Discover how to plan the best layout for your office and professional practice

Furnishing your workplace so that it's welcoming and comfortable is a great way to wake up, if not exactly with a smile, at least without the dread of knowing you'll be shut away for more than 8 hours in a bare, badly lit cubicle. If we're "the boss", it'll all be easier, but even if the office is shared, there are some useful pointers for making the day more productive and relaxing. The right arrangement of posters, modern canvas pictures and office prints can refresh the atmosphere of your premises in no time, without the need for major renovations.

1. Furniture for the office and professional practice: desk and chair

When it comes to choosing the chairs and desks for our spaces, it's important to be guided by the space available and the setting they'll go into, and, without doubt, to try them out together before buying. They need to work well for our height, be adjustable and, of course, make the time we spend in our office a pleasant one.

Furniture is undoubtedly a key element in maintaining a harmonious atmosphere in our office or professional practice. However, we shouldn't forget that it's also very important to keep the desk as tidy as possible, putting everything away in the evening before leaving work so that we can hit the ground running in the morning and get straight on with the day's tasks.

2. The importance of lighting in office decor

Natural light is of course best, but if your office has north-facing windows, and in any case at dusk, we'll need a lamp or a few energy-saving or LED spotlights. These can be fitted to the ceiling in various ways or recessed into shelves. Working late at the office is never pleasant, but at least we'll be able to limit eye strain and avoid needless headaches.

3. Organising cables

Dangling cables are unsightly and could also trip someone up: let's get rid of them without a second thought, as there's no point putting our own safety at risk, or that of the clients who come to visit our office. We can use cable trunking to hide the cables, and the place will look much tidier! Finally, we can buy handy extension sockets to plug in both a laptop and a phone charger easily, without having to fight our way through a tangle of cables to reach an out-of-reach wall socket.

4. Choosing colours for your office decor

It's important to choose the right colours to decorate the walls: the ones that best represent us, that we like or that help us relax. Once we've found the right theme, we can build around it to create a kind of coordinated image that runs from our business cards all the way to the walls of our office. It's very important to leave a lasting impression on our clients, not least through the attention we pay to detail.

5. Prints, pictures and ornaments

A lot depends on the kind of professional practice we work in, but one rule always applies: "less is more". Better a few things that make an impact. Pictures on the walls will make the space warmer and more personal. Explore the many suggestions in our gallery and you're sure to find the ideal subjects to liven up or refresh the atmosphere of your spaces.

6. A green corner to complete your office decor

We can add a touch of nature to our office to make it feel more alive but, here too, let's not get carried away: choose hardy plants that don't need special care and can manage without us for a few days, so we don't come back from holiday to find a wilted green corner waiting for us. Cacti and succulents are ideal, as they don't need much water. They can cope even if we take a few days of well-earned rest and, with our office closed up, they might even surprise us on our return with a lovely bloom.