Create a Professional Atmosphere With These 5 Office Decor Ideas

A beautiful office inspires workers

The 21st-century office is about more than simple utility. It aims to impress, inspire and invigorate everyone who walks through its doors, from employees to clients. It’s not just about aesthetics for their own sake—research shows that a beautiful office leads to better work.

Building a beautiful office takes smart planning, attention to detail and an eye for aesthetics. If you want to wow visitors and bring out the best in your employees, these office decor ideas can put you on the path to success.

Decor and lighting aren't the only tools at your disposal. To explore how convenience can fuel business, check out 5 Ways Walmart Business Leverages Convenience for Business Growth.

Office decor ideas to try

1. Unify your color scheme

The color of your office can have a very real effect on your employees’ moods. For example, light blues have been found to enhance productivity.

It’s important to remember that color is just one piece of the puzzle. Tone—that is, how light or dark a color is—can also have an effect. A darker blue, for example, can actually hurt productivity.

You can also use tone to modulate how a space feels. If you’ve got a small office, lighter colors can help it feel more spacious and comfortable. They also reflect more natural light, which is good for employees (more on that later).

But as any designer will tell you, contrast is what brings a space to life. You’ll need another set of accent colors to provide that contrast without tipping into chaos. Consider using the colors of your company’s logo or branding as your accents. That can reinforce a sense of unity in design and among your employees.

By taking command of color, you can subtly nudge your employees into more productive headspaces. Plus, you’ll gain an overarching design principle that can help guide your office to a single, cohesive aesthetic.

2. Compose your office elements

As any great black-and-white photographer can attest, composition is just as important as color.  For your office, that means the way you’ll arrange desks, chairs and conference tables to balance workplace efficiency with aesthetic appeal.

Office decor ideas for work layouts often fall into a few broad categories:

• Traditional cubicles give employees dedicated space but can hamper socialization and collaboration.

• Open office layouts encourage communication but can lead to increased noise and distractions.

• Activity-based layouts provide several workspaces—huddle rooms, focus pods and lounges among them—to meet a variety of needs, but tend not to have assigned desks.
  

To choose the right layout for your office, start by considering how many workers you’ll need to fit inside it. Then, think about how they’ll use the space. Will they need focused time away from colleagues, or a lot of places for collaboration? Will they benefit from dedicated areas to socialize?

By thinking through these questions, you’ll be better positioned to design a space that preserves the flow of movement and promotes productivity without sacrificing appearance.

3. Be bright

Office lighting can be much more than simply functional. Just like color, it can affect employee moods. It also has enormous potential for honing your office aesthetic, creating a specific, striking mood that can both instill focus and impress.

Natural light boosts employee well-being and productivity, with around 70% of workers saying it makes them happier at work, more satisfied with their jobs and overall better workers. Another 54% say it boosts their organizational commitment. The more natural light you can squeeze into your office, the better.

Of course, natural light can’t meet every need for office lighting. You still need to be able to see when the sun goes down. To that end, consider using a mix of background lights, task-oriented lights and accent lights.

Background lights are fixtures such as ceiling lights. They provide the baseline ambient lighting for your office. Using cool, daylight-blue lights can improve your workers’ alertness and productivity.

Task-oriented lights give individual employees more control over their light. Desk lamps are a good example.

If you’re looking for office decor ideas that make your workplace more dynamic, accent lights are here to help. These can be used to highlight particular features in your office, such as art on the walls or a cabinet full of awards.

4. Cultivate greenery

For the ultimate office decor inspiration, go green. Greenery has an outsize influence on the employee experience, raising workplace satisfaction, enhancing concentration, purifying air and boosting productivity by as much as 15%.

Small potted plants along the conference room windows can help the space feel more lush and vibrant. Employee desks can play host to small, low-maintenance succulents.

Bigger options, such as fiddle leaf fig trees, can comfortably occupy the corners of your office. Other large potted plants near your office entrance can make a strong first impression. But if you really want to wow, consider a plant wall of elegant trailing pothos plants or English ivy.

And for one of the most charming office room decor ideas, try incorporating hanging plants such as Tillandsia to add pops of green throughout the office.

Some of these options require more maintenance than others. Hiring staff to maintain your plants may not be in the cards, but there are plenty of plants that even a gardening novice can grow.

5. No wall too small

The walls of your office are like a blank canvas, giving you plenty of space to shape the appearance of your business.

The first step toward incorporating them into your office aesthetic is to paint them a color that’s in harmony with the rest of your office decor. Cool and light should be your guiding words here, as that’ll help promote focus and calm.

As for what to put on the walls themselves, you’ve got plenty of options. Framed awards and photos of landmark moments in your company’s history can build a sense of pride and camaraderie among your employees. Alternatively, art that resonates with your aesthetic can communicate your company’s values.

If you’re ready to take a slightly bolder step, a mural can be a statement piece that inspires your team and creates a lasting impression on visitors.

Put it all together with Walmart Business+

Now that you have some ideas about how to design the office of your dreams, you can start collecting the pieces you’ll need. Do it for less with a Walmart Business+ membership. Not only will you enjoy free shipping on your purchases,¹ you’ll also get free delivery from a nearby Walmart store on purchases more than $35.² Plus, every purchase of $250 or more earns you 2% back in Walmart Business Rewards.³ That can add up to as much as $500 per year in savings.⁴

Click here to start your membership today.

¹Excludes most Marketplace items, freight & certain location surcharges.

²Restrictions apply. Additional fee applies for Express delivery.

³Exclusions apply. See full terms for details.

⁴Savings based on 1 free $35+ delivery order vs. $9.95 fee and 1 free shipping order under $35 vs. $6.99 fee biweekly, plus 2% Walmart Business rewards on monthly order >$250 (average value of $400).