At Statton Design Group, we are always on the lookout for trends in commercial interior design that will help us tailor our services and furniture selections to the changing tastes of our Dallas Fort Worth area clients. Every Tuesday we will feature a trend that has caught our attention and discuss how this trend is affecting our approach to commercial interior design with our local DFW clients and whether or not it's here to stay.​

In his Financial Times piece, Josh Spero argues the case for better corporate art. He contends that most offices intentionally select art that is bland, inoffensive, and formless, in an attempt to avoid offending clients and visitors. This outsider-facing, obsequious approach, Spero asserts, is extremely detrimental for those who are forced to view the art day in and day out: the staff and employees.

​He recommends that organizations choose art that is challenging, visceral, and engaging, as often these interesting pieces appeal both to outsiders, more so than sycophantic generics, and simultaneously elevate the creativity and engagement of those inside the office.

​Read more of Spero's fascinating piece here.

The most effective way to reduce noise and increase privacy in an office space is to start at the beginning: construction. Walls and floors can be the best sound barriers if the materials used to build them are sound-absorbing.  Sound-absorption is defined according to two different measurements, the NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient) and the SAA (Sound Absorption Average). Both are decimal numbers between 0 and 1; the higher the decimal, the greater a material's sound absorptivity.  Unfortunately, the cheapest and most common building materials do not meet the threshold of 0.35 required to considered a true "sound absorber." ​

​If sound-absorption is crucial to your office space, start by sitting down with your building manager, architect, or construction overseer to ensure that the thickness and content of your building materials is compatible with your noise or privacy concerns.

If you are looking for privacy, you can't go wrong with walls. Enclose an area and...boom! Instant privacy. But if you can't build walls into your design from the outset, you will need to look at some alternative solutions...

As you have probably noticed from the above table, one of the best sound absorbers is carpet. For this reason, carpet is the #1 non-structural method for keeping an office space quiet. Similarly, but to a lesser extent, fabric furnishings are good sound absorbers. The key to these "soft" fabrics' absorption power is their ability to trap sound waves between layers of fabric and padding. Once sound waves enter these materials, they encounter resistance that impedes their escape, therefore reducing the overall volume of the sound that is transmitted. Velour fabric is particularly good at this, so go ahead and indulge in that beautiful velour/velvet sofa you've always wanted!

The final step to securing a quiet and private office space is through the use of Acoustic products. Acoustic products have become increasing more available and affordable as demand for them has risen. Here are two of Statton Design Group's favorites:

Best Sound Solution: Snowsound Acoustic Panels
​​We are thrilled to have recently begun selling Snowsound products and we can't say enough about their incredible selection. Their divider panels, floating acoustic panels, wall panels, and cubbies, create multiple sound-absorbing barriers that are both functional and beautiful.

​Best Privacy Solution: Framery Acoustics
​We discovered Framery at NeoCon this past June and we immediately fell in love with their sleek design and in-your-face functionality. Need privacy? Enter one of their phone booths for immediate sound-proof isolation. Need a private meeting space? Enter one of their Framery Q booths for two. These products can be dropped in to any room and become an instant privacy solution for an open-plan space.

We hope these ideas help you add some privacy and quiet to your workspace!

In reaction to increasingly problematic open-plan offices, many businesses are exploring designs that articulate their spaces into multiple "zones," each with a specific structure and function.

​Open-plan design was once touted as the ultimate collaborative office solution and it promised increased interaction among workers as well as enhanced employee engagement. Sadly, after years of analyzing these open workplaces, experts have concluded that they fall quite short of their original aims. Recent studies have shown that worker peace of mind, productivity and focus suffer in open-plan spaces and that enclosed private office spaces "clearly outperformed" open plan designs in empirical measures of workplace quality.

​Segmented or articulated spaces are the proposed solution to open-plan. The idea is simple: create separate spaces within an office, each with a distinct function, so workers can choose to inhabit various areas according to their individual needs for either privacy or collaboration.

Many large corporations have already applied this concept to their headquarters, for example, Dropbox and Square. As Dropbox's new headquarters design in San Francisco is described by Fast Company, "The finished Dropbox headquarters mixes public, semipublic, and private spaces, each catering to a different kind of employee mood. It looks almost like a warehouse of different classic film sets, where employees can choose the world they want to work in that day." Similarly, Square offices are said to have been designed to work like a city, with various zones, plazas, and avenues.

​The key to the success of these articulated spaces will be their flexibility to adapt to the specific and varied needs of their employees over time, something which open-plan spaces have failed to do. We will simply have to wait and observe how these new office designs might affect workplace quality in the future, for good or ill.

Put up that cool piece of art! Paint that accent wall! Get that Parsons table! All of these trends are fine and even beneficial in moderation. With tried-and-true finishes in place, you can afford to add pops of in vogue décor while remaining consistent with the aesthetic of the space.

The great thing about applying trends strategically is that they are easily changed. Swapping out art or repainting a wall is a piece of cake and can be done regularly without too much hassle.​ As a general rule, we suggest that clients ask themselves one question before selecting any trendy décor item: Is this consistent with my brand aesthetic? If so, go for it!

Historically, modular furniture has earned a negative reputation through its association with the notorious cubicle. Today's modular furniture options are sleeker, more open, customizable, and more conducive to a flexible office environment.

​One of our favorite modular furniture options is the Connect It series of products by Office Furniture Distributors, a local Dallas area vendor based in Carrollton, TX. Need to change a layout, add a desk, increase your storage, or remove a divider panel? Connect It makes all of these tasks flexible, affordable and easy.

Easiest way to make your space more flexible? Put casters on your furniture! This enhanced mobility allows you to easily move furniture to different areas of an office depending on the varying needs of the day. On-the-go layout change is exactly what many businesses are looking for when enhancing their space's flexibility.

​We love Wisconsin-based PS Furniture's Snap™ portable tables for this very reason: they are light, durable, mobile, and folding for easy storage. Can't get much more flexible than that!

Breakout areas are the conference rooms of the flexible office. Breakout areas are great for a few reasons: 1) they naturally segment open plan spaces into areas with discrete functions, 2) they are often easy to erect and easy to move (a la casters!) and 3) they seemingly materialize collaboration and creativity among employees by providing all of the amenities of a conference room space without the aloof formality of slick leather seating.

Mayline, another one of our Wisconsin-based vendors, has a fantastic product for such areas called Keep. Keep is a modular system that allows clients to customize their breakout areas with fold-out tables, media options, whiteboards, walls, storage, and much more. We love working with Mayline and we're very excited to use their Keep collection in some of our client's breakout areas.

Whiteboards are a stand-in image of collaboration and are also extremely effective at enabling workplaces to become more flexible. Strategically placing whiteboards on the few walls in an open-plan space makes every wall an opportunity for collaboration, meetings, or instant breakout sessions.

​Our favorite markerboards are glass. The one shown above is made by Ghent and comes in a variety of colors and customizable options. Glass is a sharp-looking alternative to traditional whiteboards that can double as a projection surface or display area without appearing cheap or out-of-place.

We love using color in our client's spaces. Many companies have been utilizing color as a way to code various areas according to function or activity. This makes for very flexible offices as modifying the function of an area or its activities is as easy as changing the color.

One of the trends we are loving right now at Statton Design Group is what we are calling "The Great Outdoors." Our Dallas-area clients are increasingly looking to incorporate elements of the natural world into their commercial interior design projects, as are many other businesses across the country.

​Although recently popularized, this trend is by no means a new idea. For as long as people have worked indoors, they have longed to transpose the beauty of the natural world into their chaotic and sterile office environments. As Thoreau wrote over 150 years ago, "There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature." He may have been on to something--scientific evidence has long touted the physical, emotional, and psychological health benefits of plants, sunlight, and other natural elements in our environment.

​Bringing The Great Outdoors into your workplace can include a variety of design elements in addition to plant life, such as fire and water features, or natural stone. The key is finding the design element that fits best with your company aesthetic and works within the unique constraints of your space.

What aspect of nature are you looking forward to incorporating in your commercial design project? Leave us a comment and let us know what outdoorsy elements are on your mind!

Often when I mention to friends that I work for an Interior Design firm, they respond by asking me which colors or throw pillows our designers like to recommend. While interior designers can certainly choose excellent colors and throw pillows, this response typically reveals an underlying misconception about interior design, namely that interior design and decorating are interchangeable terms. In truth, Interior Design and Decorating are not interchangeable.

​So what's the difference? Essentially, Interior Designers can do a lot more than a decorator. For example, interior designers can create and verify official construction documents, ensure spaces are designed according to ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards and other regulatory requirements, and apply principles of environmental sustainability during build-outs. Designers must also be licensed and certified according to national certification standards, whereas no comparable certification exists for decorators. However, like a decorator, designers use their creativity to select finishes like wall colors and floor finishes, purchase and arrange furniture, and add finishing touches to client's spaces like artwork.

​While Decorating is certainly valuable expertise to have, it cannot replace the broad technical knowledge and methodology that an Interior Designer brings to a project. Besides, hiring an interior designer is a great investment--you get a decorator and a designer all rolled into one! As the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) puts it, "In short, interior designers may decorate, but decorators do not design."

Commercial design has never felt so much like home.

​Businesses are increasingly turning to elements of residential interior design to transform their offices into comfortable home-away-from-homes for their employees. This trend has affected most aspects of the workplace and has contributed to a wholesale transformation of today's corporate culture.

Why do so many businesses want their workplaces to feel like an extension of their employees' homes? Well, for starters, Millennials. Millennials now make up the largest share of the American workforce (34%) and are projected to grow to almost 50% by 2020. Unsurprisingly, companies have begun to adapt to the distinct values and needs of this growing workforce. And what do millennials value most of all? Work/life balance. ​

​For millennials, the gold standard of work/life balance is the home office. Working remotely allows for flexibility in schedule and location, giving millennials the opportunity to prioritize travel or family life in conjunction with their work. But this work arrangement, although becoming more common, is still relatively hard to find, so millennials often look for jobs that offer the same benefits of working from home, at the office.

If employees must engage in a more traditional office, they want their spaces to reflect this culture of work/life balance. Companies are increasingly turning to commercial interior designers and furniture manufacturers to create home-away-from-home environments for their employees and attracting and retaining workers is increasingly dependent on office design.

So, what makes an office feel like home?

Are companies successfully creating "homey" environments for their millennial workers? They certainly are trying. But one thing is for sure: Home is where the heart is, but with more residential design elements, the office may not be far behind.