Office Design Trends For 2024

Your business’s culture is reflected in your office design. If your space has old, uncomfortable office furniture, bulky and unreliable workstations, and inadequate lighting, your employees can feel dissatisfied, disengaged, and even less productive.

Whether you have an all-in-person staff or several employees who work remotely, it’s critical to consider how your office design might affect your workers and business morale.

Keep reading to learn about upcoming office design trends and how they can help your business. 

Consequences Of An Outdated Office Design

You and your employees spend dozens of hours every week in your office, and a tired working environment or outdated designs can hurt your business in the long run. Let’s look at some common problems and bad ergonomics in outdated offices.

Decreased Employee Productivity

Employees are your biggest asset. Working in an office that reduces their motivation and causes them stress can lead to overall decreased productivity. 

 

Research shows that quality and intentional design can improve productivity, collaboration, and well-being. 

Poor office design may also affect your employees’ concentration and attitudes, interrupting your workflow and stifling creativity. 

An office that lacks functionality can also be an obstacle to productivity. Consider how frustrating it may be for your employees to navigate from room to room when your layout is disorganized and doesn’t cater to their needs. 

Lack of Open Space and Storage

No employee feels comfortable working in a cramped environment surrounded by clutter. As technology has changed and improved to provide computers and devices with fewer wires and less bulky components, office design must follow.

Employees should have plenty of space between their workstations to move freely and organize their belongings. 

Communal spaces, like the lounge, conference room, or reception area, should also provide plenty of storage and open air for employees to work efficiently. If your workers are crowded on top of each other, it’s easy for important files to go missing or dust to collect on stacks of boxes, negatively impacting the look and feel of your office. 

Lack of Natural Light

Sunlight has many benefits for all humans. However, working in an enclosed office space with few windows or access to natural light can decrease your employees’ mental health and make your office feel uninviting. Research indicates that natural lighting is one of the top things that employees value in any workplace. 

Whether you’re moving to a new office or sprucing up your current one, adding both natural and artificial bright light can significantly improve sleep patterns, emotional stability, productivity and depression. 

Deter Potential Clients

When designing your office with employees in mind, be sure to consider how your space looks to potential clients, partners, investors, and new hires that visit your office. A poor office design can make a bad first impression on those you want to impress. 

Old paint, cramped spaces, dull lighting, and a messy layout can easily deter clients and encourage them to take their business elsewhere. No matter your business, making a positive first impression is critical to establishing and maintaining a reputation and relationship in these partnerships. 

5 Biggest Design Trends for 2024 

Some of the top office design trends for 2024 capture what most people want to see in their homes. When shopping for a home, you might pay more for a better view or closer to the water or a park. 

A nice, spacious layout is another way to draw employees in, as they can place new office furniture without it feeling crowded.

Here are the five biggest commercial interior office design trends for 2024 that you can incorporate into your office design this upcoming year. 

1. Biophilic Design

Biophilia relates to a love of nature, living organisms, and natural systems. Biophilic office design focuses on incorporating natural resources to create a balance between modern architecture and the natural world.

Even if your office is in a tall building with limited access to an outdoor space, you can still find ways to provide a closer connection to nature through thoughtful design. 

As we continue through 2024 and beyond, it’s time to stray away from dull colors and monotonous rows of standard cubicles. 

Bringing nature inside is the best way to create a modern biophilic office design. Add water fountains, plants, flowers, fish tanks, and natural wood elements to replicate the elements of nature that mimic the natural world. 

The sound of water will recreate the ocean, and fish tanks can bring more life to your office in an eye-catching way. 

Even if your office lacks access to natural light, you can add plants that thrive in low-light spaces, like cacti, to add color to your space and enhance your air quality. 

There are endless benefits to incorporating nature in your office design, including:

• Reduced stress and mental fatigue
• Enhanced mood
• Improved cognitive performance
• Enhanced social engagement 
• Better sleep
• Improved respiratory symptoms 

Other biophilic design principles to include in your office are:

• Windows that can open for fresh air.
• Plenty of access to daylight.
• Outdoor spaces, such as a garden or patio, for employee breaks 
• Natural textures and materials, such as wood tables or stone floors.

2. A Sense Of ‘Home’ At Work

Comfort is a top priority for most people. Merging the comfort of your home with your office can help employees feel a sense of peace and tranquility, allowing them to feel more inspired in their work. 

As some of the workforce shifts back into full-time at the office, it’s important to include the sense of home at work in popular office trends, including:

• Comfortable seating
• Curtains
• Warm lighting
• Plush carpeting
• Indoor plants
• Outdoor seating and furniture 

Consider the habits of your employees who have previously worked from home. Imagine working in casual, comfortable clothing from the comfort of your home to wearing a suit and sitting in a restrictive room at work. 

This change might have been difficult for employees to adapt to, especially if the office they return to isn’t optimized for their comfort.

To accommodate this change, try incorporating comfortable seating throughout your office or a plush couch in the lounge or breakroom, so your workers can take a break from sitting at their desks all day. 

Design trends of offices changed significantly after COVID-19. The main goal is to provide safety and comfort at every level to make employees feel at home. Aside from comfortable seating, you can incorporate other residential elements, such as calming artwork and thoughtful lighting throughout the office. 

Even wood flooring can bring a sense of warmth to the space. Adding rugs in working areas throughout your office can also help you create a home-like atmosphere. 

3. Flexible Working Space

While making your office a comfortable, inviting space is important for motivating employees to spend more time in the office than working from home, you should also prioritize a flexible working space that combines open concept, innovative office designs with private, enclosed workstations. 

Pod-style layouts include small enclaves where employees can safely work, research, engage in video conferences, or make phone calls with plenty of privacy while still participating in the workspace and communal areas. 

These spaces can also accommodate employees who are only in the office for one to three days while spending the rest of the week working from home.

Essentially, employees want options when it comes to their workspace. Feeling locked in one room all day can become tiresome and stifle creativity.

Having a flexible working space allows you to shift the mood and feel of your office to provide plenty of options that fit all employees’ needs. For example, one employee may perform more efficiently in a coffee shop or lounge-style setting, while another may work better with a quiet, dedicated desk. 

Some ways you can include versatility and collaboration within your flexible working space include:

• Open-plan designs and removing physical walls.
• Quiet areas, such as sound-insulated rooms.
• Shared amenities, such as informal common areas. 
• Adaptable workstations with ergonomic office furniture, including standing desks and comfortable chairs 

Adding these elements to your office space can certainly encourage free-flowing collaboration and motivate your employees to try out non-traditional working styles to uphold a creative environment. 

4. Easily Transformable Workstations

A transformable office is a space where employees can work wherever and whenever they want. Like flexible working spaces, transformable offices need to accommodate remote or hybrid office workers who can easily come and go throughout the week and work on a level that feels best for them.

With a transformable office, you can convert your space to an open conference room or close it down to suit a few employees at a time.

For instance, one day, you might have every employee show up to the office and need a spot for everyone to work comfortably. On other days, however, you might only have four or five employees working at the office in person. 

A transformable office is an excellent option for hybrid workforces because it can suit any number of employees, even if that number changes daily. 

A transformable office might have the following elements:

• Office furniture that expands and contracts to meet employees’ daily needs
• Desks that are configured to meet the day’s various needs 
• No assigned cubicles or offices
• Flexible walls that pull in and out to create separation when needed 
• Long tables with several charging stations 
• Collaborative zones 

These elements are general ideas for creating a transformable, modular office space for your employees and colleagues. Maximizing your working space can help increase productivity and encourage employees to collaborate and feel more involved in company culture. 

Your office may not feel as flexible or accommodating if everyone has their assigned workspace. 

Employees might not feel comfortable moving from one room to the next throughout their day and want to continue working in an environment that fits their energy levels and work style. 

In a transformable office, employees can come in and collaborate on various projects or go from a standing desk to an office booth to stay concentrated and perform their best. 

5. Sustainability Office Furniture & Workstation Options

Environmental impact and sustainability options are becoming increasingly important to many people, including employees. Choosing sustainable office furniture options in your office allows you to make thoughtful choices that prevent a negative environmental impact. 

Today, you don’t have to choose between designing a beautiful, functional workspace and maintaining a healthy planet with sustainable materials.

You can include eco-friendly options throughout your office that show employees, clients, and new hires that reducing environmental impact is a top priority for your company. 

• LED lighting 
• Access to natural lighting
• Energy-efficient devices
• Living walls — or green walls — that create plant displays on the office interior 
• Maximize heating and cooling temperatures 
• Prioritize recycling of food waste, plastic and old devices 
• Keep track of your office energy use 
• Create a composting station
• Use reusable products 
• Reduce paper use

Many modern offices today emphasize including plant life or greenery to bring the nature of the outdoors inside. If your office space doesn’t have many windows or outdoor space for employees to enjoy the sunshine on their breaks, adding a bit of nature inside can enhance your overall design and create a more relaxing atmosphere. 

While you can choose from many colored plants that can set a comforting, home-like mood, plants will also provide improved air quality, oxygen flow and increased efficiency in your space. 

If you have a small outdoor space or lots of natural sunlight near a big window, you can create a small workspace garden where employees can tend to flowers or vegetation during their break time. 

This calming activity can help workers reset their minds and learn more about incorporating sustainability and overall health into their lifestyles. 

Additional Design Trends For 2024

While commercial office design trends for 2024 and beyond focus on comfort, safety, and incorporating elements of nature, many other ways exist to create a happy and healthy working environment to improve productivity. 

Here are some additional corporate design trends that can suit your company’s mission and values. 

Neutral Colors 

Neutral colors instantly make any office feel more comfortable and easily complement pops of color for a well-balanced, enlightening space. 

Tans, whites, browns, beiges, and grays will also be the perfect accent to your company’s brand colors and the landscape around you. 

Neutral, lighter colors allow you to control the mood in your office space and where to draw the most attention. They can also prevent your office from feeling too loud, overwhelming, or irritating for employees who spend most of their week in it.

Noise Reduction 

In open, flexible, or transformable offices, noise is inevitable. However, there are many different ways you can control this noise and make it easier for employees to concentrate and be productive.

You can include sound absorption materials to help quiet down a room, including:

• Rugs over flooring
• Plants 
• Acoustic partitions 
• Other soft materials that absorb sound waves and lower ambient noise

Between ringing phones, clicking on keyboards, and chattering conversations, it can be easy for your office to become too loud. Emphasizing noise reduction can help reduce distracting or stressful side effects for employees.

Safe Workstations

With the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses and organizations have begun to rethink their interior design and office layouts to provide a safer, healthier working space and comply with OSHA and CDC guidelines. 

This means that many employers focus on reducing touchpoints, such as doorknobs, handles, and buttons, and incorporating more hard surfaces that can be easily cleaned and sanitized. 

You can even include a maximum capacity for specific rooms in your office and place hand sanitizer stations throughout the space to encourage practicing healthy habits. 

Wallcoverings 

Adding wallcoverings — similar to wallpaper paneling — to your office space can open up many creative options for different patterns, textures, and colors that add dimension and warmth. 

These surfaces are easy to clean and maintain, allowing you to completely transform your space to make employees and visitors feel welcome and comfortable.

A strategically placed backdrop or accent wall in your coffee lounge, reception area, or collaborative working space for teamwork can enhance the overall mood and add personality to any office. These designs can also easily complement existing color palettes or neutral materials and generate a more productive, creative environment. 

Mixing Old And New Design Elements 

Another office design trend is pairing old and new elements together to create a fusion of the past and present. From retro to geometric patterns and pops of color to muted tones of ivory and beige, you can pair different elements that work well together and create a unique space.

Whether you want to add new artwork, change the flooring, or paint the walls different colors, looking at past and current trends can help you determine how to make your office stand out while simultaneously remaining balanced. 

For example, you can mix different metal finishes, add a patterned rug on top of a solid concrete floor, or pair an antique desk with a bright, modern chair for an alternative design spin. 

Adding Spaces For Leisure 

Having a space for employees to relax is just as necessary as thoughtful design in their workspace. Whether you have a mostly in-person staff or a hybrid workforce, your common areas must include ways for employees to unwind and take a break from work occasionally. 

You can also design a leisure space to allow employees to work away from their workstations, but it’s a good idea to keep these spaces work-free so your staff can put their minds at ease. 

Some creative ways you can include leisure spaces in your office include:

• Game rooms
• Coffee bars
• Comfortable office furniture, such as beanbag chairs or hammocks
• Recreational spaces to do calming activities, like yoga or watching movies
• Fitness centers to promote exercise 
• Cereal or snack bar 
• Library rooms for reading 
• Sound systems that allow employees to choose and play their favorite music 

Office Design Trends That Are Dying Out

Now that you have some ideas of popular, modern office design trends, let’s look at outdated corporate design trends in 2024 that may impact your space more negatively than you think. 

• Large, permanent workstations
• Physical filing systems or bulky, oversized cabinets 
• Generic, business-like spaces
• Non-ergonomic chairs 
• Corner desks
• Dark lighting 
• Clutter that creates visual overload
• Outdated cubicles
• Desk phones or desktop computers that prevent mobility
• Typography or abstract art 

Enhance Your Office Space With Arnold’s Office Furniture

Improving your office design has endless benefits, including making employees feel more comfortable, relaxed, productive, and creative — no matter how many hours a week they spend at work. 

At Arnold’s, we know how important having a flexible, customizable workstation is. Our Sunline Signature Cubicle Systems provide the transformation the modern workplace has been craving while allowing employees to move to a quiet place for concentration when needed. 

We’ve stepped up our cubicle game and offer a new design that meets the ever-changing popular trends and office layouts. 

Whether you’re moving to a new office or wish to renovate or redecorate your current one, Arnold’s Office Furniture has plenty of options for comfortable, customizable office furniture and workstations that mesh well with an open-plan or traditional office. 

To start your next office project, request a quote today or contact us with any questions.