What furniture should you avoid when designing an office?
We asked our remanufacturing experts and were shocked at how common these models are.
If any of these are in your buying standards or schedules, then change them to save money and the environment.
Concave upholstered chairs
Chairs like the Hay About A Chair have a concave curve to fit the user’s backside. This is upholstered with layers of foam and fabric glued (often with toxic formaldehyde-based glues) to the seat shell. Over time this comes loose resulting in “bubbling” of the fabric.
Instead, choose a chair with a separate covered seat cushion, upholstered without the need for glue. The Naughtone Always (shown the the right) is an example. Or choose the unupholstered plastic Hay AAC.
Naughtone Always
Senator Trillipse meeting chairs
Recognisable for its triangular legs, the Trillipse’s plastic arms are not marked with a plastic designation, so they can’t be recycled. Worse, the plastic seems to be a combination of a number of plastics that can’t be resurfaced. The arms are also attached by a push fit connection into the base frame at the front, which means that the arms never have the same rigid fit after they have been removed for chair refurbishment.
Gubi Beetle chairs and stools
While these look pretty (and cost a lot) the Gubi Beetle range has a dark secret. They are made from upholstered parts permanently glued together, making them impossible to reupholster. If you really like the shape, choose the unupholstered plastic version.
Generic operator chairs
You knew this was coming. While these chairs can have, on paper, good ergonomic adjustability, they disappoint because their seat and back pads are held to the shell with single use pop studs. These break when the pads are removed and the pads can’t then be reattached, making reupholstering impossible. Also, the back height locking clamps often fail so the lumbar support cannot be adjusted. The parts are mostly made in distant countries so beware of Made in Britain claims – assembled maybe, but with imported components.
Armless operator chairs
Height adjustable arms support the user’s elbows to avoid the user lifting their shoulders, which creates tension and stress.
High-stacking meeting chairs
These chairs have a low rake angle of the backrest, which is great for stackability, but awful for comfort. Staff hate sitting on them because they get sore backs. Our team’s rule is if they stack more than 5 high freestanding, then they are likely to be uncomfortable.
Timber frame chairs
Over time the joints loosen because timber is a soft material, resulting in wobbly and unsafe chairs.
Low sofas
A seat height lower than 50cm from the ground can be difficult for some people to lower themselves into and get out of. We find these aren’t used much as sympathetic colleagues avoid embarrassment for their less able-bodied co-workers.
Ditto for bean bags.
Panel desks
These are almost entirely chipboard, which means they can be damaged easily and bloat with moisture. And their construction means they are not economical to resize. Recycling is not possible because the end product is wood dust – which is not worth anything. So they end up being burned for energy (best case) or in landfill.
Cable holes in desk tops
Called grommet holes, they mean that when the front middle becomes a bit worn you can’t turn the top around to put the worn part under the monitor stand. This shortens the life of the top – which ends up burnt for energy or in landfill. Instead, run the cables over the back of the desk and catch them in a cable basket under the back of the desk.
Ditto for scallops (the indents at the back of desks).
120 degree desks
The geometry of these desks takes up a lot of valuable floor space and results in users having people walking behind them, which is both annoying and bad for confidentiality.
Plate ends on desk beams
Sorry for getting a bit engineery, but plates welded onto the end of desk beams mean that it is not economical to resize the desk frame.
Heavily glazed pods
Pods create new meeting spaces, but cost more than building a room. So the need to serve multiple offices to pay for themselves. But glazing is easily broken as it is moved.
Choose pods with a moderate amount of glazing, like Orangebox Air (see image to right).
Orangebox Ar pod
Joinery booths
Joinery booths are normally designed for a particular space and fixed in place with glues. This limits their number of lives to one because they are destroyed when removed.
Instead choose freestanding banquette seats to fit snugly within purpose-built alcoves, like the Rype Opportunity seating (see image to right), which can be reupholstered and redeployed over multiple lives.
Rype Opportunity seating
photo by Sean Begley
Wooden storage units
Chipboard storage units typically don’t last more than one life and are then burned or landfilled. Choose steel, which lasts longer and can be recycled easily.
Mugs with logos
While they’re not furniture, please resist the temptation to buy new mugs with your (current) logo. Plain white mugs are classier and easy to re-home for further lives when you no longer need them. And you can source them second life if you like.
Put your logo on your company screensaver instead.