Making improvements to your office building doesn’t always have to put a huge strain on your business budget. By finding ways to save money on renovations, you’ll be able to upgrade your work setting and have some money to spare. These five renovation ideas can help improve your office building without having to spend a lot of money.
Redecorate the Walls
The walls for your office building may still be in good quality even though they’re looking worn and outdated. Instead of tearing down your old walls, you can improve their aesthetic appeal by repainting them with high-quality paints that will last longer. If you have an artistic flair or know someone who has a knack for creating beautiful designs, you can have intricate patterns and color schemes added to your walls to give them more uniqueness. Putting company logos up on your walls can help showcase your brand better while covering up certain cosmetic flaws that your walls might have. Another idea is to have inspirational messages displayed on your walls so that your staff will feel more motivated to work.
Improve the Lighting
Poor lighting can make your office space a less pleasant place to work for your staff and may also make your business seem less appealing to clients. By simply finding ways to improve the lighting in your work areas, hallways, and restrooms, you’ll be able to give your business a brighter, more modern ambiance. Incandescent, halogen and LED lightbulbs often work great for workspaces, and you can save money by ordering your bulbs in bulk. To keep the bulbs shining their brightest, make sure that they’re dusted regularly to remove buildups that can make the light look dimmer. Your old light fixtures may also need to be replaced with new ones, but it’s often easy to find inexpensive products from trusted retailers. Lighting in your building can be improved further by having old windows replaced with standard ones instead of designer windows so that more natural sunlight can shine into your workspace.
Do the Work Yourself
Hiring contractors often costs more than doing the work yourself, and you may be surprised to learn how much you can do on your own with the right tools and materials. Major plumbing and electrical work should be left to the professionals, but you can try installing new sinks and other fixtures yourself by following some step-by-step instructions. Painting the walls, doors, and ceilings of rooms in your building can also be accomplished by you and your staff if you have the right types of paints, paintbrushes, and paint rollers. New shelves can also be added to certain areas to create more storage space. Numbers that are used to show your business’s address can be replaced with new numbers that will be easier to see. Having some safe way scaffolding in place while working on walls or other elevated areas is a great way to decrease hazards for you and your staff while you work.
Block Unwanted Outside Noise
A lot of outside noise that’s heard throughout your office building can make accomplishing work tasks much more difficult for your staff. Any holes in your walls or other openings around the sealing for your windows and doors should be sealed tightly to filter out unwanted noise, and caulking and drywall materials can often be purchased inexpensively. Soundproof curtains are also available and often work great for office buildings. According to SFGate.com, window blankets can additionally work well in muffling noises that are coming through windows.
Update the Flooring
Updating your floors doesn’t have to mean replacing them, and you can improve the look and function of each floor in your building without a major renovation. If you have any tile floors, you can make them look brand-new again by simply re-grouting the spaces that are in between each tile. Having your subfloor repaired is a great way to put an end to any squeaking sounds that are heard while walking across a floor. You can also update your floors with a good deep cleaning to make them look like they’ve been replaced.
Creating a work environment that’s more contemporary with fewer maintenance problems can be done rather inexpensively with the right methods. Making the commitment to improve your office building without depleting your company’s finances can be one of the best things that you’ll ever do for your business.
Samantha Higgins is a professional writer with a passion for research, observation, and innovation. She is nurturing a growing family of twin boys in Portland, Oregon with her husband. She loves kayaking and reading creative non-fiction.
