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A reception room, also referred to as a waiting room, welcomes guests, clients, patients and other visitors to your office or facility. Typically the very first room that visitors encounter, reception areas are the rooms responsible for shaping any individual’s first impression of an office’s space and culture, thereby making them quite important in the grand scheme of things. After all, most research seems to conclude that first impressions last.

Front desks serve the dual purpose of not only welcoming guests to your reception area, but also serving as a workstation for a receptionist or administrative assistant. So how do you go about finding the right one? Firstly, the impression that the desk makes should be at the forefront of your mind. Is it a welcoming design? Will it be easy for guests to see anyone who is seated behind it?

 

It’s also essential for this front desk to adequately meet all of your receptionists’ needs in an efficient way. Is there enough storage? Is there enough room for only one receptionist, or can two easily be accommodated? Make sure that the size of the front desk will adequately fit your space and that your receptionist/administrative assistant is provided with an ergonomic chair for support throughout the workday.

 

Reception and Guest Seating

As reception chairs are placed in areas that see high foot traffic, durability and quality are hugely important. It’s also critical to factor in the comfort and ease of your guests. Even though they may not be waiting too long, depending on the circumstance of course, it is still best to seat them comfortably, as waiting is not anyone’s favorite activity – a plush guest chair is sure to make it more bearable. You will also want to ensure that your reception seating can be easily cleaned. Vinyl is therefore a great option for your waiting room seating, as it is not only comfortable and durable, but also incredibly easy to clean.

 

Occasional Tables

  1. End tables – these tables, also referred to as side tables, are typically placed at the sides of furniture pieces, such as guest chairs or sofas, in effort to provide those seating with surface space for resting drinks, reading materials and other such items.
  2. Coffee tables – these tables are usually arranged to be the center of any lounge or reception area. They act both as a functional surface space for storing or setting things and as a decorative piece adding visual interest to the room. These tables are typically round or rectangular and are designed to have a low height in order to accommodate those who are seated.
  3. Sofa/console tables – These tables certainly add a decorative and storage element to a waiting room area. These may be placed anywhere, but most tend to be set nicely against a wall around the parameter of the room.
 

Entertainment

As stated before, no one loves to wait. Providing some sort of entertainment is certainly necessary in a waiting area so as to keep your guests content.

  1. Media centers – These pieces act as both a storage and display unit for various pieces of media equipment. Media centers may also act as a TV stand.
  2. TV Stands – Adding a TV to your waiting room set up is made an easy process with a TV stand. Most TV stands also include storage so that you can store DVDs, remote controls and reading materials nearby. TV stands are offered in a great range of styles so that you can find one to easily match the rest of your reception room furniture.
  3. TV Stands – Adding a TV to your waiting room set up is made an easy process with a TV stand. Most TV stands also include storage so that you can store DVDs, remote controls and reading materials nearby. TV stands are offered in a great range of styles so that you can find one to easily match the rest of your reception room furniture.

Are you perhaps shopping for a healthcare facility? Be sure to peruse our blog post covering the topic of healthcare waiting room considerations.

 

Resources

Sometimes it can also be difficult to envision just what your reception room will look like even when you have all of the pieces purchased. National Business Furniture Design Services uses software that gives an accurate 3-D rendering of what your conference room could look like, and there are many similar programs available. Using such software, of course, helps to ensure that your project will turn out how you envisioned it.

Design & Innovation
Waiting Rooms

More From NBF

Selecting Seating for Your Healthcare Reception Area

When it comes to selecting reception seating for your healthcare facility, consider very specific features to meet the needs of medical patients, visitors, and staff. The furniture in your waiting room can be just as important as the exam tables in your patient rooms, especially if you work in an emergency hospital or specialty medical facility. Stay on the lookout for products that work together holistically to improve the experience for patients, loved ones, and personnel. Make sure your reception area flows smoothly and consistently to provide a space where everyone in the room can feel safe and at ease.

Upholstery 

Infectious disease control is the number one priority that healthcare seating should provide. When selecting chairs for your medical waiting room, consider the upholstery and ask yourself the following questions:

  • Will this upholstery be time-consuming or difficult to clean?

  • Will this upholstery trap in odor and germs?

  • Will this upholstery be uncomfortable for patients and visitors to sit in for long periods?

  • Will this upholstery succumb to wear and tear quickly?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then the upholstery in question may not be the best choice for your medical waiting room. 

Healthcare upholstery should be easy to wipe clean so that it can be maintained throughout each day, so be sure to select fabric or vinyl without too many creases or small nooks that can trap odor and bacteria. Chairs with waterfall seat edges are easy to wipe down in seconds, and antimicrobial vinyl is specially designed to keep surfaces as clean as possible.

Make sure the upholstery you choose is comfortable enough for guests to sit in for long periods—you don’t want it to be stiff or scratchy. It should also be durable enough to last. Because you will be too busy caring for patients to worry about replacing your reception area furniture every year, select a durable fabric or vinyl option that will stand up to frequent daily use.

User Safety and Support 

Your reception seating should be able to support a wide range of users since you will have visitors of all shapes, sizes, and needs visiting your care facility. Offer one or more bariatric options so that larger folks can feel welcome. Provide a loveseat or sofa so parents can be close to their children while waiting. Chairs with 24/7 capabilities are ideal for emergency waiting rooms where constant use is required.

Make sure that the furniture you choose is comfortable for your guests and easy to operate. Consider adjustable chairs that guests can customize to suit their needs or mobile chairs that can be moved from one end of the room to the other. Chairs with tablet arms make filling out office forms much easier. Select chairs with thickly padded backs and seats that will reduce fatigue and strain on patients in walk-in clinics or family members and loved ones staying all night in the ER. After all, the family is often in just as much distress as the patient. Chairs should be durable enough that patients can pull themselves up out of the seat by grabbing onto the chair arms and pushing themselves up.

Care Provider Safety and Support 

While patient and visitor care are key components of what makes healthcare seating special, it’s also crucial to consider the safety and comfort of your staff when selecting the best furniture. 

Due to the threat of discarded needles and other potentially dangerous items and substances, staff should not have to stick their hands anywhere they cannot see. Clean-out chair backs eliminate the crevasse between the chair seat and back so staff can clean down the chair surfaces and clearly see there is no underlying danger. 

The reception furniture should also promote communication and collaboration between the visitor and the care provider. The nurse or doctor should be able to comfortably sit down next to the patient’s loved ones to let them know that patient’s medical status. Caregivers should also be able to easily assist patients into and out of the chairs.

Accessories and Aesthetics 

Accessories and aesthetics are often overlooked during the purchasing process, but these smaller details could make a huge difference to patients and visitors who are nervous or uncomfortable being in a medical facility. Accessories such as IV poles, side tables, chair casters, moisture barriers, and tablet arms all help to improve the user experience and make your guests’ visit more comfortable. 

Take the design of your waiting area into consideration when selecting your chairs and tables by selecting chairs in earth tones and matching tables to create a warm, inviting look that feels more like home. The design of your reception area and the rest of your healthcare facility should promote healing and optimism, straying away from the traditional clinical look wherever possible.

The furniture in your healthcare facility’s reception area should serve a purpose, which will vary from one place to the next. You’ll want different reception furniture in different styles for different people for pediatric hospitals, the ER, mental health facilities, and rehabilitation facilities, so be sure to consider the needs of your patients before beginning the furniture shopping process.

3 Problems the Right Reception Desk Can Solve

Your business’s waiting room is almost always its first impression on visitors. Shouldn’t it make a good one? Everyone deserves a beautiful office, whether your business is struggling to stick to a tight budget or to find enough storage space for everyone. Whatever your problem in the waiting room may be, you can bet there’s a reception desk that will help solve it.

The Complete Guide to Cubicles, Room Dividers & Partitions

Turning a large open space into an office that fosters productivity can be a tall order. How do you know how many cubicles can fit into the space? Are cubicles what you really want, or should you incorporate an open concept design into the office instead? 

To get started, consider the different types of panels and dividers available.

Cubicles

Cubicles are made of a collection of panels configured together to create employee workstations. Due to the modular design of most panel systems, cubicles can usually be made as small or large as needed, making them highly versatile but difficult for the untrained eye to design. 

Panel Systems

Panel systems are the parts that form cubicle walls. Available in a huge assortment of sizes and materials, panel systems are designed to suit the specific needs of all kinds of offices. Before you buy, consider the size of the space you're outfitting, the number of employees you need to accommodate, the style or color you're looking for, and your budget constrictions.

Room Dividers and Partitions

Room dividers and partitions are freestanding panels meant to act as a visual barrier or light sound barrier between workstations, meeting spaces, and breakroom areas. Panels such as decorative shoji dividers are often used to break up visual space in a waiting room. Other options provide a light sound barrier in addition to the visual divider. Accordion-style dividers allow for a wider variety of configurations so that you can get just the right amount of division between workstations or common areas. Room dividers are an excellent solution for offices looking to divide up a space without building walls.

Benching

A benching system is an open concept workstation often shared by 2 or more employees. Benching systems may be equipped with small desktop dividers, which are typically collection-specific, but most have a minimal profile and provide a smaller overall workspace than cubicles do.

Team Desking

Similar to benching, team desks are open concept workstations where multiple employees sit within a single podlike structure to facilitate great collaboration in a team setting. Team desking may or may not include small desktop dividers between stations to provide a small amount of privacy.

 

 

Call Center Desking

Call center desking is similar to team desking in that it incorporates many workstations into a small space but differs in the level of privacy offered. While team desking is designed to break down walls and foster collaboration between employees sitting together, call center desks are usually situated in a straight line and provide taller desktop privacy screens to allow employees to get the quiet they need when speaking with customers on the phone.

Need More Help?

Whatever your workspace design needs, NBF offers complimentary space planning services to help you determine what type of panel and desking system to add to your office. 

 

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Nicole Groshek

Nicole Groshek is the social media and content coordinator for National Business Furniture. She helps employees discover the true joy in loving what they do, from working in an inspiring office to having a little fun on the job.