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How Lighting for Conference Rooms Influences Your Meetings

lighting for conference rooms

Employees in many industries around the nation spend most of their workdays in meetings. Since it is the setting of a large portion of each and every workday, it is essential to optimize a conference room for employee productivity and satisfaction.  However, many conference rooms are lacking elements needed for this to happen, specifically, proper lighting. While it might not seem like a big issue, evidence shows lighting for conference rooms can have a major impact on the success of your meetings. Proper lighting is linked to higher rates of productivity, employee retention, and overall satisfaction in the workplace, making it an important element of any workplace. 

Looking for the best upgraded lighting for conference rooms? Here are a few helpful tips!

Invest in Versatile Lighting

Tailor your conference room lighting to fit specific meetings and satisfy different employee needs by opting for versatile lighting that can easily be dimmed. This will allow you to adjust the lighting in your conference room to improve visibility as needed; for example, group discussions and face to face meetings might require different lighting than a meeting that features a digital presentation or the use of other technology that might require the lights to be dim.

Incorporate Natural Lighting

If you are able to rely predominantly on natural light for your office’s conference room, doing so can have many positive effects on employee mental health and productivity. Natural lighting is linked to better mental and emotional health, and studies have shown that employees who have regular exposure to natural sunlight during a workday are often more productive and produce higher quality work than those who do not. If you are unable to rely on natural light from windows in your conference room, try investing in bulbs that mimic the effects of natural sunlight, which can lead to similar results.

Stay Away From Fluorescent Bulbs

If your conference room uses the bright, overhead fluorescent lighting that is typically associated with most traditional office spaces, it’s time for an upgrade. In recent years, LED lights have become a better, more visually pleasing option for many offices, as fluorescent lighting is linked to migraine symptoms in light sensitive employees, interference with employees’ sleep schedules, and poor mental and emotional health in those who spend the majority of their time in the office. LED lighting is not only more appealing to employees, but is more energy efficient and has a longer lifespan than fluorescent lighting, making LED a great investment when upgrading your office’s lighting for conference rooms. 

Contact Key Interiors To Learn More About Lighting for Conference Rooms

Key Interiors has helped enhance lighting for conference rooms in hundreds of workspaces to help boost employee productivity and satisfaction rates and to give commercial spaces in a variety of industries a modern upgrade. To learn more about our comprehensive design and build services, contact us today!

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Conference Rooms Office Design Office Furnishing Office Renovation

Custom Conference Room Tables: What to Consider

custom conference room tables

A well-designed conference room is an important asset for most businesses. It not only serves as a designated meeting spot for a company’s many stakeholders, but also often acts as a makeshift lunchroom, packing station, training area, interview room and more, depending on the prevailing need of any specific day and time. As a consequence, it can be hard to find a perfect conference room table — the unmistakable star of conference room design. Indeed, in many instances, companies will need to create a custom conference room table in order to get a table that serves all the needs of their room’s various functions. Here’s what you need to consider before designing custom conference room tables:

The Size of the Room

The first step in designing a custom conference room table is to determine the size of the room in which the table will go. A custom conference room table will inevitably be the focal point of the room.  You don’t want to dampen its impact by building a table that’s either too large or too small for the space. Most designers suggest a table have anywhere from four to six feet of clearance from the room’s walls in order to maintain the room’s scale and ensure people have adequate space to rise, walk and mingle.

The Size of the Table

With the dimensions of the room at hand, you should also think about the number of people your table will need to accommodate. Even if your company only has a few employees now, consider the people you will need to host, along with any company plans for future growth; build a custom conference room table that is able to seat all current and future staff members and guests. Go as big as possible for the room you’ve got and the budget you’ve set. And don’t forget, any table you build will need to be moved through the building and into the conference room itself. Take into consideration especially tight hallways and/or elevators to make sure your table will be able to make it to its destination.

Style

One of the most exciting aspects of designing custom conference room tables is the style that it conveys. Customization is the name of the game, so have fun with it! Your imagination is really the limit, but you should remember to examine the overall style of your office and think about whether or not you want to match it to your new table. There are many different table shapes (such as rectangular, round, boat and U- or V-shape tables) that can each possess many different kinds of features. There are live-edge tables that highlight raw wood along one or more sides. There are single slab and solid tables, and ones built in arrangeable components (i.e., modular). Some have one leg (pedestal table), some have two (like trestle, railway and waterfall tables) and some have more. Peruse design magazines for ideas. Look at catalogs, as well as the furniture in other offices. Then, talk to an experienced designer. A reputable firm can help you narrow your options and pick a style that best suits your needs, your office’s culture and your aesthetic.

Materials

Wood isn’t the only material with which custom conference room tables can be made. Tables can also be made from stone, metal, glass and laminate. The material used for construction affects everything from the table’s ease of cleaning to its durability, so pick wisely according to your office’s needs, priorities and budget.

Cost

Which, of course, brings us to an important consideration: cost. Custom conference room tables come in a variety of prices. Think about what you absolutely need and add what you want until you reach the maximum budget you’ve set for your custom conference room table design-build project.

The Key Interiors Advantage

A custom conference room table will likely serve multiple purposes. Take advantage of the expertise of an experienced office design firm like Key Interiors to ensure the table you order is the table you really need and will actually like. Our designers at Key Interiors can help you design a custom conference room table that is both versatile and unique. Please contact us to learn more.

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