Jul 27, 2026 · 1 hr 27 min · 13 segments
**What's the BEST Office Furniture for Your Workspace?** Ever wondered why you *can't focus* in your office — or why certain spaces feel instantly calming? In this episode, Hayley Roy is joined by…
Charlie KernickGuest
Lucinda KernickGuestSo to start with, we're gonna talk about why workplace design matters and the psychology behind workplace design.
Do you guys have an opinion on, uh, on this? I will let Charlie answer this one because he's more design based.
Yeah, I mean, psychology and design is in the sense of, like, m- making people feel...
At the mo- at the moment we have in our, in our industry a lot of people are working from home still from since the COVID pandemic, and y- you-- our challenge at the moment that we're finding with our clients is trying to create spaces that are encouraging people to come and work back into the, the workplace rather than b- staying at home.
So how do you do that? How do you create an environment that draw-- You know, if someone has the option to work from home, what's gonna draw them back into the office? So you, you know, when you-- when I'm designing something and especially with regards to kind of areas and, um, like sort of design elements to include, you have to have that in the back of your mind to think all these things have got to come together to try and entice people back in.
So if I talk about areas such as, you know, a, a common thing that we're doing at the moment is, um, trying to c- create larger social spaces, uh, for people to come back into the office and because that's kind of the two reasons I see with people coming back in for socially as well as collaborative.
So as well as kind of big-- creating big social areas, you're creating collaborative sectio- um, meeting rooms and stuff like that as well to try and entice people into the office.
Um, so that's where, kind of where we're standing at the moment or where, where we are at the moment with kind of designing spaces.
I think a lot of it also, a lot of the companies that I'm seeing, um, not necessarily from a design point of view, but a lot of the companies are actually in- insisting that their staff do come in more.
So maybe they're putting you have to be in back in four days a week and actually we're accepting that you, you need a, a day from working from home.
But I feel like sometimes it's not even just furniture that people are looking at to try and get people back in.
It's whether it's group activities, um, Fridays they're trying to especially get people in 'cause obviously a lot of people seem to gravitate to a Friday work from home.
Um, definitely like Charlie said, furniture wise, soft seating, larger areas of collaboration tables and things like that.
But a lot of it also is based around sort of furniture that allows for group activities, whether it's-
I don't know, games and things like that, that a lot of companies are trying to do that because it's not just sort of... [clears throat] It's hard to also keep talent I think as well- Mm ...
So to start with, we're gonna talk about why workplace design matters and the psychology behind workplace design.
Do you guys have an opinion on, uh, on this? I will let Charlie answer this one because he's more design based.
Yeah, I mean, psychology and design is in the sense of, like, m- making people feel...
At the mo- at the moment we have in our, in our industry a lot of people are working from home still from since the COVID pandemic, and y- you-- our challenge at the moment that we're finding with our clients is trying to create spaces that are encouraging people to come and work back into the, the workplace rather than b- staying at home.
So how do you do that? How do you create an environment that draw-- You know, if someone has the option to work from home, what's gonna draw them back into the office? So you, you know, when you-- when I'm designing something and especially with regards to kind of areas and, um, like sort of design elements to include, you have to have that in the back of your mind to think all these things have got to come together to try and entice people back in.
So if I talk about areas such as, you know, a, a common thing that we're doing at the moment is, um, trying to c- create larger social spaces, uh, for people to come back into the office and because that's kind of the two reasons I see with people coming back in for socially as well as collaborative.
So as well as kind of big-- creating big social areas, you're creating collaborative sectio- um, meeting rooms and stuff like that as well to try and entice people into the office.
Um, so that's where, kind of where we're standing at the moment or where, where we are at the moment with kind of designing spaces.
I think a lot of it also, a lot of the companies that I'm seeing, um, not necessarily from a design point of view, but a lot of the companies are actually in- insisting that their staff do come in more.
So maybe they're putting you have to be in back in four days a week and actually we're accepting that you, you need a, a day from working from home.
But I feel like sometimes it's not even just furniture that people are looking at to try and get people back in.
It's whether it's group activities, um, Fridays they're trying to especially get people in 'cause obviously a lot of people seem to gravitate to a Friday work from home.
Um, definitely like Charlie said, furniture wise, soft seating, larger areas of collaboration tables and things like that.
But a lot of it also is based around sort of furniture that allows for group activities, whether it's-
I don't know, games and things like that, that a lot of companies are trying to do that because it's not just sort of... [clears throat] It's hard to also keep talent I think as well- Mm ...
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