If you’re in the workforce chances are you typically spend more time at work than any other place, so it’s fast becoming the norm for our office spaces to be designed to feel more like home. Check out Google’s headquarters for its out of this world workplace design, comfort and creativity aimed at nourishing people’s creativity and providing maximum comfort.
Gone are the days of beige colour schemes, no windows, zero décor (AKA vibe), and daggy furniture. What’s more, there’s big benefit in getting it right. Offices that are warm and inviting tend to increase productivity among your teams and encourage business from outsiders too, a win-win. One of the often-overlooked aspects of office design is window treatments. Installing shutters or blinds to your office (inside or out) can make a huge difference to the look and feel of the space with several added benefits, like energy cost savings too. Read on to get the full low down.
Styling Considerations
The first design principle to consider when enhancing the look and feel of your workplace is the impact the window dressing will have on the appearance of the building inside and out. From motorised blinds to louvre awnings, outdoor blinds, indoor blinds or shutters, there’s plenty of options to ensure the most visible part of the building makes a fantastic first impression. It’s worth getting it right too – untidy, ugly or wrong colour choices can easily spoil your entire space and create an unprofessional end result. The type of blind, its fabric and how its positioned make a big impact on both external and internal appearances too. Choose carefully and get some guidance from an experienced Factory Direct Shutters and Blinds specialist.
Wellbeing Considerations
In making the right choice of shutters or blinds for your office, key factors of occupant wellbeing relating to blinds include plenty of natural light, the indoor air quality, a decent view outside, glare control and physical comfort. Internationally recognised assessment frameworks such as BREEAM, Ska and WELL are typically used to benchmark sustainability and wellbeing factors.
Where should I position my shutters or blinds?
Another style consideration is where to position your shutters or blinds, particularly the hardware and storage container when not in use. It should ideally be concealed as much as possible to ensure a professional appearance to your office and to prevent glare. We recommend solutions based on your building’s orientation and style needs, often recessing discreet boxed compartments to stow away blinds, awnings or other window dressings when not in use with a clearly defined zone for the blinds.
Reduce Energy usage
Another key design benefit of installing window blinds or shutters for your office is reducing energy consumption. Exorbitant power bills are rife at work with power sucking air conditioners, heaters, lights, and equipment all a major drain on your business’s back pocket.
Blinds and other window dressings are fantastic solution for reducing cooling or heating costs and for preventing overheating. It’s quite challenging to work in too hot or too cold and this can be powerfully improved with shutters or blinds and other window dressings. Positioning of the blinds in relation to any glazing, and the type of fabric used selected are important factors in meeting the thermal needs of the space. Fabric selection also has an impact on glare control, so light control and temperature considerations should always be assessed together.
Getting the Light Right
The primary function of any window dressing is to help regulate light for the comfort of those in your office building. Two key points to consider are the positioning of the blinds or other window dressing and what fabric you choose in terms of UV blocking density, colour and material type. Our Queensland sunlight is one of the harshest in the world in terms of UV and sunlight can be incredibly harmful on equipment and furnishings, so it’s incredibly important to choose the right opacity of your fabric to control the conditions carefully.
Fabric selection will also have an impact on thermal performance, so light and thermal factors should always be considered together.
Weighing up the costs and options
Often finding out the cost of a window dressing is left until later in the design process. We strongly recommend getting an idea of the costs of different shutter and blind options early on to ensure a successful design and solution for your office. This can lead to situations where a very expensive solution must be used which could have been avoided if they were considered earlier in the process. For example, costs could be greater than anticipated due to specific building constraints with odd window shape or heights.
How long will office blinds last?
Durability and sustainability of the product chosen is another essential consideration in dressing your workplace windows. Choosing a window treatment based only on an initial purchase deal and aesthetics can end up being a costly and frustrating mistake when inferior products need replacing after only a short time. Think long term and ensure you choose the right fabric, style solutions which are not of an inferior quality or under-performing. Check out whether the blind system durability is matched to the fit-out life expectancy and a good warranty arrangement is available to. Also investigate where the product is designed and manufactured.
Need guidance? Call our team on 1300 077 125 to find out
about where our products come from and how they’re made.
Compliance
A final and all-important factor in choosing the right window dressings for your workplace is making sure that they comply with your current building regulations and safety standards.
Be sure to check whether the system you’re interested in is suitable for commercial use too. A large number of blind systems and other window dressings use materials which are designed for domestic use only and may not comply with the specific standards and regulations applicable to commercial buildings.
Ready to find out more?
With so many wonderful window coverings to choose from in a vast array of colours, fabrics and materials, we can help you identify the best ones for your office or home windows from our extensive range.
We bring the showroom to you at Factory Direct Shutters, so that we can help provide the right style and quote recommendations for your space. Book now on 1300 077 125 or Contact Us online.
