Ideas to Add Privacy to Existing Office Furniture

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, open office design had faced pushed back for privacy.  Now, it needs be modified to allow 6 feet of social distancing.  Social distancing does not exist with the benching stations installed at many companies.  We have ideas to add privacy to existing office furniture. 

In What Happens When We Return to the Workplace, they reference their 2020 survey where the office was people’s preferred place to work, as long as it’s designed to support their work.  Yep, the office beat out home, co-working space, or coffee shop.  

If you are like many companies, you have taken a huge hit to your business plan.  Purchasing new office furniture wasn’t in your plan.  What is an affordable way to add privacy to existing office furniture? 

Add Freestanding Customizable Dividers in 3 Heights

There are several freestanding divider options.  These are easy to assemble, customizable, made in the USA, and ship well.  During the pandemic, they were used in many hospital and medical situations.  We have had clients use them at the end of desk runs to provide privacy.  We like that you can customize the panels with sound absorption, dry erase board, wood planks, plexiglass, etc.

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Add Cough and Sneeze Desk Guards To Desks 

Whether is it desk dividers, cough or sneeze desk guards, whatever you call them, your team needs something to keep you from droplets of plague courtesy of your co-worker. 

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Side Desk Privacy

New privacy solutions for social distancing are launching everyday. This is our favorite for side desk privacy. We like that it extends the privacy by and additional 2 feet for your 2 foot worksurface. It is also more than a divider. You can customize with a tack board or dry erase board.

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Cubicle Top Planter

There are many benefits to plants in the office. We love combining a cubicle top planter to add privacy. It is a stylish way to get the privacy and improve air quality!

In this post covid install, the client added cubicle partition planters to the top of the cubicle wing panels to extend the height of the cubicle. The panel planters are available in different sizes. This client went with live snake and pothos plants that are low maintenance.

Add Cubicle Panels to Divide Desks

If you have a several desks in an area, you can provide privacy with cubicle panels.  Long before Covid-19, this manager noticed the distraction of an open office.  We added panels to wrap the current desks to provide privacy.  The partitions drop down from tall to mid-height to avoid closing in the space.  

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Here is a post covid solution made from used Herman Miller Ethospace panels. At 70″ tall, the glass tiles keep the area open. A pass through window was customized to allow paperwork to move between work areas.

Add Acoustic Hanging Panels or Dividers

Before Covid-19, the big complaint about the open office was noise pollution. Folks hated all the distractions coming at them everyday. These EZ Board Office Dividers or Office Hanging Panels are made from dense sound absorption felt are a solution for the noise and social distancing. These absorb about 20% of the sound surrounding the area. Much of the material is made from recycled bottles for a sustainability component.

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Tall Cubicles with Doors

We have seen the requests for tall cubicles with doors increase in a post covid office world. As such our variations for this set-up have increased too. These panels attached to your wall. The plexiglass is very popular for still keeping the office open and easy to clean.

Biophilic Dividers

Biophilic design of using more and more natural materials in design is extremely important for productivity and health. We have explored several of these materials. We love the look of moss as truly a living way to do this. A few things with moss though. Use it where it can’t be touched. Also, it does start to slowly become brown over time. This isn’t a problem to keep the green look with some touch up paint. Moss also isn’t an option for an outside environment.

With moss’ limitations in mind, we were on the search for a biophilic product with even less maintenance and something that could stand the kiddo test. Can my kids destroy it quickly? This product checked all the boxes for indoor, outdoor, beautiful, and curious kid an adult proof.

This faux green product can be used on a wall or as a divider. It is UV treated to weather well. One restaurant used it as a wind break. A local architect is specifying it in VA hospital. They always believe it will be a good fit for fire stations where a calming environment is very important for fire men and women that are regularly interrupted during REM sleep.

As you can see, there are so MANY options to help you with social distancing and keep your office healthy. If you think one of these ideas to add privacy to existing office furniture might work for you, please contact us via email to nikim@greencleandesigns.com or text/call 913-701-4847.