The Best Office Breakout Furniture Ideas

The Best Office Breakout Furniture Ideas
What is a breakout space?

What is a breakout space?

The breakout space is an area of the office that is distinct from the traditional workspaces with rows of desks, fixed monitors and chairs. Breakout spaces tend to feature individual workstations which can be desks, sofas or chairs paired with tables to create colourful, comfortable and flexible seating arrangements.

What is a breakout space?

What type of areas does a breakout space include?

  • Eating – there are several types of furniture for staff eating areas from canteen tables and benches to more formal cafe tables and chairs. Canteen tables are a more relaxed social type of seating with everyone sitting together. This type of furniture is also great for casual working areas if power and USB sockets are fitted.
  • Relaxing – individual lounge chairs are more suitable for relaxing areas. Usually with a high back to rest your head after a hard morning’s work. To reduce background noise try adding noise reducing panels or screens to the room.
  • Chatting – high backed sofas are great for chatting. The high back reduces the sound travelling and can usually seat 4 to 6 people on 2 facing sofas. Add a few cushions and it is a great way to let off steam with your work friends.
  • Games – use a standard meeting room table and add a net to turn it into a pingpong table. The net can then be easily removed to transform back into a meeting room.
  • Cinema or staff party – consider using modular sofas for your staff room. The sofas can then be rearranged into cinema style seating or moved out of the way for staff parties.
What is a breakout space?

What types of furniture should it include?

  • Canteen furniture is a great option for communal eating areas. The tables can seat up to 12 people and can be easily cleaned and tidied up at the end of the day. The tables are made from laminate which is the same as a kitchen work surface. The surface is stain-resistant and very hard-wearing. If floor cleaning is a priority this type of table and bench system will work best.
  • Cafe style tables & chairs are a more traditional type of breakout furniture. The configurations are usually 2, 4 and 6 seater tables though some tables can seat up to 12 people. If you prefer single tables with stacking chairs we would suggest using large round tables with a few smaller tables mixed in.
  • High backed sofas are the best option for quiet areas or informal meetings. The high sides muffle any sound and help reduce any ambient noise.
  • Breakout sofas come in a variety of sizes, heights and colours to create small quiet areas or to break up large rooms. Choose a modular sofa if you need to change the configuration or layout at a later date.
  • Booth Seating is a great way to create separate areas for eating, chatting or just reading a book. The seating can be placed face to face and the backs can come in several heights. Create distinctive separate areas by changing the colour or type of material.
What is a breakout space?

Forget everything you thought you knew about the office breakout space

While you might have associated breakout area furniture with cutting-edge tech or creative companies and fun breakout furniture, the new needs of the post-pandemic workspace mean that every company can benefit from the flexibility of breakout furniture as employee attendance and office layouts change.

Office breakout area furniture has to be flexible

Office breakout area furniture has to be flexible

Many offices and studios saw the benefits of flexible working during the pandemic and have used the experience to learn more about new ways of working. Workspaces are getting smaller and office breakout area furniture has become the solution that can best accommodate the needs of the new workforce.

Hybrid spaces for hybrid working

The new office features zoned areas designed to incorporate spaces for quiet work, meetings and team building. Where the workforce can be flexible, people are attending the office for very different reasons. Younger staff who may live with parents or in shared housing crave contact and the hustle and bustle of the office. Face-to-face training has been missed and spaces are needed to facilitate this type of communal working.

Breakout furniture doesn’t just mean chill-out spaces

Other workers are coming into the office specifically to make the most of a dedicated quiet space for solo work or deep-work and, for those who have been at home hunched over a laptop, the more ergonomically sound the breakout space furniture, the better. For these workers, popular office breakout furniture can include comfortable chairs and sofas with height-adjustable laptop tables and even built-in chargers.

Office breakout furniture for hot desking

Office breakout furniture for hot desking

The benefits of hybrid working aren’t just for employees. Companies have taken advantage of this new work model to downsize expensive office space. But smart managers know that smaller doesn’t have to mean less efficient. They plan a proportion of bookable desk spaces as well as cleverly designed soft spaces like booths or high-backed chairs where private or livelier conversations can happen.

Use breakout area furniture to create workplace zones

Hot desks combine brilliantly with breakout furniture to create multi-purpose workspaces with different zones. For example, your space planning could include zones for specific teams, perhaps your sales team will sit together when they are in. Quieter departments or those that deal with confidential information could also be placed together, away from busy spaces.

Breakout area furniture that enables collaboration

Hot desking allows staff to enjoy properly designed, ergonomic workspaces that can be booked in advance, with no precious office time wasted in finding a seat. Intelligently-designed modular breakout furniture allows teams to move seating with ease – allowing creative collaboration or impromptu meetings or training at any time.

Office breakout furniture for hot desking

Fitting Power + USB Sockets

Power, USB and wireless charger can be fitted into coffee table tops, canteen tables, inside staff lockers, sofa armrests or in the side of a breakout chair.

  • Rotating – perfect for occasional use. Turn the unit over to hide the socket points when not in use.
  • Fixed – for regular or long term use a fixed socket is ideal.
  • Pop-up – perfect for multiple plugs with easy access.
  • Wireless Charging – put your phone on top of the pad for a quick charge.
Plan your working space to make the most of every inch

Plan your working space to make the most of every inch

Breakout furniture allows you to really make the most of your commercial workspace – modular breakout furniture like cubes and round seating is designed to fit into all sorts of spaces, even around pillars, meaning no space is ever wasted – essential when offices are shrinking to accommodate a part-time workforce.

The flexibility of breakout furniture

These colourful modular cubes are a great example of fun breakout furniture, the sort of modular breakout furniture that works just as well in schools and colleges as it does in open plan offices. But breakout area furniture also comes in very grown-up styles, like booth seating with matching tables or sofas with USB sockets in the arms.

Breakout area furniture for teams and solo workers

Breakout furniture makes best use of space and allows you to create dedicated areas for teams, encouraging employees into the office to benefit from the opportunities for collaboration that shared seating like sofas and booths encourages. Meanwhile, quiet zones with solo chairs or quiet pods allow deep concentration when required.

Intelligent design for breakout furniture

As a more modern invention, breakout space furniture often incorporates the latest developments in design and finishings. For example, acoustic panelling can be used with modular furniture groupings to deflect noise, even in open plan offices. Desks and seating feature a variety of built-in cable tidying, USB chargers and power points.

Plan your working space to make the most of every inch

Choose Hardest wearing materials

There are several very hard-wearing materials to consider when designing a breakout space. We have listed some of them below with links to some of our other buying guides.

Cafe + Canteen tables – laminate is the hardest-wearing material for these types of tables. It is the same as a kitchen worktop and comes in many colours. It can be easily cleaned and is stain resistant. For more information see our Cafe Table Buying Guide >

Sofas + Chairs – faux-leather or vinyl is one of the hardest-wearing seating materials. It comes with an anti-stain protective coating and can be easily wiped down. When using in a breakout area we would suggest vinyl on the seat and fabric on the back in a matching or complimentary colour. For more information see our Choosing a Sofa Fabric Guide >

Plan your working space to make the most of every inch

Choose materials that are safe for cleaning

  • Laminate canteen or cafe tables
    Most laminate tables can be wiped down with a damp cloth and a mild window cleaner to remove any grease. Always dry the surface off after cleaning and never leave standing water on a laminate top.
  • Fabric cleaning
    Most fabric upholstered furniture should be regularly hoovered to remove dust which can break down the fabric fibres over time. Some fabrics can be wiped down with a damp cloth.
  • Faux leather/vinyl cleaning
    Wipe down with a damp cloth using a mild window cleaner to remove grease marks. For more stubborn stains see our vinyl cleaning guide which has a 3-step process for removing stains such as ink pen.

FAQs

Why might you need a breakout area?

Employees love breakout furniture because it looks great, is comfortable and allows them to work flexibly in the office, with a greater degree of control over their day-to-day movements. Employers love properly designed commercial breakout space furniture because it’s affordable, flexible and doesn’t sacrifice ergonomics for great design. Everybody wins!

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