Articles on Office Furniture – Office Reality

Sit Whilst you Stand?

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:02:26 +0000

Ergonomics, I don’t have to say really, have become the topic of much conversation not only in the office furniture industry but in many other industries. We spend a lot of time sitting down, more than ever before and it won’t become a shock if I say that nationally and internationally we are all getting larger on the whole. The Belize stool is a great way to not only take the weight off your legs but also keep you in a good ergonomic position when not only working but also relaxing as well.

There are other stools like this on the market at the moment, these include the Sway Stool and the Muvman Stool, however having tried all three I believe that the Belize comes out on top.
The Belize features a large round base that can easily support you if you lean too far, something that I found the Sway Stool lacks as it has a relatively small base. The Belize also features a round seat that is mounted on a height adjustable single pole that can suit users of all different sizes. The stool is available in a huge range of fabrics, imitation leathers and real leathers that its rival stools do not have, so we are sure that you will find the right material for you.

The reason that these type of stools have become popular in recent times is that they not only classed as café furniture and bistro furniture, but they can also be classed as office furniture and ergonomic office furniture as they will appeal to both industries.

This stool is available for purchase and you can get more information on this stool by calling our sales team or by visiting our sister site Online Reality. Click here to purchase.

Samsung SUR40 – Microsoft Surface 2.0 Desk

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:26:16 +0000

Office desks have always been the same for countless decades. The desks, whether they be corner desks or rectangular desks are usually finished in a laminate or veneer wooden desktop. With the advancements in technology and having a multitouch table top computer as a desk was a thing that was only in science fiction films and novels however Samsung have created a table that does just that.
The Samsung SUR40 table that was unveiled during the last 2 CES conventions proves to be a product of the future. The table top features a massive 40 inch 1080p LCD screen that features full HD display and is protected by the world’s largest piece of Gorilla Glass that provides full protection for the computer that it houses. The desk runs Microsoft’s second generation platform that has been named the surface 2.0 and has PixelSense touch screen technology that will make Apples iPad look like a mere toy in comparison.
The SUR40 can be used as a desk that can easily fit an ergonomic office chair underneath or it can be mounted on the wall for use in presentations and boardroom meetings. The wall mountable function is a new feature as the table no longer uses cameras hidden under the table to recognise finger touches. Instead PixelSense allows 50 simultaneous touch points on the surface.
The computer itself is powered by an AMD-based Windows 7 technology that uses a Microsoft Surface 2 platform. The table itself does not come cheap. The price for the desktop only is $8,400 (£5401) or if you require the stand that will enable it to be used as a desk then that will set you back $9,049 (£5817.65) So not a desk for those looking for economy office furniture.

Increase in Second Hand Furniture Sales

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:23:27 +0000

Doom and gloom seems to be on the menu for most businesses at the moment as even though we are out of the recession, companies are still going into liquidation. Huge household names such as Woolworths, Habitat, etc… have closed down and gone into administration. When you think about this, most people will only see the retail shops close down, however behind every big business there are head offices and offices that also close. You may be wondering then, what happens to all the office furniture when the company shuts down. The answer is that it all gets cleared by companies such as ORS and they keep anything that they can re-use or sell.
ORS are one of the largest removal and second hand office furniture companies in the UK and they are currently over run with second hand furniture collected from companies that have gone bust. To give an example, Barclays recently closed one of their branches in Coventry. The result of this is that ORS removed 450 office desks from the building before even starting on the other office products and office furniture. To cope with this, ORS have been forced to open another warehouse in the West Midlands, that adds to their already 3 full warehouses.
ORS used to only sell about 155 second hand furniture, however now they sell approximately 85% since the recession hit.
People just don’t have the money to buy new anymore. You can pick up a nearly-new desk that would have sold new for £2,200 for just £800. The stuff coming in has barely been used – it’s so different from the old tatty furniture full of cobwebs that we once saw.” claims sales manager Adrian Kowalski.
Adrian admits that this trend will not last forever as he feels that people will switch back to buying new furniture again.

“Forgetting” to Stand up?

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:12:23 +0000

Don’t let the title fool you, as a working nation; it appears that we do not stand up as often as we should be doing. It is a simple enough activity to partake in our working lives; however recent study has proved that we are not standing up as much as we should be doing. By this I mean that we work to long at our office desks and do not take a break. It seems that the most common form of communication within the office is email as opposed to simply face-to-face communication and if we carry on like this then it will be bad news for all of us.
A recent study that has been carried out at the British Psycological Society Annual Occupational Conference, claims that people spend on average 5 hours and 41 minutes sat at their desk every single working day. During these times, it seems that office workers do not take regular breaks from their office chair to move around and increase the blood flow to their body.
The main problem is that we are an, “ageing” population that appears to be working later into to their lives; however we do not take into account our health when deciding to stay late at the office. The situation is that we do not think about our bodies and health when we decide to either work late or take longer hours. The survey was undertaken with more than 1000 people from a variety of jobs including retail and telecommunications. It seems that sitting at your office desk on your swivel chair for hours a day has a link to your weight, surprise surprise.
What we need to do is to come up with a way of reminding people to get up and walk around. Unfortunately the only reminder we have so far is a post-it note on the computer screen. The advice is, from the experts, is to talk to colleagues face to face, rather than email.

Shall we Sit or Shall we Stand?

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:34:11 +0000

It is now common knowledge that office workers are working longer hours and that this is having a direct impact on our health. There has been a rise in the amount of work related injuries as we choose to stay seated in our office chairs at our office desks while working. The reason for this is that even though you may exercise before and after work, the time that you spend at work is mainly in a sedentary position. There has been a rise in recent years for the purchasing of height adjustable desks that you can actually stand by and work at. For some however they might find this mad.
Retail workers and bank cashiers tend to stand all day whilst at work and this does have negatives effects on the body. Standing all day whilst working can actually lead to problems such as varicose veins and in some very extreme cases, spontaneous miscarriages. With this in mind perhaps the answer is not to get rid of our chairs after all but to make sure that we use them properly.
The main reason for the rise in height adjustable desks, including treadmill desks is that too much sitting can actually lead to higher risk diseases such as cancer and diabetes as well as cardiovascular diseases. The reason for this is that when you remain in a sedentary position for a long period of time the the enzyme that is designed to take the fat out of the blood stream drops in production leaving the fat to flow around your body.
There is no definite answer to whether we should just stand or just sit at work, but a combination of both. The recommended maximum time that you should spend just sitting at your desk before moving is 30 minutes. This does included getting up and walking around.

Working Under the Sky

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:02:30 +0000

There aren’t that many people who get to work outside anymore, under the clouds. That is because many people opted for working at a computer desk or office desk rather than outside physical graft. There are issues with sitting for too long in an office chair that are becoming apparent in recent years, but ergonomic furniture seems to be saturated with ideas on how to overcome these problems. Fraunhofer researchers have created a prototype virtual sky that has the ability to imitate cloud movements to give the illusion of working outdoors
The prototype has been made using energy efficient LED lights, simulates the clouds moving across a blue sky and has the ability to change at a slow or rapid pace to imitate how sunlight will change the amount of light that comes from above. The idea of this is that it gives the office workers a pleasant feeling of working outside whilst sitting at their desks and office chairs, without feeling cold or the feeling of being in miserable weather.
The prototype that has been created has the ability to light up the ceiling with an intensity of more than 3,000 lumens per square foot (1 square metre) when at full power, which happens to be far greater than the 500-1,000 lumens needed to create a comfortable level of lighting for an office.
The virtual sky has already been tested on volunteers who found that they actually enjoyed working under this form of ceiling. They were tested over the course of three days, the first working under static lighting, the second under slow lighting fluctuations, and the third were rapid lighting fluctuations. After these three days, the volunteers were then allowed to choose which form of lighting they wanted to work under on the fourth day and a remarkable 8 out of 10 chose to work under rapid light fluctuations.
The lab where the volunteers were working was created by using 34,560 LED lights that covered an area of approximately 34 square metres. The virtual sky has already received interest from companies who would prefer to use this in conference rooms while sitting at their boardroom table.

The Tip Ton Chair – Simple yet Effective

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:21:53 +0000

Huge amounts of money are constantly being invested by furniture companies to try and come up with a chair that has an ergonomic design that not only does the job of making sure the user keeps a good posture, but also is aesthetically pleasing. Other countries around Europe do not seem as interested in the way a chair looks, as long as it performs well, however over here, in some cases, looks are everything. Designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby appear to have combined the two, to produce their latest invention, the Tip Ton chair.
On first glances, we see that this chair appears to be like most other plastic chairs around. However when looked at in more detail we can see that this chair has a forward tilting action that has only ever been used on mechanical chairs. This simple design allows the chair to tilt at an angle of 6.5 degrees which keeps the user’s spine straight and gives an overall better seated position. Not only this, the chair is designed to increase blood flow around the body which in time will help ailments such as back pain and other work related injuries caused by poor seated positions.
The chair’s design is incredibly simple. It is made using a single mould with no mechanical parts, which means that there are no joints in the chair which further supports the chairs strength leaving it virtually indestructible. Not only this, the chair is made from 100% recyclable products giving it an environmentally friendly quality as well.
This is the first time that a plastic chair has been made to be ergonomic and it is for this reason that the chair is an affordable solution to back care. The chair is also stackable giving it space saving properties, so there for can be used in schools and other public buildings.
This chair is very versatile and can be used as an office chair at an office desk or café chair at a café table. It can also be classed as education furniture as it meets with British Standards.

Stress Relieving Tips When Working in an Office

admin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:24:50 +0000

Office work can be stressful at the best of times. This can be your boss hounding you for work that you haven’t completed yet or clients chasing an important quote. It might be that just the monotony of the workplace and even that office screen that blocks your view of the window that’s giving you grief, or the fact that you’re sitting in an uncomfortable office chair with an office desk that is far too small for you and your work. In any case below are a few tips to try and release stress levels.

1. It may sound quite odd but the sound of running water has been proven to relieve stress. By just listening to it as background music it can evoke peaceful emotions. There are desktop water fountains that you can buy that can be placed on your desk. However this can cause a distraction to others so it may be worth getting permission before buying

2. Making sure you have a good posture at work can have a huge effect on your stress levels. By buying an ergonomic chair, will help you to alleviate back pain problems and help you to sit correctly at your desk.

3. Some people find that a stress ball really helps to relieve tension. This is an obvious one and unlike the water and aromatherapy tips, this can be allowed in a working environment as it does not distract others.

4. The position and tidiness of your desk can have a huge effect on the way that you work, and how you handle it. By keeping an organised desk, it will help you to find everything easier and a tidy space means a tidy mind

Cardboard Desks for Students

admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:59:05 +0000

The state of the environment is becoming an ever more important topic of conversation among manufacturing industries including the office furniture industry. Companies and factories are being forced to come up with products that are not only recyclable but also made from recycled materials. Not only this but the actual manufacturing of the furniture has to have a very small carbon footprint which when you include transport on as well this can be quite a hard task. There are office chairs and office desks out there that are made from recycled materials and are very recyclable however very few manage to hit each target.
Two Toronto based university graduates appear to have come up with a solution to this, which is primarily aimed at the student market. They have designed and manufactured what can only be described as a cardboard desk that is made from 95% recycled material and is 100% recyclable.
While at University Geoff Christou, became aware of this problem and wanted to know if he could come up with a selection of cheap office furniture that was environmentally friendly. He also wanted it to be lightweight to cope with students having to constantly move rooms between terms. The answer was cardboard and he set out to try and achieve this goal.
The desk itself costs $19.99 and is delivered flat packed through the post or by courier. The desk is easily put together with simple instructions and can be easily removed or thrown away when the desk has out lived it’s requirements.
You may be thinking that what happens it this desk gets wet? Well that has already been thought of as this unusual desk has been coated in a water resistant glue that laminates the cardboard to avoid the desk becoming soggy.
It appers that since the company began they have sold 100 units online and seem to have interest from other office furniture dealers and distributors. They are currently arranging for the product to be sold in Mexico and Brazil in early 2012.

The Laptop Tower – Just as Ergonomic as it is Functional

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:39:10 +0000

All we seem to hear these days in the office furniture industry is ergonomics. It is a very important subject especially as more and more people are getting injured at work due to spending long periods of time working at their office desk and sitting in their office chair. Not only is this problem increasing, but the portable way of working is on the rise as well. There is one product that is trying to combine these two factors and that is the LaptopTower LT.

The design of the Laptop tower is unlike any other office desk. You don’t use a chair for this, you simply stand which means that already you are in a more ergonomic posture. Unlike other desks, the tower is compact and takes up very little space so can be used in a range of domestic and commercial applications. The tower comes equipped with a lighted, pull out laptop shelf with mouse pad, four shelves and sockets to accommodate other small electrical items such as printers or projectors. One of the great benefits to this tower is that it has its own in built cable management system so stray cables will not cause clutter. The tower is powered by a single transparent cable leading to the sockets inside.

Not only can this piece of office furniture be used as a workstation, but it can be used to give presentations as well. It’s compact so is able to save space in the office or meeting room for other necessary items such as office storage, meeting room tables or even a large boardroom table if one is needed in the room. The tower comes in a range of veneers and paints that are used in contrast to produce an attractive workstation.