Designing Furniture for Boarding Accommodation
Having worked with a variety of boarding schools across the UK, we understand that there are a number of factors that come into play when designing boarding accommodation and the furniture for these spaces.
If you are currently planning a new boarding house or a refurbishment of your current boarding accommodation, we have collated a number of considerations that you may find useful when specifying boarding accommodation furniture.
Practical Requirements
Durability
We understand that for many schools, the furniture you select for your boarding houses and other spaces is significant investment – you want to get the most out of your budget. Therefore, it is vital that the furniture you select is durable and long lasting
When selecting and designing your furniture, it is important to select high quality materials that will last for years to come.
With students using their boarding furniture on a daily basis during term time, the design and materials you select for this furniture must be able to withstand rigorous use. We have a proven track record of manufacturing furniture that can handle the rigours of each boarding environment and offer a five year fair wear and tear guarantee.
Practicality
As well as focusing on creating furniture that has the ‘wow’ factor, it is important to ensure that pieces of furniture will still be practical and useful over a long period of time.
Utilising the available space is an important consideration when designing and specifying boarding accommodation furniture. You need to strike the balance between creating acomfortable environment and ensuring you maximise the number of students in the boarding house.
Security, privacy and storage
These are all major factors that need to be considered in the design of boarding furniture and are a necessity for boarding accommodation.
We help schools to achieve this is through implementing a one key locking system per student where all lockable items of furniture for a student are opened using the same key so the student does not have multiple keys for different items of furniture.
We are also able to offer a range of combination locks and electronic safes built into your boarding furniture. All of these solutions come with master keys so that boarding house and estates staff are able to get access when required.
Individual and personal requirements
Home away from home
Boarding school is often a child’s first foray into the independent world and no matter what their age, this experience can be daunting and scary. This is where the design of boarding accommodation can play a role in helping to create a space that has that home away from home feel for a child.
One way to achieve this is through designing furniture that provides an opportunity for individuality. You can still make small changes to provide your students with the opportunity to tailor their spaces to their own style, one example being a pin board.
This inexpensive piece of furniture is the perfect way to allow your students to pin up posters, pictures, helping to make their space their own and achieving that homely feel without causing damage to the walls or furniture.
Study environment vs. relaxed environment
Boarding accommodation needs to be the perfect balance between a study and living environment.
When selecting a boarding school, parents will want to know their child will be getting the best out of the experience in terms of the academic and social aspects that boarding offers.
In order to achieve this, you need to consider the design and furniture for both your social spaces and study spaces.
Social spaces are important
There are some things that children learn best outside the classroom and boarding provides them with the opportunity to build their social skills and develop vital qualities, such as independence and resilience.
It is important that the furniture within your social spaces facilitates collaboration, conversations, team work and fun. Encourage students to use these spaces, through incorporating aspects such as colour, comfort, games, and designing furniture that can be moved easily to create opportunities for collaboration.
Colour schemes
We understand that your school may have different boarding houses, so it is important to consider whether you would like the design of your furniture to tie in with the colour schemes for these different houses, or whether you would like it tie in with your school’s overall branding.
You should also consider theimpact that different colours may have on your students. We have previously discussed the effects that colours can have on mood, focus and learning.
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