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A well-designed office space can have a significant impact on your business; getting it wrong can also have disastrous consequences. So, other than the obvious first step of hiring the best commercial decorators in London, here are a few important rules to keep in mind when planning your office redesign.

Create Defined Spaces

One of the first steps when it comes to office design is to split your space into defined areas. This doesn’t mean building cubicles for each worker, instead think about designing spaces that provide opportunities for collaboration, as well as spaces where your employees can focus and work interruption free. Also consider what you will need in terms of meeting rooms, and how you can optimise these spaces.

Choose Your Colours With Care

It used to be common practice to decorate your office in neutral tones so that it was inoffensive and, for want of a better word, corporate. If you ask commercial decorators in London now, they will tell you that the right choice of colour can make all the difference to the feel of an office. It can also help with defining the areas of your office. For focus think blues and greens, and for motivation and energy think reds and oranges.

Hide The Wires

Electronics are a staple of a modern office, but their wires don’t need to be. Investigate integrated wiring solutions. Nothing makes an office look untidier and more cluttered than wires dangling off every desk. It is worth investing in one of the many clean and simple solutions available out there.

Plan For The Future

When designing your office space, avoid the temptation to plan the perfect office for your team as it is now. You need to keep one eye to the future so that your workspace can accommodate your team in the years to come. This can be as simple as making sure that you have more power outlets than you think you need for right now, and also making sure you have flexible storage solutions that you can modify as your team changes or grow.

Make The Most Of The Light You Have

Getting the lighting right in an office can actually affect the productivity of your employees. Most commercial decorators in London know that natural light can be a limited resource, so they are also skilled at helping you to make the most of it. Your choice of colours can enhance what light you have and make the whole office feel brighter and more alive.

Use Nature As Inspiration

Studies show that plants in offices have positive impacts on the mood and productivity of employees. If you have space in your budget, consider getting some plants into your office. If there isn’t space for real plants then consider using nature as inspiration in your design, this could be in the use of prints or colours or even the layout of your space.

When considering the colour scheme of your office, it can be important to take into account the impact it has on the working environment. When hiring office decorators in London, you want your office painting to be perfect; from quality to colour. Some colours have been shown to make people feel happy, productive and calm. As office painting and decorating is not a regular occurrence, you want a colour scheme that you and your colleagues can enjoy for a long time. It can be very important for employees in London to have a space around them that positively impacts their wellbeing. 

Angela Wright wrote a book called Colour Psychology, and describes how outside of work we are used to many different bright colours stimulating our brain, especially in a busy city like                London – so our workspaces should be the same! Let’s look at what colours stimulates what behaviours and see what sounds right for you.

Red

Red is a colour often associated with excitement, physical activity, and energy. If your office requires movement such as building work or production lines, red might be a good stimulus around your space. People usually use the colour red in small amounts or to draw attention to a certain aspect of the room. It’s known to be used to stimulate hard work in builders and constructors, or cafes to encourage the movement of the queue. 

Red can also help in jobs that are detail oriented and involve memory retrieval. If your office has to do lots of proof-reading or script memorising, red could be the colour for your office.

Blue

Many consider blue as the most productive colour. It stimulates the mind into focusing on tasks and getting things done. It’s a great colour to paint your office if you’re trying to encourage a ‘heads down, work hard’ approach. Bear in mind; this is a good colour for focusing on tasks that do not require much physical activity, for the workplace that does, we recommend reds. 

If you want a productive office, but not a particularly quiet and studious atmosphere, you might want to add some orange to stimulate the emotional mind. Most office decorators in London would suggest that including an emotion triggering colour is vital to stimulate creativity,             communication, and office relationships. 

Yellow

Yellow can be calm and optimistic, and decorators often use this colour in offices where employees are expected to be creative. Creative and design companies in London would benefit from yellows. However, if your office is particularly bright and well lit, yellow can reflect light become uncomfortable on the eyes. In bright offices, it’s best to use yellow subtly. 

Some studies have shown that a yellow room can cause bouts of anger – another reason to keep yellow subtle! 

Green 

Green gives the mind a sense of balance, harmony, and calmness. It is a great colour to have in offices in which employees have to work long hours. Furthermore, it’s a colour that doesn’t strain your eyes and doesn’t provide emotions that are particularly one extreme or another. Consequently, medical offices often use green in their colour scheme.

Some people associate the colour green with money. As a result, some suggest that green is a good colour for banks and financial offices. 

It’s good to seek advice from your chosen office decorators in London. Seeing the office, feeling the vibe, and understanding the job can give painters and decorators more of an idea of what would work best for you. 

Still unsure what colour to go for? We offer free consultations to offices across London and offer expert advice on what works best for you. To find out more about us, get in touch.

Finding office painters in London is not difficult, but finding high-quality office painters in London can be. In a sea of commercial painting and decorating services, spotting a reliable service is a minefield. Luckily, we’ve put together a guide for identifying the best painting and decorating company for your needs.

Carry out some research

Find out who the local decorators in London are and get quotes from around three different companies. By inviting them to your office space and allowing them to conduct a full evaluation, you will not only be able to compare prices but also attention to detail. You can observe how efficient, polite and reliable they are from their inspection. It also gives you time to talk about quality and expectations in terms of time and availability.

Remember the best commercial decorators offer free quotes. Any painter and decorator charging for consultations are likely to be in it for the money. In addition to this, check out their working times. If you need a commercial space painted or redecorated in one of the busiest cities in the world, it might be worth organising the work to be done out of office hours – or even at night!

Remember, price isn’t everything, look for those offering a quality service and go for the company that you feel most comfortable with and that will work to suit your needs.

Find out what insurance they hold

Interior and exterior painting require manual labour that is inherently risky. Often there will be ladders and slippery surfaces during the work. It is advisable that you seek out commercial decorators and painters have both public and employee liability insurance.

This means that if there is an accident and someone is injured and needs medical attention, it covers your business from any legal cases that are held against you if you are in any way seen as negligible.

Nothing beats tried and tested

Customer satisfaction is a testament to a painting and decorators quality of service. In London, thousands of decorating projects are taking place and people willing to provide feedback on their experiences. You can ask the painter and decorator for references or perhaps a review site that they use. You can also visit a recent decorating project carried out by that company and see if the quality is still holding up. Nothing beats a review from a satisfied customer to give you peace of mind.

Get experienced painters and decorators

You shouldn’t be afraid to ask if the company has an in-house London team or subcontractors. In-house decorators have higher loyalty to the company as the money goes straight to them. Using subcontractors might make you question whether they have insurance for them too.

The advice that painters and decorators in London give indicate their experience. If they’re keen to talk through your requirements and make suggestions they’re more likely to be working with your rather than against. Two years of experience is good, but anything less may be questionable.

Costs and guarantees

Costs can be the deciding factor, but you should not compromise quality painting by choosing the cheapest option. It is worth asking about guarantees. Some contractors offer a two-year warranty and will actively return if the paint unexpectedly flakes, blisters or peels. Remember it is always best to get the deal written and signed, allowing you the best chance to hold them to their word. 

With the right painter and decorator, you won’t have to revamp your residential or commercial London office again anytime soon. At Cloud Painting, we are a friendly, hard-working team providing high-quality work and first-class customer care. With competitively priced services throughout London, we work on residential, commercial and office buildings to provide an internal and external painting service during flexible hours.

With over ten years of experience and countless satisfied customer testimonials on our website, our London painting and decorating services are the best choices for your decorating project. 

Give us a call on 020 8242 4479, email us at contact@cloud-painting.com or click here, fill in the form, and we’ll get back to you with a quote.

Every year in the world of homes and interiors sees new trends and styles come to the forefront, and homeowners all over the country update their lounges, their bedrooms and their other living spaces to align with these up-and-coming trends.

Keeping Up With Trends Can Be Simple And Affordable

Many people believe keeping up with the latest trends is expensive and time-consuming – but it can be simple, if you have the know-how. You might need to invest in a statement piece of furniture or bring in the London painters and decorators to make it work, but when it’s finished, you’ll have a lust-worthy living space that you’ll simply love spending time.

So what are the top interior trends for 2017 and beyond? Let’s take a look at some of them, and how you can achieve these looks.

Tropical plants

This is a trend that’s super-easy to bring into your own home – it barely requires any renovation or DIY skills at all! From tropical leaf prints and wallpaper to exotic palm and swiss cheese plants, it’s easy to make your living space feel more like a paradise island. If you already have quite a bold colour scheme, be careful with this trend – it can be easy to go overboard! If your base colours are fairly neutral, you can go wild! Create a feature wall, bring in lots of plant life, and make use of Pantone’s Colour of the Year for 2019: Greenery.

Maps

Maps are also set to be huge in the next few years – and no matter what your existing interiors, it’s easy to jump on this trend bandwagon. If your home is more vintage-inspired, you could buy some antique maps and have them framed for a beautiful focal point in any room. If you have a more modern home, wall map decals work great – and many of them will keep your wall paint in great condition, so you won’t need to call in the painters when it’s time to peel them off.

Geometrics

This beautifully minimal trend is perfect for those who want to inject some contemporary style into a dull space. The classic hexagonal (or honeycomb) shape is used heavily, with cushions, tables, lamps, wall prints and other interior trinkets all available in many homeware shops at the moment. You could even dedicate one wall to a geometric mural, with strong lines and unique shapes. Make sure you run it by your painters and decorators first!

Mandalas

The mandala is an increasingly popular pattern in western interiors, having originated in Hindu and Buddhist cultures. Every mandala is different, but they’re generally circular, with an array of symbols, shapes and patterns spraying outwards from the centre point. Expect to see this everywhere: rugs, candles, bedding and wall prints.

Reclaimed wood

As we all try to live a little more sustainably, the trend for reclaimed wood has soared. Rather than sourcing shiny new wooden floors for their homes, many people are opting for a more rustic look, with reclaimed wood that looks just fabulous. You can use reclaimed wood for a multitude of other things in the home, from the surface of a farmhouse-style dining table, to some open shelving for your living space.

Flashes of neon

Feeling brave? This trend is for those who have an adventurous spirit in their interior design. Splashes of neon colours can make any home feel innovative and avant-garde. We don’t mean painting a whole wall bright neon pink (although you can, if it floats your boat), we’re more talking about bold neon feature lighting, a rug with flashes of neon yellow or green, or a print on the wall with daring neon shades.

Subway tiles

If you’ve ever been on the London Underground and taken some serious style inspiration from some of the vintage-style tiling on the walls, this trend is for you! Known as ‘subway tiling’, you can add this trend into your kitchen and bathroom for real impact. It’s a trend that you can adapt to your own taste and style – white tiles with grey grout looks fabulous, or you could go for glossy navy tiles with a crisp white grout surround. The sky is the limit here, so experiment and see what works best in your home environment.

Navy is the new black

Speaking of navy, this is one of the most popular colours of the year, with many people choosing to update their living spaces and dining rooms with this shade. Navy walls give a sense of tradition and heritage, but they can also be modern, depending on the surrounding environment. Call in the London home painters and decorators, and give your home a navy-inspired makeover!

Interior trends of 2017 to move away from…

There are certain trends which are starting to lose traction and should be on their way out quite soon. Check them out:

• Industrial-looking metal kitchens. Remember when it was all the rage to have burnished metal appliances like fridges and cookers on show in the kitchen? This trend is starting to die out, as people turn towards lighter and airier kitchens, with more of a homely feel.
• Massive, oversized furniture. Many homes these days have huge comfortable sofas, and while they might be practical for large families, they’re not the greatest investment in terms of style. The trends in 2017 are moving towards furniture which is scaled to the space its in – or furniture which multi-tasks, offering storage or some other function on top of its main purpose.
• Choosing rooms with a ‘time period’ in mind. Many people love to choose a decade or an era as inspiration when they’re furnishing their rooms – but this can be very limiting and restrictive. Take inspiration from the current Scandi design movement, which draws inspiration from the 1970s, but adds truly modern twists.

If you’re planning on incorporating any of these trends into your home, don’t forget to call Cloud Painters today – their team of London painters and decorators will ensure your walls are primed to welcome any new trends.

Top tips to boost home value with the help of expert London painters and decorators. If you’re thinking about selling your home in the next year or two, you’ll naturally be hoping to get as much money for it as possible. That means you may need to come up with some creative ways to spruce up your living space and make it attractive to buyers – after all, it’s a very competitive market, with so many people looking for their ‘dream home’. You need to turn your home into the kind of place where other people can see themselves spending their future.

Add Value To Your Property Before You Sell

There are a multitude of ways you can add some value to a property before you sell it – whether that means calling in a London painter and decorator, or going the whole hog and extending your property. Here are some of our top tips to boost your home’s value before you put it on the market.

Step one: the outside of the property

The property’s exterior and the garden space is the first thing a potential buyer will see of your home – and we all know that first impressions count. If your property looks a little run-down or shabby from the outside, it’s important to address this issue. If you have a brick home with missing gaps, fill them in, or render over them to create a clean and fresh look. If your home has been painted, give it another coat to freshen it up and make it look brand new. You should also pay attention to things like your driveway and paving, as well as the front garden. Plant some simple flowers to brighten it up, and make sure the lawn is mown before each viewing!

Step two: interior basics

Inside the home, you should be looking to give all door frames, window frames, skirting boards and bannisters a new coat of paint. This gives the entire place a ‘finished’ look, and if you’re using the same colour for all of them, it ties the home together. If you’re not sure whether you can do the job, call in a London home painter and decorator to get the job done to a very high standard.

Step three: walls and floors

You should also seek to freshen up the walls and flooring before you put a property on the market. Many estate agents will suggest restoring your interiors to a neutral shade before you try to sell – it acts as more of a ‘blank canvas’ for potential buyers. If you’ve used bright, vibrant colours or avant-garde shades in any of your rooms, it may be time to paint over them with a few coats of paint in a neutral tone, that won’t be likely to put anyone off. Of course, you still need some personality in the home, so a few splashes of colour here and there are fine, but try to look at the property with an objective eye and imagine you’re viewing it as a buyer.

If you have carpets, they should be professionally deep cleaned, and if you have laminate flooring, lino or stone floors, you should make sure they’re sparkling and fresh before each viewing.

Step four: fitting and fixture upgrades

This tip mostly applies to your bathroom and kitchen. These are the two rooms which can typically add the most value to a property, so you may as well take advantage of this fact. Consider upgrading your taps to something more sleek and stylish, and consider things like new tiling or countertops to give the place a bit of a revamp. If you have the renovation funds available, you could turn your bathroom into a wet room, or even extend your kitchen to make it a more communal space – open-plan kitchen-diners are very on trend right now. If you’re on a tighter budget, carry out smaller jobs like replacing tile grout, or painting kitchen cupboard doors a different colour.

Step five: cleaning and organizing

As we’ve mentioned, your home needs to be as blank a canvas as possible when showing it to potential buyers. That doesn’t mean you should pack away all of your belongings – in fact, you should leave some personal items around to show the buyer that this is a happy family home and help them see themselves living there. But clutter of all types needs to be tidied away – and be careful where you put it! If you have large wardrobes, cupboards and other storage spaces in the home, it’s likely that buyers will want to have a look in them to gauge their size. The last thing you want is for them to open a cupboard and see a mountain of junk stashed away in there! Consider hiring a self-storage space for most of your belongings, at least until you can move them into a new property.

Step six: finishing touches

Lastly, there are a few extra finishing touches you can carry out to make your home more inviting and welcoming to potential buyers. Upgrade or clean your light switches and fixtures – perhaps consider installing dimmers or spotlights, if you have the funds available. Lighting is important when selling a home, and when positioned correctly, they can give the illusion of space.

Carry out additional DIY tasks that you might have been putting off. Oil the squeaky kitchen door, fix the handle that you’ve been meaning to get round to, mend shelves that won’t be coming with you, and give the entire place a good dusting.

If you need help with any home painting or decorating tasks, get in touch with Cloud Painting today – our team are on hand to help with London painting and decorating projects of all kinds, whether it’s domestic or commercial.

Discover how to choose the right paint colours for your home with home decorating tips from top London painters and decorators. Your home is where you spend the vast majority of your time – it’s where you sit down for dinner most evenings, it’s where you curl up on the sofa with a film, it’s where you put your head down to sleep each night, and it’s where you spend time with your family. Homes are deeply personal spaces – every detail and possession says a little something about the person who lives there – and when you spend so much time in this building, it’s important that your home represents who you are.

Make The Space Your Own With Your Choice Of Colours

As top London painters and decorators, we know that choosing the right colours for your home goes a long way towards making the place feel like yours. Colours can have a huge effect on how we feel when we walk into a room – it can stimulate us, it can make us feel warm and cosy, it can give the sense of light and space. From the welcoming colours of the entrance hall to the hues that make the lounge feel so comfortable and the bathroom feel so fresh, it’s important to get the colour scheme of the whole place just right.

If you’re planning a home overhaul, or perhaps you’re moving into a new property in the near future, here are some top tips to help you choose the right colours for your home.

Start with a mood board

When you’re planning your interiors, a mood board can help you bring together ideas, inspiration and other interiors that you like the look of. Pinterest is a great tool for doing this – you can take a peek at other colour combinations and ideas and see which ones might work best in your particular space.

Think about base colours

It’s very rare that you can decide on the colour of a room without thinking about other factors. What colour are the floors or carpets? Do you have an existing piece of statement furniture that you’ll need to work around? For a bathroom or kitchen, are there already fittings and appliances of a certain colour? You’ll need to bear all these things in mind before you make a decision.

Look at a colour wheel or chart

Colour wheels and charts are great for showing you which tones and shades will work best together. There are a number of ways you can select colours or hues which will complement each other:

• Tonal – this is where you select just one colour and use different variants of it throughout the room. The colour charts you see when choosing paint can help with this, showing you all the colours of a certain tone.
• Harmonious – this is when you choose colours that are quite near each other on a colour wheel. As the name might suggest, this creates a space which is harmonious and restful.
• Complementary – this is a more daring option, which involves choosing colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel. If you’re more adventurous with your interior design and not limited in having to match paint with furniture or flooring, this might be a better option.

Think about rooms and moods

This is where you can start to inject some personality into your colour decisions. You know best what you use each room for, so you can decide which ‘mood’ will suit each space best. For example, some people like their bathrooms to be a zen, spa-like environment, choosing peaceful shades of blue to make a relaxing retreat. Other people prefer their bathrooms to invigorate them, opting instead for bright, zesty colours that are fresh and energizing.

For another example, some people do a lot of entertaining at home, and want their dining room to feel smart, formal, and fit to receive lots of guests. Navy, burgundy and dark woods create a great formal dining space. Others prefer a more casual area for their family to tuck into evening meals, choosing brighter colours that make for a more relaxed and informal area.

Bedrooms give you a chance to really make the space your own. Keep it cool and contemporary with layered neutral tones, or go for rich opulence with deep, darker colours offset with metallic highlights.

One tip from interior design experts is to choose warm and welcoming colours for areas like your living space and your entrance hall. You should also make use of natural light as much possible, in every room of the house.

Other tips

• Always pick up some paint samples and bring them home to test. Colour charts and wheels will only show you so much, and the light in your home might be totally different to the light in a shop. Paint a small square on your wall to check it’s the shade you want.
• If you can’t find the colour that you had in mind, don’t compromise – after all, you’ll be looking at these walls every day! Many London home painters and decorators have a paint-mixing service, and some of the big paint brands offer a colour match option too.
• If this is your first time painting a room or renovating a home, don’t hesitate to bring in the experts. Professional painters and decorators will have the kit and the expertise to create a perfect finish in every room.
• You can create the illusion of space very easily with colour. Lighter colours always feel more spacious – darker wall colours will make it feel like a wall is closer to you, which is great for cosy rooms or large spaces, but might not work in a small study or bedroom, for example. You can also use darker shades at the end of hallways and landings to avoid a ‘tunnel-like’ sense.
• To create a sense of consistency throughout your home, keep all door frames, skirting boards and other woodwork the same colour – a neutral colour which works with all other shades you’ve chosen.

For more information about expert painters and decorators in London, get in touch with the Cloud Painting team today.

We look at the benefits of hiring office painters and decorators in London. Discover the reasons to spruce up your workspace regularly and why hiring office decorators is a top investment If you run a business that operates out of an office, you’ll be aware that keeping it in prime condition is vital for the continued success of your company. Making sure your office space is clean, fresh and professional has a multitude of benefits – not just for the staff that work there, but for any visitors or guests you may have during working hours.

Tips From Expert Office Decorators To Get The Job Done Right

A vital part of office upkeep is making sure the walls are painted regularly. Here are some reasons why you should consider painting your office walls more regularly – and some tips from our expert office painters and decorators in London for choosing paint colours and getting the job done.

The benefits of a clean, fresh office

First, we’re going to take a look at the benefits of having a clean and fresh office. Did you know that having an organised, streamlined workspace can actually boost productivity? Studies show that working in a space which is tidy, neat and fresh can boost motivation and reduce stress among staff. A study by Staples also found that 94% of employees report feeling more productive in a clean workspace, while more than three-quarters said that the work they produced was of a higher quality when they were in a clean environment.

If you have an office with paint peeling off the walls, or dingy discoloured paint surrounding your employees, the place is going to feel messy, unorganised and unclean. Simply giving your office a lick of fresh paint can brighten up the place and make it feel cleaner, which could end up boosting your employees’ productivity.

Keeping up appearances

If you regularly conduct meetings with clients in your office space, you’ll know exactly how important it is to keep up appearances and make a great first impression on your visitors. For example – if you run a small accountancy firm and you’re welcoming clients into your working environment, they might be put off if they see that you’re operating from a premises which is not well kept.

If your visitors and potential clients walk into an office and see peeling paint or uneven patches on the walls, it’s not going to generate a positive and professional first impression. They might even take their custom elsewhere if they believe you’re running an unprofessional operation.

Repainting your walls at least one per year can help to keep up appearances and make sure that your guests aren’t put off when they arrive at your offices.

Your office is part of your brand

Branding is a crucial part of any business’ success in this day and age – and your office forms a key part of your brand. You need to ensure that your office, its colour scheme and its furnishings actually represent the identity of your business.

For example, if you run a small law firm, which needs to convey a formal and professional image at all times, it might be inappropriate to paint your office walls in bright, funky colours. On the other hand, if you run a trendy tech startup, your office needs to reflect that innovation, and going for plain old white might not fit the bill.

This is why you should consider regularly repainting your office – to ensure that the colours in your workspace are consistent with the brand you’re trying to build.

Choosing a paint colour for your office

So we’ve established that painting your office is important. Now we need to decide what colour you’re going to use the next time you have your workspace repainted.

Colour has been known to affect behaviour in a number of ways. In babies, it’s widely known that you shouldn’t paint a nursery yellow, because it can overstimulate them. Colour psychology is also used in branding to invoke certain feelings – blue is associated with trust, green is associated with peace and the environment, yellow is associated with youth and energy, and so on. These are things to consider when choosing your office paint colour.

Many office have crisp, clean, white walls – it’s simple and it’s effective. But a study from the University of Texas has suggested that white walls could be counterproductive for office workers. In a productivity study, workers were split into three groups and had to complete tasks in there different rooms: a red room, a white room, and an aqua room. While some people were able to ‘block out’ the effects of colour, all groups made more errors when they worked in the white room.

In other studies on worker preference, many have suggested they like to work in a blue, or blue-green environment. These colours are calming without being boring, and they communicate trust and innovation.

Some people choose grey as a neutral colour – but one colour psychology consultant from London said that grey lacks energy and could even foster a lack of confidence. If you’re going to use grey, you should offset it with a more energetic colour, like yellow or orange.

So what are the best colours to choose when repainting your office? Here are our recommendations:

• Blue – you can’t go wrong with blue. It’s a conservative colour, associated with honesty and trust, which is why it’s used by many banks and financial institutions in their branding.
• Green – green is associated with serenity, growth and security. Darker shades of green are also used to indicate prestige, which is useful if you’re trying to attract high-end clients.
• Burgundy – not as distracting as red, burgundy is a formal colour, perfect for more corporate businesses trying to project an image of control and responsibility.

If you’re not confident enough to paint your entire office one of these colours, choose a ‘feature wall’ in your space and balance it out with tonal beiges, nudes or greys, for a look that is professional without being overwhelming.

For more information about our office painting from our commercial painters and decorators in London, get in touch with the team today.

Get tips and advice on easy ways to revamp your office from experienced office painters and decorators in London. Every week, millions of people across the UK and beyond spend a huge chunk of their live in an office space. It’s not unusual for many of these people to spend more than 40-50 hours per week here, working hard to ensure they’re making their clients, customers and superiors happy.

Make Your Office Comfortable, Professional And Attractive

With so much time spent in the office, it’s important to make sure that the office space is a nice environment. It should be comfortable, professional, attractive and the kind of place where employees will feel happy about spending up to 9 hours every day. Whether that means bringing in London office painters and decorators, splashing out on new furniture, or simply moving existing furniture around for a better layout, it’s important to inject new life into an office from time to time.

Here are our top tips to revamp your office space and keep employees happy.

Paint the walls

One of the best ways to give your whole office a new lease of life is to paint it from top to bottom. Maybe you’re changing the colour scheme, maybe you’re simply freshening up the existing colour with a fresh coat – whatever you choose, this will help the office feel brighter, lighter and a more comfortable workspace for your staff. If you’re not sure about taking on a painting task of this magnitude, call in experienced commercial London painters and decorators, who can take on the job for you and complete it to a very high standard. Check out our other recent blog on the benefits of repainting your office regularly, as well as some tips to help you choose the right colour for your office space.

Make it more comfortable

An office should never be bare white walls, plain desks and chairs – it should have its own sense of personality and life. Bring some plants into the office space – they’ve been proven to boost productivity, and they’ll keep the place feeling fresh. Add some art or some prints to the walls, as well as the staff noticeboard. Encourage your employees to make their desks feel more personal, with items brought from home. Picture frames with friends and family, as well as their own mugs and maybe even a cushion to sit on can make them feel much more at home. Move away from the idea of an office as a sterile and boring environment – or that’s how your workers will treat it!

New floors

Replacing dull, old office carpet with a slick laminated wood flooring can elevate the space to no end – it’ll make the entire environment feel lighter, airier and more modern. Don’t neglect the floors when it comes to revamping the office! If you can’t afford a whole new floor, or your tenancy agreement doesn’t permit you to change the floor in the office, consider hiring someone to carry out a deep clean regularly, so that your carpets don’t start to become unhygienic or unsightly.

Door frames, window frames and skirting boards

Why not change the colour of the door frames, window frames and skirting boards to make your whole office feel slightly different? If you’ve moved into an office that has white walls, white frames and neutral flooring, giving the frames and the skirting boards a lick of paint and changing their colour can be a cost-effective way to put your own stamp on the place.

Address the lighting

If you have outdated overheard fluorescent lights, not only could they be costing you a fortune in electricity bills, they could also be contributing to an unproductive environment. Replace them for energy-saving bulbs in a ‘daylight’ shade which replicates natural light as much as possible. Natural lighting has been shown to help workers be more productive and creative in the office, so if you want them to do their best work, make sure your office doesn’t feel dark.

Give your employees input

Circulate a survey about the things your employees most want to see in the office. Your staff are the people who spend a lot of their time here – they deserve a say in how the place looks and feels. They might want you to introduce more soft furnishings – a sofa here, an armchair there, to create a small breakout area. They might ask for more vending machines, or for a different layout of their desks or cubicles. Listen to what they say – their views are important!

Rearrange the office space

If you want to make the place feel different and new, experiment with the layout of the desks and workstations. This can change the whole flow and feel of the office – it may even result in heightened productivity. You could try to make the space more open-plan, creating an illusion of spaciousness and light, which won’t go unnoticed by your staff. Create ‘zones’ within your workspace – a zone where staff can meet guests or clients, a zone where they can work on non-computer tasks (signing contracts, brainstorming with colleagues), and obviously a zone for workstations and desks.

Invest in supportive furniture

Ergonomic desks and chairs are fundamental in making your staff feel supported and comfortable. If you have the budget for it, invest in the kind of furniture that will support different postures, to boost the performance of your staff and increase wellness. You could even bring in some standing desks, which are a big trend right now and are a great way to offset the sedentary lifestyle of an office worker.

If you’d like more information about office painting and decorating in London, get in touch with the Cloud Painting team today – we can discuss your needs and book you in for an office revamp as soon as possible. Keep following the blog for more tips!