These furniture showrooms embody all that is great in commercial furniture design. Their perception on how the workspace should be utilised is anything but bland and will certainly act as a conducive draw to those still stuck on their kitchen tables or on a makeshift desk in their bedroom.
COEL and its furniture division CMS Cambridge were keen to track the trends displayed in the exceptional new season collections:
Comfort - the last year has given us all a taste for domestic comfort within the working environment and whilst we now maybe thinking we don't want to be living at work, we would quite like to transport a homely armchair of sofa for the corporate homecoming.
Plush velvets, sumptuous sofas and inviting armchairs were beckoning us to come and relax; raising the question - to work efficiently do we need to work in strict conditions or are we more productive in a softer, more supportive environment?
Privacy - In the advent of sleek, open plan offices becoming the norm, there is a realisation that we need private spaces and secluded areas to have time to focus or have an uninterrupted tête-à-tête. Meeting booths, auditory pods, high back chairs and screens were all in the running this year providing varied solutions on how we can provide and protect that idyll we all crave - a quiet place to be.
Drama - In over a year of ground hog day as we retain the balance of both living and working from home, the designers have been creating the extraordinary to deck out our workspace. Some showrooms took inspiration from high end hotels and nightclubs with a ritzy sense of glamour and a clear indication that this is not your home - this is somewhere very special, and you are on the exclusive invite list.
Others went for the pièce de résistance; a showpiece to knock all the others out of the running.
The trip to the showrooms made clear that the workplace is far from dead - the enforced breakaway period has led to a complete rejuvenation in aesthetics and more pertinently a focus on how the physical layout can provide for our emotional and social needs.
For advice on finding the perfect furniture for your workplace please call CMS Cambridge on 01223 357 777 or email hello@coel.uk.com