“Home idea with IKEA”: an office for work, relaxation and inspiration

This week we are visiting the office of The Lithuanian Human Rights Centre. Its employees deal with important issues on a daily basis and know how to create positive change in society, but when it comes to change in their own office, they have more questions than answers. Fortunately, our interior designer Rūta can help.

Before the renovation

The office had five workstations, a lounge area and a small kitchenette. Quite everything you could possibly need, but none of these areas performed as well as they should:

• Working area lacked space for books, documents, files and other office essentials.
• The kitchen had no fridge, no worktop for preparing the food and no dining table.
• The lounge area was more often used for work meetings or eating than for real relaxation.

Interior designer‘s task

Rūta came to this office with a clear goal to divide the space into working, resting, storing, and dining areas, making the most of each of them. She used the brand colours of The Lithuanian Human Rights Centre for zoning: blue dominates in the dining and meeting area, red marks the lounge area, and the work area remains white, free of any distracting details.

Room for working and co-working

The largest area by the windows was reserved for workstations. We have kept the old office chairs and added some new TROTTEN desks and lockable drawer cabinets. Placed next to each other, the desks provide a comfortable space not only for working in silos, but also for meetings and brainstorming sessions.

Screens attached to the desks provide privacy and reduce noise in the office, as one side is made of sound-absorbing fabric. The screens can also be used for notes or reminders.
 

Let‘s have a break!

We’ve also refurbished the office’s lounge area. In addition to the old sofa, there are now two extra chairs, a pouffe and a coffee table on castors. They all fit on the MORUM rug suitable for both indoor and outdoor use and therefore requiring no special care. The lounge area is also separated from the work area by KALLAX open shelving units that serve as a partition. To keep the office quiet, we have decorated the lounge area with noise-reducing textiles: rugs, curtains and cushions.

Note: when using pieces furniture as partitions, be sure to check their safety requirements. Higher furniture needs to be fixed to the walls.
 

Finally, a functional kitchen

The office kitchen was furnished with cabinets from the METOD series. They come with fronts in two different colours and materials, which allows dividing the same combination into two separate functions: wooden cabinets are meant for food and the white ones for other office needs. Behind the kitchen cabinet fronts there’s also an integrated fridge, a microwave oven and a drawer for waste sorting bins.
 

“Office workers should have bins for sorting at least four types of waste: glass, paper, plastic, and biodegradables. Our HÅLLBAR bins are designed to meet different waste sorting needs, and they can be placed freestanding anywhere in the office or integrated in a cabinet or drawer.”

Rūta Gajauskaitė, IKEA interior designer
 

Everywhere you look, it’s green

Office work requires long hours in front of the screen, therefore it’s nice to have a chance to rest one’s eyes. We chose green as a calming colour and decorated the office with plenty of plants, both potted and artificial. By hanging FEJKA artificial plants on the curtain rods, we have turned the low ceiling in the lounge area into a highlight of the whole office interior.