Ways to Create a Professional and Welcoming Interior in Your Office

If this ongoing pandemic has taught us anything, our idea of the workplace is more flexible than many of us had previously thought. Though many lost their jobs over this past year and a half, countless others maintained their positions while working from home rather than the office. It may be too soon to say just how permanent these changes will be, but there’s no denying that the traditional office space is becoming less prominent than in past decades.

However, as the pandemic continues to decline gradually and health measures improve, many industries are now seeing a slow return to the office, even if only in a partial sense. Just as the shift to working from home was abrupt for so many, the transition back to the office can be challenging. Some businesses might see a decline in productivity and morale due to this return since several employees likely enjoyed the convenience of skipping the commute and the ability to spend more time with their families. To compete with the home office's allure and maintain a positive company culture (and reputation), business owners and managers must do whatever they can to make their workplaces more comfortable and welcoming for everyone inside.

Here are some great ways to create a more professional and welcoming interior in your office.

Ways to Create a Professional and Welcoming Office Interior

Open Up

The traditional workplace often gets stereotyped as boxed-in, stuffy, and drab. While many modern workplaces have since overcome these tropes, there’s always an opportunity to make improvements. For starters, giving your employees as much space as possible is a good idea. This can be a tall order for smaller offices, but even something as simple as moving furniture around and removing various barriers can make a difference. Indeed, office configuration plays a major role in productivity, morale, and culture. Cubicles and similar barriers may minimize distractions in your office but can also stifle communication and creativity. Though every workplace is unique, creating a more airy, open space often helps employees feel less suffocated on the job and encourages a freer flow of communication between everyone inside.

Permit Plenty of Natural Light

Your office’s lighting setup is just as important as its configuration. Different wavelengths of light can have significant and varying effects on our mood and behavior. Generally speaking, harsh, bright, blue light can keep us alert but also put us on edge -- conversely, soft, warm, dim lighting has calming effects, often to the point of spurring sluggishness. Neither extreme is ideal for a work setting, of course. As it turns out, LED lights yield more positive and productive work environments than their fluorescent counterparts, reducing eye strain, mitigating or preventing headaches, and not interfering with sleep patterns. As a bonus, LEDs are more efficient.

As good as LEDs are, however, there’s truly no replacement for natural light. Research indicates that exposure to natural light in the office can have multiple positive health effects for employees, including a major reduction of eye strain, better hormone balance, and overall increased mood. So, if you want to get the most out of your employees and promote a healthier company culture, ensure the sunlight outside your walls has plenty of ways to enter your office. Installing large, energy-efficient windows (and cleaning them regularly) will help.

Bring in Some Green Features

Sunlight isn’t the only natural force worth bringing into your office. Simply put, don’t underestimate the power of plant life. These green features might not seem like much more than decorative components, but plants can do much more to make your office more welcoming and lively than you might realize. For starters, interior plant life gives your people something to do together outside work. Watering plants and watching them grow is a calming, communal ritual that promotes social cohesion. Beyond this team bonding boon, having some plant life in your office will make your office feel less synthetic and closed-in.

Keep a Cleaning Schedule

It may seem obvious, but an unclean office is anything but welcoming or professional. However, if most of your workers have been away from the office over the past year and a half, office cleaning might have taken somewhat of a back seat. As people trickle back into the workplace, renewing your commitment to comprehensive office cleaning is time. Not only will regular cleaning help keep your office interior bright and beautiful -- it will also protect your surfaces from deterioration.

Update Your Office’s Interior Paint Job

Speaking of interior degradation, your office’s interior paint job will naturally lose its luster over time. Keeping your surfaces clean, as mentioned above, will reduce these effects, but touch-ups will be necessary to keep your paint job looking its best after a while. There’s no hard and fast rule for how often commercial interior painting should occur. If your office is relatively low-traffic, you might not need to repaint your walls or other surfaces for 7-10 years. On the other hand, high-traffic workplaces might require repainting every 3-4 years or so. Most businesses benefit from partnering with commercial painting contractors to maintain a steady, long-term paint maintenance schedule.

Pay Attention to Paint Colors

If office lighting can profoundly affect workplace productivity and morale, it only makes sense that the same goes for office colors. Color psychology is a contentious and complicated field of study, but there seem to be links between certain colors and psychological responses (these can vary from person to person as well). In our previous blog, “Choosing the Best Paint Colors for Your Home Office,” we explore the benefits of blues and greens for greater focus, oranges, reds for stimulating energy, and yellow for innovation and improved mood. Of course, too much of any color can become overwhelming, so it’s often best to use bolder colors for commercial painting accents. If you’re unsure how to select interior paint colors for your workplace, it’s worth receiving a color consultation from an expert.

Building a Better Office

The workplace has changed a lot in recent years and will continue to do so. Still, the office is far from obsolete, and keeping it as welcoming and professional as possible is important. At Nash Painting, we know firsthand how much interior commercial painting contributes to a positive and productive workplace by helping countless businesses across Nashville, Franklin, and Brentwood, TN.

To learn more about us, our services, and our values, call us at 615-829-6858 today!