reducing office furniture at the workplace.

That’s not an easy task because we’re immersed in noise.

During commutes, listening to an audiobook or the radio in your car is pleasant but there’s still noise. Think of the noises that you hear in your backyard. Or how about parking near your office, whether it’s in a downtown Los Angeles high-rise or an office near John Wayne Airport?

When you get into the office and settle at your desk, you won’t endure car horns or neighbors blasting music during backyard barbeques but you’ll have other distractions.

Take a look at this:

Even moderate noise in an office can result in high levels of stress and lower task motivation, according to a 2021 study from Cornell University:

“Workers in the noisy office experienced significantly higher levels of stress, made 40 percent fewer attempts to solve an unsolvable puzzle, and made only half as many ergonomic adjustments to their workstations as did their colleagues in quiet offices.”

Does that mean you have to put up solid walls?

No. Get fashionable.

You can use noise reducing office furniture that help with office acoustics with stylish designs that blend with your existing decor using some of the latest new fabrics.

Channeling and reducing sound helps make the office a desirable place for your employees.

Here’s a fabric that keeps the office looking stylish and absorbs noise: PET Felt.

What is PET Felt?

When you take the materials used to make plastic bottles and reuse it as fabrics — that’s Polyethylene Terephthalate, better known as PET Felt.

PET is especially well-suited for use in design-led acoustics since it’s lightweight, dense, durable, and rigid: all properties that make it ideal for acoustic design. Add to that it achieves a Class O fire rating, as noted by Sound Zero, an acoustic sound design firm in the U.K.

Let’s see a specific use of this recycled material.

Lamps with PET Felt

Reducing or channeling office noise doesn’t mean putting up barriers. Help can come from unexpected places using noise reducing office furniture with the right materials.

Like PET felt on office lamps.

Now, would you have thought an office lamp could absorb sound? Dutch designers did and showcased their products on Dezeen.com.

The lamps hang nicely above tables with a relatively low profile and act almost like an upside-down umbrella. They don’t call attention to themselves but blend in nicely with the surroundings.

Noise Reducing Office Furniture Absorb and Deflect Those Noises

Now let’s look at other ways to reduce noise in the office with accompanying noise reducing office furniture.


Photo: OFS Intermix Conference Table

Set up a welcoming type of conference room. Click on the 2010 Office Inspiration page and browse a modern conference room space. It doesn’t have to be completely enclosed. Imagine a space with one wall as a whiteboard, another wall being a clear architectural wall, and a monitor attached to a wall with a doorless opening to walk in and out of freely.


Photo: Snowsound Clasp Fiber Room Divider

Many lounge seating arrangements are attractive, comfortable, and are designed to keep conversations focused around a table so the noise doesn’t drift away. In fact they make great noise reducing office furniture because of the padding and fabric that they’re usually made from.


Photo: Arcadia Contract TOOtheLOUNGE Seating

Look at the Arcadia TOOtheLOUNGE Seating with practical configurations and colorful appearances to brighten any office environment. It can be an individual “oasis” or set up to accommodate a few people. Make it as closed or as open as you want.


Photo: Nevins Bio Canvas Frame

Green office panels help you control the acoustics while adding a touch of nature to your surroundings. The Nevins Bio Canvas Frame has a lightweight frame and uses bark, moss, and stone panels. No maintenance is required.

Bookcases are another way to absorb and deflect sounds and make great noise reducing office furniture. What do you put on them? Decorative pieces. Plants. Books. Trophies from the office softball team. Get creative.

You’ve got plenty of options to choose from. Look for an eye-catching design like the OFS Hitch Shelf and Storage. It’s a modular system to showcase your personality.


Photo: OFS Rowens Shelf and Credenza

The OFS Rowen Shelf and Credenza has a library feel while the DARRAN Chameleon Storage has a more boxy style.


Photo: DARRAN Chameleon Storage

Don’t forget green plants. Wider leaves deflect sound waves and all types of plants purify the air. Plus, they’re visually refreshing. Good Housekeeping compiled a listing of 15 plants including the spider plant and birds nest fern.

These ideas are relatively easy to implement and we didn’t even include cubicles or architectural walls.  But all these are good options for noice reducing office furniture.

Office Space Planning and Design for Noise Reducing Office Furniture

Absorbing sound waves are one part of overall office planning.

What do you feel your greatest needs are? Ask the team at 2010 Office Furniture and they’ll bring more than 50 years of experience into your space planning and furniture sourcing solutions.

2010 Office’s clients are Southern California’s most distinguished corporations, universities, and small businesses.

Contact them with your potential project needs and when you’re ready to include noise reducing office furniture into your office space.

Read Also: Choosing the Best Office Dividers and Filing Systems
Main Photo: OFS Intermix Conference Table
Resources & Special Thanks to Respective Product Manufacturers: Arcadia Contract, DARRAN, Nevins, OFS and Snowsound