The Flexible Workspace

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.

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by Gillian Morris

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Flexible workspaces are all the rage in offices today. Flexibility can be introduced into the workplace through multiple different avenues—for example, by making the office feel more like home, or by allowing for rapid change in a space's layout or function. The latter is becoming increasingly more important for companies as rental agreements are trending more short-term, making easy-to-move furniture items essential for these modern workplaces.

Short-term leases are useful for growing companies because they allow them to reassess their rental spaces at the pace of their growth. As Common Desk founder and CEO Nick Clark told Dallas/Fort Worth Bisnow, “You can't lock in a five- or seven-year lease when you're going through incredible growth and don't know how many employees you'll have in 12 months.”

Because lending companies have to keep up with this growing demand for short-term rental spaces, many of their properties are open-plan, blank slates that naturally elicit flexible furniture and design solutions from their tenants. At Statton Design Group, we work with many companies who are presented with this unique challenge of adapting “blank slate” spaces to their particular business needs. Here are a few design and furniture solutions that we have found helpful along the way.

Modular Workstations

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.

Connect It Workstations by OFD

​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.

Put It on Casters

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.

PS Furniture Snap™ Portable Tables.

​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

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.

Keep™ Modular Wall System arrangments by Mayline

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.

Every Wall is a Whiteboard

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.

Aria glass markerboard by Ghent, in blue.

​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.

Color Coding

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.

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With the right design team at the helm, any business can successfully convert their space into a mobile office with optimum flexibility for future expansion and growth. At Statton Design Group, we frequently help clients achieve these goals through our interior design expertise and our close relationships with a variety of innovative furniture vendors. Let us know how we can help you with your next project!

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Looking for ways to make your business’ workspace more flexible? Want more information or pricing on any of the above furniture products? Contact us at Statton Design Group for a free design consultation. If you're in the Southlake, TX or Dallas Fort Worth area, we would love to set up a time to meet in person. Give us a call or send us an email to start finding your design solution!