Tag: breakfast bar

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Breakout Space Project in Bradford On Avon

Breakout Space Project in Bradford On Avon

Client: Steve Vik International
Value: £120k

The Requirement

Steve Vik contacted us to create a breakout space within their existing factory. The aim was to encourage better integration and relationships between the office and warehouse staff.

The existing kitchen and breakout space was un-inviting and positioned within some valuable office space. There was a large dead space area between the offices and warehouse side which was un-used but offered lots of potential. The HR/admin team was also in an office on the other side of the dead space segregating them from the rest of the office team.

Our Solutions

The main plan was always to move the kitchen from the office area into the store area, and create a kitchen space there. This will increase the available space for the office area.

We drew the office using CAD software which enabled us to provide a few layout options.

A few options were explored in reconfiguring the existing demountable partitions to create some offices and rooms where the existing kitchen was situated.  The final choice was to form a large 6-person administration office along with a smaller 2-person HR offices as well as a small 1-1 room for private HR conversations making much better use of the space. Moving these teams into the office area has helped to integrate the HR and admin teams and allow additional desk space for future growth.

The old HR office was situated over the other side of the “dead zone”, this room would now become a large training and secondary meeting room. The main benefit of having the room there was that the new breakout space would be right next to it, without needing to have staff go through other office areas to get to it.

Breakout Space Design

We were given pretty much an open hand to come up with what we thought would look great in the space.

There were a few restrictions we had to keep in mind like an existing boiler which needed to remain in place, and a double door which opens out over the loading bay which the customer wanted to keep for occasional furniture deliveries etc.

The staff provided some images of breakout spaces they liked to give inspiration, and we knew from the previous social spaces project that this customer liked the bright colours and warmth of natural wood.

We came up with a couple of layouts and mood boards before settling on a final design.

The kitchen itself features:

  • 2x integrated pull out double recycling / general waste bins to encourage recycling
  • 2x integrated large full height fridges for lunches
  • 1x integrated small fridge for milk / drinks
  • 1x integrated freezer for ice creams in the summer
  • 1x integrated dishwasher
  • 2x instant boil taps to reduce waiting around in the mornings
  • 1x tall larder unit which hides the boiler
  •  The main theme of the kitchen in terms of colours was a graphite kitchen, with concrete worktops and a lovely white marble metro tile splash back laid in a herringbone pattern.

The walls were painted a dark grey and the ceiling replaced for a black suspended ceiling.

The dark colours of the kitchen, ceiling and walls were contrasted by the warm oak effect non-slip vinyl flooring, with custom timber divider screens and planter. We also used oak slatwall panels up the walls and over the ceiling creating an archway which defines the dining area.

The planter and screens were filled with artificial plants along with the floor to ceiling artificial plant wall which hides the double door into the loading bay. A section of plant wall was fitted behind the TV in the dining area along with some small square frames of foliage to add interest above the meeting pods.

Interesting lighting was used throughout this project with “Halo” style square LED lights on the black ceiling, triple industrial style pendants above the breakfast bars, single pendants over the meeting pods and even some under cabinet lighting in the kitchen. The lighting is bright over the kitchen and more subdued over the dining area helping to define areas within the breakout space.

A range of 4-seater meeting pods, high level breakfast bars, a dining table and some lounge chairs are positioned throughout the breakout space to give flexibility and cater for everyone. The design included oak leg frames on all furniture. This tied in with the woodwork and selected vibrant fabric and laminate colours which match in with the 7 corporate colours found on their website for the 7 core services the client offers.

Reconfiguration of the Office Partitions

The first priority was to remove the existing kitchen and breakout space and create the new offices for the HR and admin teams so they could move out of the back room.

All plumbing and electrical services were disconnected, new partitioning and flooring installed along with some re-configuring of the lighting circuit to suit the new room layout.

The new HR office and 1-1 room had double skinned partition with insulation in the cavity and even acoustic barriers within the ceiling void fitted to give the best possible sound performance and privacy for the HR team.

The old HR office was then re-decorated and re-purposed as a meeting and training room.

Breakout Space Work in Progress

The new suspended ceiling was installed first along with all new electrical supplies for the new kitchen and the LED lighting.

The room was painted dark grey and the new kitchen fitted with slight modifications to the unit hiding the boiler and some minor plumbing works for the new sink and instant boil taps.

Once the new kitchen was installed the decorative items like the tiled splash back,  slatwall archway, the custom timber screens, the planter and the artificial plant wall was installed.

The flooring was one of the last things to go in to prevent any damage throughout the project along with the long pendant lights.

Final Furniture Installation

The furniture was all made to order with vibrant colour choices to match the 7 corporate colours.

The hidden double doors into the loading bay were very useful for getting the furniture up and the install team had everything assembled and positioned within a day.

The furniture really tied everything together, the vibrant colours and welcoming soft fabrics and versatile seating options. The meeting pods feature USB charging making them great for informal meeting or just a private place to sit and watch Netflix. Using Faux leather in the dining chairs and bar stools helped to encourage warehouse staff to use them without fear of marking or staining the new fabrics and all the staff seemed really excited to start using the new breakout space.

Final Thoughts

This particular project and client has been especially nice for us at Cre8tive Interiors to work on. The emphasis on a positive working environment and building relationships between teams is really rewarding to see in the workplace. A lot of what we do at Cre8tive Interiors is functional and problem solving therefor aesthetics and design can be pushed to the bottom of the priorities due to space or budget constraints.

Beyond just a breakout space, the client worked with us and with their staff to get input from everyone and took the time consider what the space needed to achieve even down to the additional fridge space for lunch boxes and the sound proofing of the HR office.

The feedback from staff has been very positive, the space is always in use and it has improved the relationships and working environment for the staff.

Do you want more social breakout spaces or need to improve your office layout?

Please give us a call or go to the contact us page and we can help with any aspect of interior office fit out, along with space planning and design work.

01380 73 88 44

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All Project Categories Design Office Furniture Office Refurbishments

Office Design and Refurbishment in Chippenham

Office Design and Refurbishment in Chippenham
Completed Phase 1 side of the building

Client: Ari Fleet
Value: £92k

An Office Design and Refurbishment Project for Ari Fleet in Chippenham was not initially considered when we visited to discuss some sound problems in their offices. Their concern was that they knew something had to be done, and had prices for furniture and had an idea on what  they liked for carpets, but were not sure how the project could be all tied together, with a total budget, with a list of things that they wanted doing.

The other major problem was that the office space was occupied, so the ground floor area would need to have many people moved around in various phases. So Cre8tive were tasked to pull the whole project together.

The majority of the ground floor space consisted of around 100+ desks. We also had to assess what future capacity we could accommodate due to the future growth plans of the business. The desk layout was important to show this, so we carried some designs and plans.

We felt that an area was needed to encourage staff to meet outside the tea room in a less formal environment and so we allocated some space for this. Our original idea was to have a curved breakfast bar in the bottom corner of the building, joining the two sections of office space together. At this stage the customer thought this a bit too adventurous and they wanted to keep their meeting rooms.

Design and Planning work

Always the first task in a Design and Refurbishment project is to get the space working correctly without focusing at an early point on the product. Once the basic desk plans were agreed we then looked to examine different suppliers, and we selected a couple from Frem and another supplier. We then set up both types of desks from different suppliers in an office for the staff to try out. The staff actually selected the cheaper version which was a surprise. However the staff voted on the selection and Ari Fleet management went with their selection.

We then asked for the corporate colours, we also provided some colour options and carpet choices to show how all of the colours could go together. We were then able to provide budget costs for all of the options. The overall costs including decoration, and the choice of the cheaper furniture met their budget.

We then decided to split the work into three phases so the staff could be moved around the other office space available upstairs, giving time for Ari Fleets’ IT people to disconnect and reconnect desks in between the phases.

Initial Photographs

As you can see from the photographs below the existing screens were red, and the desks were 120 degree. Many years ago this design was quite innovative, but time moves on, particularly there is not the requirement for desk space now with flat screen technology. There is also much less paperwork on desks now, with everything being more electronic.

The carpet was also quite worn in places, although a decent quality when fitted the design is no longer made, so hard to patch and make good, so needed to be replaced. Naturally the carpet wears under desk positions with peoples feet and corridor routes, not much can be done about this.

Phase one side of the building

Quite a bit of work was required to prepare the area as you can see from the photographs. A large gang of furniture fitters was required to install of the furniture in a day allowing the customer time to carry out the wiring and gradually move people over from the other areas. Once we finished our work, we planned in 2 weeks to give the customer time to organise staff before we tackled the next phase. In fact the following area ended up almost running on directly from the previous phase, so much quicker than we thought.

Phase two side of the building

Phase three Breakout area

Completed photographs

Office Design and Refurbishment Projects

We really enjoyed this project. The o-operation that Ari management got from the staff was brilliant as they involved the staff in the process all along. This is always important on larger projects where you are affecting the way people work, if you can involve the staff then managing any change is much easier.

What was really rewarding is the comments from the customer at the end of the video clip. The refurbishment has changed the way the staff work for the better, there is more involvement and closer team working by using the new break out area.

If you would like any help on any project like this please give us a call on 01380 73 88 44 or email us at [email protected]

office design and refurbishment

 

office design and refurbishment

Categories
All Project Categories Office Refurbishments Projects

External windows in industrial buildings

External windows in industrial buildings

Client: Biosynth Ltd
Value: £31k

Many of the office refurbishment projects we do, or just partitioning, the offices already have external windows. We try to position the walls to maximise the light inside the space, usually using glass. Sometimes however, there are no external windows at all!

We had to refurbish an internal office space, including building some offices, however this project needed some new external windows into an industrial building for Biosynth Ltd near Newbury.

There are a few key differences between windows in a house compared to windows in industrial buildings.

Most industrial buildings are steel structures with metal cladding, the cladding comes in all different profiles and colours. While the metal cladding makes cutting an opening for a new window relatively quick and simple additional timber framework must be installed inside the new opening to support the windows.

Specialist cladding flashing profiles are installed to make the new opening watertight. These are powder coated in any RAL colour to match the existing cladding.

Most industrial buildings use aluminium windows. These are much longer lasting than UPVC and can be powder coated in any colour.

Planning permission will be required to ensure that the windows are in keeping with the design of the building and the local buildings nearby. Planning will also pay close attention to what the new windows will be overlooking like residential areas or schools.

Preliminary work

This project required 6 new external windows. We produced multiple layouts for the offices to show staff positions and ensured that the new window positions were mirrored in each of the other industrial units next door.

The windows were kept in line with existing windows using 4  panel and 2  panels windows to match the height and width with the same top opening windows.

Work in Progress photographs

This particular unit had a block wall inside the steel structure and metal cladding. This is unusual as most building would simply be insulated and dry-lined inside but this meant a steel lintel was installed into the blockwork and the timber frame for the metal cladding was installed into the cavity.

The openings were then cut, flashing profiles installed and new windows installed at the same time to ensure the openings were sealed as quickly as possible.

Once the windows were in it was just a case of installing the plasterboard reveals around the windows, new window boards and decorating.

Completed photos

Once the new external windows were installed, plasterboard reveals and new MDF window boards were then installed and decorated.

The finished result is windows that match perfectly with the rest of the building and look like they have always been there.

Need new external windows in your building ?

If you would like new external windows installed in your building, please do give us a call on 01380 73 88 44, or email us at [email protected] and we would love to help.

Categories
All Project Categories Kitchen refurbishment Projects

Unusual Style Kitchen Refurbishment in Swindon

Unusual Style Kitchen Refurbishment in Swindon
Stainless steel kitchen

Client: Mongoose Publishing
Value: £19k

The aim of this kitchen refurbishment project for Mongoose Publishing in Swindon, was to create something a little bit different. The game manufacturer specializes otherworldly Role-Playing-Games “RPG’s” and wanted to bring a bit of the spaceship theme into the new kitchen.

The kitchen serves as not only a tea and coffee point for the office but also as a catering area for the gaming zone in the evenings so it needed to be functional for all types of cooking with plenty of fridge and freezer space.

Preliminary work

The current kitchen was a galley style kitchen with a makeshift breakfast bar and the new kitchen needed to be more open and welcoming.

The kitchen was designed to have plenty of functional storage with a 2x full height pull our larder units, pan drawer storage below the hob and a full size fridge and freezer.

A double oven and a hob will give full functionality for cooking in the kitchen while a separate breakfast bar / worktop allows snacks to be led out away from the food and drink prep areas.

Existing Kitchen

Work in Progress photographs

Once the old kitchen was removed we were able to install the new wiring the the appliances along with install the ducting for the new extractor.

The aim of the design was to introduce as much stainless steel as possible. We used a stainless steel hob and extractor along with a stainless steel fridge, freezer and sink.

We used a gloss grey slab style kitchen with a 22mm oxidized metal effect worktop and then installed stainless steel checker plate onto the floor and walls to create a stunning shiny metallic effect.

Completed Kitchen

The finish product was certainly different. This wouldn’t work in most offices but it was really nice to see a company wanting to add their own identity into the space and have something very unique.

The kitchen gives them much more worktop space with a serving area and prep area, loads of storage and the capability of catering all their evening events.

Kitchen Refurbishment Projects ?

If you would like your kitchen refurbished or you would like to do something truly unique to you space, please do give us a call on 01380 73 88 44, or email us at [email protected] and we would love to help.

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Air Conditioning All Project Categories Design Office Furniture Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects Storage Walls Visuals

Complete Office Design and Fit Out Project in Swindon

Complete Office Design and Fit Out Project in Swindon

Client: One Technologies
Value: £260k

We carried out an Office design and fit out fit out project for One Technologies Ltd in Swindon,Wiltshire. The project included creating ideas for the design, detail specification and documents, planning and then organising the work which was completed on time within budget.

The customer is an American company that wanted to set up and office in the UK. They had a breakfast bar in their office in Dallas, we tried to replicate the way they work in the US so part of their culture of how they work comes across into the UK. The customer is a web based company and the new office will be receiving inbound calls so is basically a call center. The image of a phone box in the reception is intended to reflect this and is one reason why there is a  concentration of desks in space. The digital image that is printed on heavy textured wall covering. Desk footprint was important in getting the right numbers in, and we have designed this so they can increase the numbers easily, all of the future space planning has been done. You will see the grey wallpaper in the office is very textured to give some personality to the paper and help with sound performance.

The activities included Office Design, Project Management, CDM regulations, Building Regulations, contracts, stripping out work, demountable glass partitioning, decorations, design of a breakfast bar, supply and fit of all office furniture, air conditioning new and changes to existing, ventilation changes, lighting, electrical work, data cabling, supply and fitting of the communications cabinet, cctv, access control, audio visual equipment and connection, storage wall and flooring changes. We also supplied all of the office furniture, screens, cupboards, plants, graphics, chairs and monitor arms.

Preparation work.

Much of the initial time on the project was spent exploring different layouts and seeing how the space could work. Care was taken in seeing how the customer wanted to use the space to have an area where people could relax and have teas and coffees.

Design Visuals.

We have covered elsewhere in this website our view on visuals. Please click this link for more explanation as to the difference between drawing work, space planning and 3d visuals. As a large proportion of the cost of the project focused around the breakfast bar we felt creating visuals was really important. The breakfast bar being an essential part of the office design. The film taken of this project reinforces how much the finished build reflects the initial visuals we produced for the project. Although they are in the film clip, they can be seen below:

Specifications, contract and planning.

The next step was to provide much more detail in the the specifications in the form of written documents. We had a commercial contract drawn up, as well as produced a full build specification document detailing every aspect of the build. Due to the amounts of money involved £250k +, we produced a project plan which showed the phases of when payments were due to be made depending on when various parts of the project were delivered. The final document was a detailed Gantt chart showing project timelines, dates, slack periods, completion dates and contingencies. Also built in were times required for the American IT team to visit and have all of the computer equipment installed and configured.

Build Photographs.

As you can see from the photographs there was quite a bit to organise, in particular we had to follow the progress to a programme, as well as maintaining dates that had to fit in with the American IT team visiting the UK to install the server the programme had to be met for the financial reasons in order to maintain a steady flow of payments coming to us from the USA. The main office design and fit out project for us was only one small part in order to get the office up and working. The customers IT people only had 3 days to install all of the equipment, so all of the infrastructure cabling, power, air conditioning, cabinets and of course all of the security access controls and cameras had to be fully working before they came over to visit. They were bringing with them a special server built by Dell to handle the call volumes anticipated in the office and the server itself cost 7 figures.

Final photographs finished office.

We are very please with the final office design and fit out. If you have not seen the video in the first part of this page then you can also see it here by here by clicking this text..

Moving / expanding or have problems with your existing office space?

Many offices have problems with sound, problems with fitting enough people in, and may look dated and need reworking which is where we can help. From an initial brief as to what the problems are to the final completed office we can carry out everything that you need inside an office. In the project above we used demountable partitioning but using a special type of glass to enhance sound performance. The system was also a propriety demountable partition system called Komfort Polar. The glass wall was double glazed, with seamless glass joints for a smooth simple look.

Why Demountable Partitions in Office Refurbishments?

  1. Demountable partitions are tax efficient in that they are seen as movable items and so can be treated differently in writing down allowances in the accounts, we can also lease elements of office refurbishments. Anything that can be moved.
  2. We mainly lease Demountable Partitions as they are movable, this spreads the costs of having the work done as Demountable Partitions always cost more than customers think.
  3. Leasing of movable items is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
  4. Most landlords insist on demountable partitions in an office as it is much easier to take them out should the tenant renting the space leave for any reason. The benefit is that is saves making a huge amount of mess and destruction that would be need with a conventional stud and plasterboard constructed wall.

Not sure what to do?

Please give us a call and we can help with any aspect of interior office fit out, along with space planning and design work.

01380 73 88 44