How to optimize your small office?

Working in a few square meters is increasingly common, and making a small office comfortable and functional is more about method than luck. Before buying or moving a single piece of furniture, an honest assessment of what's there is in order: what files, equipment and furniture are really essential, how many jobs are needed and where people move around. With that photo, furniture decisions become simple.

Is a desk with or without drawers better to maximize space?

For a small office, a desk without built-in drawers, accompanied by a separate rolling drawer unit, is almost always better. The lightweight desk lets in light and makes the space look larger, and the drawer unit moves, shares, and stows under the cover when not in use.

Integrated drawers are only suitable when the position works with paper every day and the file has to be at hand. In that case, it is better to have only one side with drawers and the rest clear: the solid desk on both sides visually shrinks any office.

Which desks are best suited for small spaces?

The compact ones, from 1.20 m wide, and the shared workstations: by concentrating two or four positions on the same structure, they yield more square meters than the same number of loose desks and organize the wiring.

For storage, the rule is to grow upwards and not to the sides: overhead furniture, vertical bookcases and the space under the desk with a drawer unit. And if standard measurements don't fit, a desk tailored to the wall takes advantage of centimeters that would otherwise be lost.

Which desks are easiest to assemble?

Those with a simple structure: four legs or metal frame, one-piece cover and few joints. The fewer parts, the fewer tools and the less margin for error.

That said, in offices the correct question is another: who sets it up. At Dunati we deliver and install the furniture in Santiago and regions, coordinating the entry with the building, so assembly is no longer a client's problem.

My current desk is uncomfortable, what can I do to improve it?

Before changing it, three adjustments that cost little: adjust the chair so that the feet rest completely and the elbows are at the height of the cover; raise the screen to eye level, with a stand or even a firm base; and clear the surface by moving what is not used daily to a drawer or an overhead.

If after that it is still uncomfortable, the problem is usually one of measurements: less than 60 cm deep is not enough to work with a screen. There it is advisable to change it for one that fits the space and the person's real work.

Which desks have the best storage capacity?

Those that combine a drawer unit under the cover with vertical storage next to it or on top: this duo stores more than a desk with integrated drawers on one side only, and can be disassembled and relocated when the office changes.

If the position handles documents, the chest of drawers with a file drawer (the deepest, with rails for hanging folders) is the one that works. And if the floor no longer offers more, the storage continues upwards: an overhead cabinet above the desk adds capacity without taking up an additional square meter.

How many square meters does each workplace need?

As a planning reference, a comfortable individual desk needs around 4 to 6 m² including its proportional part of circulation, and not just the desk rectangle. Shared stations lower that figure because they distribute the structure and corridors among several stations.

The classic mistake in a small office is to calculate only the furniture and then discover that there is no room left. Always leave a circulation corridor of at least 80 cm between the back of a chair and the furniture behind it: it is what separates a tight office from one that works.

A small space is also planned

The design of a small office can be flexible: movable dividers, tables that expand, modular furniture and zones that serve more than one function, with areas to concentrate and others to collaborate or receive clients. At Dunati we make the furniture and help plan the space, so if your office has downsized or the team has grown, our team is available to discuss your project.