When it comes to office furniture and design, the Victorians knew how to make an impression.  Their large, lavish furniture design carried its way into the office.  Heavy, expensive oak was generally the material of choice.

Design were particularly intricate, and very time consuming to make too, so their office furniture genuine pieces are considered a work of art and are valuable today.

In the Victorian era, if you had the money it would show through your intricately designed, heavy wooden office desk.

Ergonomics had not been invented yet, however, it was not as important anyway as the Victorians did not work the eight hour days that we do now!

Offices were very lavish, including rich rugs adorning the floor, velvet tasselled curtains from ceiling to floor and large bookcases.

The office would not be complete without a large grandfather clock standing in pride of place, many offices even had this as their centrepiece as it was a commonplace item in the office.

Nowadays, things have changed a lot, but if you are designing your home office, then you can have it how you like, so you may like to choose heavier, wooden office furniture items and a lavish office chair so you can really enjoy the time you spend there.

In modern times, we have the option of many worldwide influences to give us ideas on how to design our offices and the styles of office furniture.

Chinese decoration brings its own unique influence to the home office or study area, and is a great way to separate your office from the rest of your home.

The Chinese are known for their belief that peace and harmony are important in all areas of life.  They believe that simple lines and design bring out the best in employees, encouraging them to concentrate on their work.

Although Chinese designs may look simple, behind each placing of office furniture, art or plants, there is a strategy and a reason and this includes where to put the office desk and office chair.

Chinese interior design is an art form itself, evolving over thousands of years, so you can have a fantastic office if you do it properly.

A huge part of their office culture is the clutter-free style, so it is important to keep the office desk and area clear if you want to get the full impact of Chinese office functionality.

Ensure that the office furniture is placed to take advantage of as much natural daylight as possible.

Outsourcing is something many companies are looking into now, even if they didn’t before, as it can make a lot of financial sense.

For short term projects, it is not always cost effect to employ somebody or even several people just for one project as the overheads would be too high, so outsourcing is something that many companies make a living from.

Telesales is a particularly popular outsourcing area and the call centre stereotypical image is one we are almost all familiar with.

Office furniture can be great for dealing with mass projects and for the call centre, there are plenty of options, particularly in the area of office desks.  These office desks are smaller than normal.  In some cases, they are fitted with plug sockets and power points.  They are designed so that workers can sit closely together, which in some cases is to save office space and in other areas to ensure that workers can communicate easily with each other.  Partitions are used to give some privacy, particularly in call centres where they need to use little office space but do not want telephone calls to interrupt the next door worker.

Consider the needs of your office carefully before you choose your office furniture to make sure you get the type most suited to you.

Many people forget, but if you are a mum that works, then you have two jobs already before you start to look at doing anything else.

Saving time is one of the most important factors for career mums, as you need to cram so much more into your day.  Working from home is a great opportunity as you can fit your life around your work.

However, you must be so very careful not to allow the two lives to merge into one, even if you do work at home.  It must not become a habit as you will only become more stressed, achieve less and feel demoralised.  Here are a few tips:

•    Have a separate area for your work space and when you need to work, make sure you go there and stay there until the job is done or your hours are up
•    Do not try to balance work with fighting with the washing, ironing and children’s breakfast.  Keep work calls separate and be clear about what is office time.  Working from home is not an excuse.
•    Make sure you eat.  Working from home can mean it is easy to skip lunch but this is bad for you, your work and your children.  Just make sure you keep to strict lunch times and return promptly.
•    Keep the home office clear from noise and disruptions.  Try to keep the children out of the office, as you do not want to lose work or find juice dripped all over your office desk.

Office interior design is the key to gaining essential office space, a commodity that it all important in times when office space is expensive and companies are looking to save as much money as possible.

If you commission an interior design specialist company, then they are able to take away all the headache from you.  All you need to do is give them the budget and advise any preferences.  They will then go and pick the perfect office furniture for your company’s image.  They will also have ideas to save office space, such as stackable office chairs, multi functional office desks and new style mobile filing cabinets.

They can also look at your lighting, making sure that the lighting fits in with the décor and functionality, and making the most use of natural light where possible.

Colour is not just important in terms of appearing stylish, but psychologically for employees and visitors too.

Be sure that your budget suits your taste, but bear in mind that most expensive office furniture, such as choosing a leather office chair over a fabric one, will last longer so it might be worth paying a little extra unless you like to change the design often.

Eyeing up the office furniture situation at work can be quite an eye opener.

Typically, the type of office furniture is quite telling about a person’s position within a company.  For example, the type of office chair that a person is sitting in might say a lot either about how they are perceived or sometimes how they perceive themselves in the workplace.

Somebody with a leather office chair with adjustable backrest and arm rests is usually either quite a pushy employee or they are of a higher rank than their other colleagues sat in the standard office chair.

When you first join a company, it can be useful to scan the office and see how the land lies.  Just bear in mind that the person with the leather ergonomic office chair may also simply have a bad back!

If you work hard, you might find yourself promoted through the ranks to that leather office chair status yourself, however, if you find you are constantly being left with the rickety old, broken office chair in the corner, then it might be time to stand up for yourself a little more and consider how people view your role.

When you are looking for office furniture, whether you are either a business owner or just looking for furniture for your own home office, then the endless choice of office desks, computer desks, office chairs and filing cabinets on the market can seem daunting as there is such a wide variety available now.

In the past, you may have had to trawl through store after store, none of which may have stocked the particular style you want and you would have spent a fortune in time and fuel looking round.

Since the internet, you are now able to find office furniture online.  Be sure to choose a reputable online office furniture company though.

You should be able to see measurements, images and descriptions of all the office furniture, including details of the materials used.  Another great advantage to buying office furniture online is that the prices are usually lower because they do not have the same overheads as a high street or business park store.

Delivery is often quicker and more efficient as an online office furniture company rarely has customers who will pick up the furniture and so they are used to handling all their deliveries in this manner.

On average, it is shocking to hear that most of us work an average of 40 hours per week.  Many people still have one or two week’s worth of incomplete work sitting on our office desk at any point in time too.  It is no wonder therefore that we feel so disorganised with a pile of papers and files on the office desk and emails waiting in our Inbox.

In order to see the work that really lies on your desk, start to clear the filing on your desk, throw what you can and sort out your office desk trays into an inbox, filing and waiting trays.

Try to set aside 10 minutes every couple of hours to clear emails, whether that is marking some as urgent, filing some, deleting some and replying to those that will not take up too much time.

When we can see nothing but paperwork on our desk it makes the whole office seem cluttered and it can depress us and make us feel stressed.  Set up a filing system that you can follow, because if you can get organised, your mind will feel clearer and you will become more productive.

Paperwork can be the biggest culprit for clutter in the office and it soon piles up on top and underneath the office desk so go through it and sort it out into piles.

Nowadays, there are many different sorts of office furniture, but one of the most popular, and the first usually bought, is the office desk.  Not only is it the most important item for most people but it sets the scene for the whole office style.

In smaller offices, the office desk is a focal point, as it is at every workstation.  It sets the tone so choose the design carefully, whether you want a plain one, traditional, modern or funky.

Plain office desks can double up as tables in meeting rooms, however, you can also find ones specifically made for this purpose.  It is handy to have a spare meeting table in an office for short get-togethers.

A reception desk is another sort entirely as it is often in a smaller space, and so it will usually have a telephone stand and pull out keyboard tray.

The boss’ office desk is another beast entirely. These are often expensive, executive desks, sometimes made of thick, heavy oak with extra accessories.

In an environment where there is great use of telephone, then use office partitions to give a little privacy and avoid conversations carrying too far across the room.  Office desks can be bought as units to lock together when teams need to work closely or space is limited.

Many people will be familiar with the phrase of ‘what makes people tick’ but it can be very different in the work environment.

Different things drive different people, but one thing that most workers have in common is that they work better if they have a comfortable place to work and both a good relationship and healthy respect with their fellow workers and boss.

So perhaps the first place you need to start as an employer is with the office furniture, making sure there is sufficient space between the desks for a walkway and have comfortable office chairs, preferably ergonomically designed to minimize any risk of back or neck ache.

You can also make use of other office space to ensure there is natural light wherever possible, and have an attractive reception, not only to give a professional image to clients and visitors but also to make your staff feel a little pride in the workplace.

Calm colours have been shown to help inspire calm at the office desk and items such as office plants, a few pictures on the wall and allowing employees to have one or two personal items on the office desk will also help.