4 Key Factors for Designing Lounge Spaces

Whether you’re designing a lounge space for a bustling office, a high-end hotel or a serene healthcare setting, functionality and comfort are vital. You’ll need contract furniture that looks good, works hard and meets rigorous performance and safety standards — all while supporting the different ways people use the space.

Let’s explore four key factors to consider when designing lounge spaces that excel in form and function:

Using a variety of commercial lounge furniture.
Incorporating privacy and space division.
Prioritizing comfortable, appropriately scaled contract furniture.
Offering ample power availability.

1. Using A Variety of Commercial Lounge Furniture

Lounge spaces in commercial environments need to meet a lot of criteria. These high-traffic areas should be inviting, comfortable and functional, allowing users to relax, collaborate and work flexibly.

You should incorporate a variety of lounge seating, or collaborative seating, into your space. People use lounge areas in many ways, so providing various layouts and flexible seating can support a myriad of needs.

For example, guests might want to relax in a hotel lounge while taking a private call or waiting for friends to join them. A hospital patient might want a comfortable place to rest before a medical procedure or have a sensitive conversation with a caregiver.

Variety is also important when considering employee lounge ideas. These spaces will need to support all kinds of work, from solo projects and casual group collaboration to everything in between.

With different working styles considered, it’s also worth incorporating breakout space furniture and comfortable office seating to enhance productivity and employee well-being.

Multifunctional Contract Furniture

No matter the size of the area you’re designing, you only have so much room to meet people’s diverse needs. Choosing multipurpose office, healthcare or hospitality furniture is crucial to optimizing a space.

For instance, there’s little point adding a bulky boardroom table to a modern office lounge if it’s going to take up precious room or impede flexible working. Facilitating collaborative working is especially important today, as the evolution of workspaces has led to an increase in flexible office seating and innovative office design.

Multifunctional furniture that can adapt to several needs, like the Haworth Cabana Lounge, can help you optimize space. Designed with flexibility in mind, the stylish Cabana Lounge sofa system comes in a range of configurations for various working scenarios.

Flexible office seating solutions like Haworth’s blend collaborative workspace design with ergonomic support and style. More and more employers are realizing the value of relaxation spaces that prioritize workplace comfort, as these areas encourage collaboration and foster innovation.

Moveable Contract Furniture

People will often rearrange the furniture in a lounge space to suit their needs. They won’t have the time or inclination to reorganize the whole space. However, they’ll likely find it helpful if they can repurpose, adjust or relocate strategically arranged pieces to suit a variety of needs.

Reconfigurable furniture gives people the freedom to use the space as they need, enhancing comfort and functionality. By contrast, heavy, awkward furniture that’s hard to move can discourage the flexible use of a lounge space.

For example, office break room furniture should be practical and easy to rearrange. In fact, moveable ancillary furniture can boost workplace dynamics by supporting collaboration. Haworth’s furniture is both easy to move and designed with a residential aesthetic — ideal for promoting social interaction and flexibility in communal office spaces.

Avoid cumbersome items and opt for moveable, modular furniture, like the StyleX Dau collection of upholstered sofas, benches, lounge chairs and poufs. Optional handles and casters make these pieces super easy to move around. Plus, Dau’s seating comes in a range of sizes to help you fill open-plan spaces and awkwardly shaped corners.

2. Incorporating Privacy and Space Division

Open office layouts provide the flexibility to keep designs ultra-adaptable, but it’s equally important to incorporate lounge areas that offer privacy. Whether for making a confidential call or enjoying a tranquil moment to rest and recharge, the need for secluded spaces is paramount. Prioritizing privacy considerations is essential to catering to the diverse needs of all users.

Contract Furniture Designed for Privacy

Contract furniture designed with privacy in mind is vital when creating secluded spaces in an open setting. For instance, using high-back lounge seating is a simple, subtle way of adding privacy without closing off an area completely.

Privacy contract furniture doesn’t have to be dull or utilitarian. Many manufacturers offer practical seating solutions for privacy in public areas that also act as aesthetically pleasing elements in an open-plan environment.

For example, the Chapelle privacy lounge seating series from Bernhardt features an exterior privacy cocoon and attractive silhouettes and sweeping lines. The collection includes a range of seating options, like sofas and lounge chairs, each offering varying levels of privacy.

Dividing Up the Space

Balance openness and privacy in your lounge setting by adding elements that discreetly divide up space. Dividers and partitions can be multifunctional and aesthetic, providing privacy and stylish design elements to an interior landscape.

For example, mobile screens, like the Haworth Collaborate Screens, can act as dividers, visual privacy enhancers and acoustic barriers. These screens make spaces adaptable to individual and group needs. You can also add single hooks or felt and markerboards to the screens for greater customization and functionality.

3. Prioritizing Comfortable, Appropriately Scaled Contract Furniture

Finding the right balance of comfort and practicality is critical when it comes to designing a lounge space. Seating should be comfortable, but not so cozy that it feels like your den back home.

For example, office lounge furniture should provide just the right amount of support and relaxation to keep employees engaged and productive. Meanwhile, hospitality lounge furniture should strike a balance between comfort and style to enhance the guest experience.

Lounge and ancillary furniture also needs to be resilient enough to withstand rigorous daily use. Not everyone who uses this furniture will treat it as carefully as they would their furniture at home.

Because of this, consumer-grade, residential products won’t be sufficient. They might look aesthetically pleasing, but public lounge spaces need hard-wearing, comfortable, durable furniture that meets top performance standards.

Blending Aesthetics and Comfort

There’s no reason why comfortable, functional contract furniture shouldn’t also be beautiful. Furnishings like Keilhauer’s Juxta seating blend practicality and stunning design with rounded lines and organic shapes that please the eye. (Interestingly, scientists have found that our brains prefer shapes with gentle curves over angular or straight lines.)

Incorporate ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing furniture, like plush seating and thoughtfully designed tables, to enhance employee or guest satisfaction and support mental well-being.

Considering Scale

There’s nothing more frustrating than sitting down to work only to find that your comfy seat is far too low for the table and your laptop is at chin height. Or that your stool is so high you have to sit with your knees crammed under the table.

However minor, these kinds of inconveniences turn a great lounge space into a mediocre one. It’s essential that the tables you pair with your lounge seating are the right heights to be usable and comfortable. These details take a lounge space from aesthetically pleasing to aesthetically pleasing and seamlessly functional.

It’s a good idea to choose contract furniture that has already factored in seating and table height, like the Hightower Nest Easy Lounge Chair. The chair’s integrated table is the perfect height for sitting and typing. Meanwhile, the high-back design offers privacy in busy public areas.

4. Offering Ample Power Availability

Our world is more connected than ever before. The average number of devices and connections per person in North America has increased from 8.2 in 2018 to 13.4 in 2023.

We need electricity to run these devices. That’s why it can be frustrating when lounge space designs don’t consider power availability and accessibility.

Picture this: Your cell phone battery is running low after your hospital appointment, but there aren’t any power outlets nearby. Your phone goes dead just as you need it most.

Or your laptop warns you to plug it in moments before an important business call. However, the only available outlet isn’t accessible from your seat, and somebody else is working at the desk from which you’d be able to plug in.

Ample, flexible power solutions are hugely important for lounge spaces as they support our busy, connected lives. As a result, integrating accessible, plentiful power options is an important factor in great lounge space design.

Power outlets within lounge pieces embody the modern functionality of contract furniture. Users benefit from unparalleled convenience, finding power outlets right where they sit, rather than having to hunt for them.

Meanwhile, mobile power units and modules, like the Dekko Layer free-standing power source, give users ultimate freedom to choose their ideal charging spot without being tethered to wall outlets.

Designing Exceptional Lounge Spaces with WB Wood

Designing lounge spaces with comfortable, durable contract furniture doesn’t just enhance functionality in office, hospitality and healthcare settings. Good design also transforms the user experience, benefiting the well-being of those who gather and work in these spaces.

WB Wood creates spaces where people thrive and businesses flourish. Learn more about how we can help you design flexible, attractive lounge settings with comfortable contract furniture that stands the test of time.