How to furnish an office? A guide by areas, workstations and chairs

Start with the areas and the headcount

Before looking at furniture, list the zones and how many people use each one. A typical office has these areas, and each needs a different kind of furniture:

• Open workstations: single, double or multiple workstations.
• Managers and executives: desk with storage, executive chair and guest chairs.
• Meetings: table sized to headcount, with cable management.
• Training: tables that fold or stack to repurpose the room.
• Filing: filing cabinets, pedestals, credenzas and cabinets.
• Reception and waiting: reception desk, sofas and coffee tables.
• Staff areas: lockers and lunchroom.

Workstations: single, double or multiple

For the open area, a modular workstation outperforms loose desks: it shares structure, organizes cables and grows by adding modules. LuxaLine has two families. Malta has a white frame, melamine top and a 3-drawer pedestal, and it's modular. Génova has a walnut or grey veneered-PVC surface and 3 lockable drawers. Both come in single, double and multiple versions.

The rule: if the team collaborates all day (sales, customer service), go double or multiple; if the position handles confidential information or makes many calls, a single workstation or separate desk. And if they keep sensitive documents, choose lockable drawers.

Desks for managers and executives

A private office needs surface to work and receive visitors, plus storage within reach. Choose by the shape of the room and how much paper the person handles:

• Corner or narrow room: Oporto L-shaped desk, configurable left or right, in 18 mm melamine MDF.
• Manager with lots of files: Milán desk, 2.5 cm black melamine top with 3-drawer pedestal.
• Executive: Santander, 40 mm melamine with credenza (1800 × 800 × 740 mm surface), or Nápoles, with side credenza and cable pass-through (200 × 180 × 75 cm).
• Simple, sturdy position: Bilbao, with grey metal frame and melamine modesty panel.
• Sit and stand work: Palermo, with adjustable height and tilt from 73.5 to 108 cm and casters.

The chair: where saving doesn't pay

An office chair is used more hours than any other piece of furniture. For a full workday, check five adjustments: seat height (feet flat on the floor and knees at hip level or slightly below), lumbar support that fills the lower-back curve, a lockable recline, armrests at desk height and a seat that doesn't press behind the knees. Try it seated for at least a few minutes, with the height already adjusted.

In LuxaLine, the Monet (Ergo collection) has a mesh back, injected-foam seat and 130° recline; the Atenas has a mesh back and headrest with 6 cm high-density foam; the Amsterdam is a mid-back mesh chair with lumbar support, and the Munich uses high-density ergonomic foam designed for the full workday. For executives, the Oxford is a PU executive chair with a chrome base. For cashier stations and high counters there's the Munich Cajero, with a foot ring. And for visitors, the guest versions of Oxford and Atenas.

Meeting and training rooms

Choose the table by headcount and by the technology used in the meeting. Leave room to pull the chair out and walk behind it. If the room is used for presentations, ask for cable management or built-in outlets: the Barcelona table seats 8 (2400 × 1200 × 750 mm) with a central cable pass-through, and the Vienna, also for 8, has PU upholstery with power and USB outlets.

For rooms that change use—training in the morning, all-hands in the afternoon—the Dubai table has silent casters and vertical folding, with a 25 mm top; the trapezoidal version stacks vertically to reconfigure the room.

Filing and storage: size by volume, not looks

Work out how much paper and material each area stores and whether it must be locked. In LuxaLine, the Metal Filing Cabinet comes in 2, 3 or 4 legal-size drawers with telescopic slides; the 3-drawer Metal Pedestal fits under the desk; the Melk credenza has 3 metal drawers, a sliding tambour door and 4 casters, and the high-capacity Horizontal Tambour Cabinet has a security lock. For staff, lockers handle bags and uniforms; we have a separate guide to choose them.

Reception, waiting and common areas

Reception is the first thing a client sees. The Fresno is a modular reception desk with a shelf and a 10 mm glass front. For the waiting area, LuxaLine has lounge seating in 1 and 3 seats: Alejandría, Hamburgo (PU on a stainless-steel base), the Ontario armchair in PU leather on an iron and wood frame, and the Milán sofa in 1, 2 and 3 seats; the Soho and Roma coffee tables complete the area. For the staff cafeteria or lunchroom, the HORECA line has tables and chairs such as Lisboa, Noa and Marsella.

In El Salvador, the group also offers Inorca, Colombian seating for auditoriums, offices and collective spaces, and Resol, Spanish design furniture for indoors and outdoors.

Where to see and buy office furniture in Central America

Grupo ConstruMarket, founded in 1991, sells corporate office furniture with LuxaLine, its own brand, in El Salvador and Nicaragua. According to the brand's description, LuxaLine has its own infrastructure for design, assembly, upholstery and industrial sewing. The furniture is on display at every ConstruMarket store in El Salvador (Zaragoza, Antiguo Cuscatlán and San Miguel) and in Managua: there you can sit in the chairs, open drawers and compare finishes.

In El Salvador, part of the furniture is in the online store with published prices, and it can be paid in installments with a participating credit card. For a full project, request a quote with the floor plan or measurements and the headcount per area; an advisor will contact you during business hours.

• El Salvador: Zaragoza, Antiguo Cuscatlán and San Miguel (LuxaLine, Inorca and Resol).
• Nicaragua: Managua (LuxaLine).