Is there a not-ugly cubicle?

March 8, 2019 4:21 PM

What office cubicle or semi-cubicle is reasonably priced and not hideously ugly? I've got a small business with about 20 employees. Our new office will have a pretty open layout, and our employees are hoping for a little more privacy at their desks. I'm hoping for a solution that'll go with our industrial-ish decor (brick, concrete, etc) and not cost an arm and a leg. We have vintage tanker desks now, so in-between options like privacy screens that accommodate those are welcome, but solutions with desks in-built would be OK too.
posted by YoungAmerican to Work & Money (10 answers total)

I went to NeoCon in Chicago last year, which is the design trade show that focuses on stuff like this. You can go through their exhibitor list and do some keyword searches, or just do a google image search for 'office privacy solutions'. Pretty much all the top hits are from companies I saw there. I particularly like Steelcase. Theres a lot of mid-century modern styles around right now, so I'm sure you'll be able to find something that goes with a vintage aesthetic.
posted by ananci at 4:35 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

To keep cost down, you can look for refurbished office furniture vendors.
posted by Kriesa at 4:54 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've heard good things about these. http://adaptt.net
posted by shadygrove at 5:25 PM on March 8, 2019

I also want to recommend Steelcase office furniture as being the opposite of ugly! Had the opportunity to visit their showroom and it was all very nice and pleasant looking. Not sure what you consider to be arm-and-a-leg pricing, though.

Used furniture can be absolutely a good deal. Please keep in mind the general adage, that hard materials are going to stay in better shape than soft materials. I recently went through quite the ordeal with some really nice used task chairs at what seemed at the time like a great price. tl;dr, I unexpectedly had to pay for replacement seat and back cushions. This was both costly and time-consuming.
posted by Goblin Barbarian at 5:28 PM on March 8, 2019

Steelcase is great. Knoll also has a range specifically for open offices.
posted by a halcyon day at 5:49 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

The lab Dr Bored for Science and I were grad students in had a lot of Steelcase furniture, which both looked good and stood up really well to grad student use and abuse.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 5:52 PM on March 8, 2019

When I used to build offices we always used Steelcase. The dealers can find you used pieces to keep costs down. It's been about a decade, but our budgeted cost to build a cubicle was one thousand dollars per station. That included furniture, telephone, and computer. I don't think it included the data cabling costs or telephone wiring costs though.
posted by vignettist at 7:43 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

nthing Steelcase.

Does this mean no more updates of the goings-on at the lake?
posted by ocherdraco at 9:03 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

I sadly could not afford cubes for my company when we priced them, but I would start with finding a local reseller first and then seeing what they have.

The place I found would also deliver install, and could also do powder-coating or repainting on an order before sending things out

I was cautioned against DIY purchase as it is easy to get 95% done with the install and then realize that you forgot to order some specific piece of hardware.
posted by sol at 11:43 AM on March 9, 2019

Response by poster: @ocherdraco You will have to settle, eventually, for Lincoln Heights updates ;)
posted by YoungAmerican at 1:01 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]