Published: 21 July 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

No comments

Categories: Furnishing a Library

So much of what we experience depends on our surroundings. The practice of Feng Shui combines room setup with how we feel and behave, and with how long it’s been around and there’s got to be something to say for its effectiveness. Now, where would beautiful Feng Shui be the most useful? The answer is a fairly simple one – learning environments like a school library.

With summer break on, now is the perfect time to revitalize your school library. As the central resource of a school, libraries play a part in every student’s learning experience. The library is the premium place to update the layout to get the most out of your budget.

Where to Start

School libraries are a diverse environment with room needed for both collaborative and secluded spaces. This is so a group or class can meet to research or work together without disturbing the individuals trying to study quietly. So, with real estate needed for books, computers, groups, and reference desks, what kind of library furnishings should you look into?

Carroll Seating Company can help you decide on the ideal furniture to meet your needs. We have over 50 years of experience working with the best library equipment suppliers in the business, supplying desks, chairs, and workstations to a variety of organizations. We are on the forefront of designing and supplying dynamic equipment.

Most school libraries would greatly benefit from the combination of secluded study areas and group labs. Carroll Seating Company has extensive experience, designing settings complete with bookshelves and desks in order to make an area that offers the best of both worlds. We offer highly stylized personal desks, while also having wonderful options for group layouts that include non-congested desks which are highly effective for group discussion.

With the library existing as a communal space for all classes and students, it is the lifeblood of education. Updating your school library will mean more people will use this resource and ultimately, there will be a stronger connections between all students, teachers, and staff.

Published: 11 July 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

No comments

Categories: laboratories

No one likes to be forced into an uncomfortable situation, especially at their workplace. Let’s face it, if you’re going to be in a lab sitting for several hours every day, you should at least have some customizable options that not only help you work smarter, but are more comfortable too.

Unquantifiable Benefits

Modular casework design is perfect for creating a streamlined environment that promotes smooth and efficient work ethic. Imagine a situation where you’ve got multiple responsibilities, but you can’t feel comfortable with the layout of all your tools. This clustering will cause holdup with workflow and frustrated attitudes all around. Studies show that people are most effective when they have a workstation well suited to their style of operation, which is why smooth lab layouts create positive results, no matter what the project in front of you might be.

You have to love your lab space, and good modular designs can mean you get the flexibility you want and the sturdy spaces you need. Not sure what to consider? The following can help.

Put Comfort First: You’re not going to want to finish the project if you’re working in a lab you hate, and it doesn’t have to look like your high school science classroom anymore. Instead, there are hundreds of options that may help put you at ease.
The Finish Matters: Modular casework can come in a variety of finishes, and the one you select won’t just depend on what you’re working with. Instead, it will also depend on what might actually appeal to you. In some cases, wood grain may work well and create the best possible lab environment. In other cases, though, you’ll want something that is a bit more resistant to your research like stainless steel.
Will You Need to Repurpose? How long will your research last? What comes next? With the right options, you can have a fully repurposable lab that will serve your needs now and down the road.

Ready to find the perfect modular lab casework? Contact us today for help.

Published: 5 July 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

1 Comment

Categories: Seating Solutions

Update Your Company Mailroom Now

What happens in your company mailroom from day to day? You likely have at least a few clerical assistants responsible for the sorting and delivering of packages, documents, and more to your entire team, and while you may not think about this job from day to day, it’s absolutely vital to the success of your company. How can you equip these team members with the best possible equipment to help make their jobs easier and ensure productivity? These tips can help.

Get Modular: Every mailroom needs a space for incoming and outgoing functions, but the operations from month to month in your mailroom may have to shift to deal with potential busy seasons and more. The last thing you want is built-in millwork that can shift with the room itself. Instead, go with something modular that will help your employees keep pace with real change and maintain their own efficiency.
Don’t Forget to Consider Size: As you begin to build out the perfect mailroom design, the last thing you want to overlook is the size of the space. Ordering modular pieces that are always going to be too large is certain to be an issue for your employees. Size things out carefully before you move forward.
Enlist Professional Help: This is not a space where you just want to wing it. Instead, contact our design professionals to help make a plan for your mailroom space. We’ve worked with hundreds of companies like yours in the past, and we’ll help you find the perfect layout, taking your mailroom employees’ suggestions into consideration in the process.

Ready to design that perfect mailroom? Contact us today, and we’ll help you make the ideal decisions to ensure increased productivity in your company now

Published: 29 June 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

No comments

Categories: Locker Solutions

That final bell has gone off, the students have deserted the building for the next three months, and it’s time to get to work. You want your building to look amazing when they come back, and that can mean some serious renovation. One change that will make your space look amazing? New lockers!

Do Lockers Actually Matter?

Many administrators don’t actually value locker conditions, and for good reason. It’s been some time since most administrators and teachers alike have wandered through the halls as students. Think back to your middle and high school days, thought, to answer that question. Did your locker matter? Absolutely! It was the one space you could count on while switching from room to room all day. It was the one space in the building that was yours. Complete with posters, customizable shelves, and that pair of gym shorts at the back you kept forgetting to take home, it was an important space in your life, and it is in the lives of your students as well.

Deciding on the Right Upgrades

If you’re not sure what upgrades to make, you may want to consider the following checklist.

Consider Size First: There’s only so much space in the building, so if you can nail down the right locker size from the outset, you’re going to make your search quite a bit easier. Decide whether a full locker or a two tiered system might best meet the needs of your students. Think carefully about how often they hit their lockers between classes, what gets stored, and more to decide on the right lockers to meet your needs.
Added Features: Lockers aren’t what they once were. In fact, there are many features to choose from you hadn’t considered in today’s lockers. If you go with recessed handles, you’re going to find far fewer snags on student clothing and backpacks. Decide whether you need single point locking or multi-point locking to help protect a student’s possessions. You may even want to go witih electronic keypads to help eliminate the more traditional locker padlocks.
Think Assembly: How much time does your maintenance staff have to deal with the locker issue? It’s possible that there’s not much time, so decide whether you want to waste that time assembling lockers or whether you’d prefer to buy something preassembled.
Don’t Forget Appearance: Lockers can look amazing! Go with school colors, varied door colors, and more to help enhance how those lockers look and how students feel about your space.

Summer is the perfect time to upgrade student lockers. Get busy with that project now. Contact us today to help select the perfect school lockers for your space.

Published: 24 June 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

No comments

Categories: Dorms & Student Housing

Think of a time when you’re sitting down, waiting for something, and there are a million thoughts going through your head. The only one that really stands out, however, is just how uncomfortable you are. While a lot of this is chalked up to nerves, it might also be because the chair is uncomfortable, the room is foreign, and the person sitting next to you is unreasonably close to the point of unease.

Students in school have a lot on their mind other than what is being taught, and providing them a comfortable living environment can be immeasurable in terms of keeping them focused. By providing them with comfortable chairs, plenty of room to move around, and a good environment for interacting with others, a college or university can become a place where students find refuge from the stress of study.

Aesthetics are Important

It’s natural to choose function over form when it comes to student housing. After all, you just want a space that will last from student to student. The problem, though, is that much of what you might choose during the layout process of student housing design creates a cold, industrial structure that isn’t going to stop tension, it’s going to create it.

What You Can Do Now

Looking for that perfect student housing environment? Don’t do it alone. At Carroll Seating Company, we’ve helped campuses come up with the ideal designs for student living, and we’ll be happy to help you to.

From ensuring you get the initial layout right to making certain you haven’t overlooked any amenities, we’ll work with you to design dorms and student living facilities your incoming freshmen are going to love. Take the time to contact us today, and we’ll help you build a space that will help your students focus on the task in front of them – obtaining a degree.

Published: 20 June 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

No comments

Categories: Bleacher seating

What makes a sports team good? The players and coach are an obvious answer, that is the makeup of a team in its most basic form, but the secret ingredient into making a team truly good is their fans and the community created by the team. When players are out competing and trying their best, the roar and support of a good crowd can often be that spark needed to bring home a win. So, with so much time, effort, and money spent on the players, it’s worth it to treat fans well too.

Bringing fans to a game is just as much about comfort as it is about team spirit. Bleachers have long been the bane of a comfortable sporting experience, but with advances in the seating industry this norm will soon be turned around.

Treat Your Fans Right With Comfy Seats

Carroll Seating Company has over 50 years of experience designing facilities with Hussey gym bleachers and stadium seats, and in that time they have never stopped looking for improvements. Hussey offers created ergonomic bleacher seats that are far better than those wooden benches of the past, and all of their options are highly customizable, offering cup holders, seat backs, and even those thoughtful touches like inlaid seat numbers.

Product longevity is another aspect of accommodation that Carroll Seating Company has perfected. Whether indoors or out, they use only the best material to withstand the elements and the energy produced by hyped-up fans. Stadium seating is often the most well used aspect of sports as a whole, and making sure the seats are durable is a very economic and safe bet.

Keeping the fans comfortable and excited to be at a game is a key piece in winning, so make sure you take care of them and the effects will go a long way.

Published: 14 June 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

No comments

Categories: Medical Offices

When was the last time you took a closer look at your facility? Have you ever spent a few minutes just sitting in your waiting room looking around? What was the impression that you got? If it wasn’t as positive as you’d hoped, it may be time to do a few upgrades. After all, if your patients are uncomfortable, that may follow them to treatment. What’s more, though, is that if your patients aren’t happy, your staff may not be either. Unfortunately, choosing medical office furniture for your facility isn’t quite as easy as choosing furniture for your home. How can you get exactly what you need? These tips can help.

Think Accessibility: More important than almost any other concern as you work through the medical office furniture selection process is how accessible the physical layout of your space is for patients and staff alike. You’ll want to build in the ideal organization and flow to your space, ensuring that there’s plenty of storage and expansion may be possible at a later date. Keep in mind that the more accessible your office is, the more likely your space might be to last well into the next decade.
Think Comfort: Patients and staff members alike crave a certain level of comfort. You want your patients to feel like they’re in a safe space, free of the cares from the outside world. You want your staff members to feel like they’re in an organized, productive space that helps them work. All of the medical office furniture you choose in should foster both of those needs. Try to choose pieces that are not only comfortable now, but will be well into the next few years. You should also choose fresh, crisp colors that creates an image of cleanliness without feeling too sterile.
Flexible Functionality: Keep in mind that no matter what furniture you actually end up with, you want to ensure that you have a functional environment that can change and grow with your business over time. Go for something that has a timeless style and fabrics that are as durable as they are beautiful. Choose products that are rated for commercial use to help accommodate individuals of all sizes.

Let Us Help

At Carroll Seating Company, we specialize in helping your patients and staff feel at home in your space. Remember that everyone involved, employees and staff alike, want to love your space, and that can often only happen with the right furniture pieces. We can help you select the ideal pieces to ensure you get the storage, comfort, and functionality you need fast. Contact us today, and you’ll be paired with a personal project manager who can help you learn more about just how amazing your space can look. We can’t wait to help your medical office get the face lift it needs.

Published: 8 June 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

No comments

Categories: Bleacher seating

Traditional bench seating defines most stadiums today, but it’s not always the most comfortable option. You can see fans continually toting in portable stadium seating, hoping to get the level of comfort they want throughout the game or event. It is possible to help your fans avoid the need to bring in their own comfortable seating, though. Adding stadium style seating to your bleacher arrangement is the perfect solution.

The Best Defined Seat Space

Our stadium seats are easily the best option in the business. With ergonomically designed backrests, a variety of color options, and many other amenities others simply can’t offer, this is the most comfortable choice for your patrons. They’re easy to install and maintain, and we’ve designed a choice that will be ready for game after game in the years to come. Carefully contoured for comfort, your patrons will quickly realize just how much thought you’ve put into this choice. You can even add features like arm rests, optional cup holders, and recessed seat numbering plates.

We routinely design stadium seats for venues across the United States, and we work hard to create a comfortable experience for all of your fans. These are easy to install in almost any setting, and they’re perfect whether you have a new construction space or you’re retrofitting.

Why Carroll Seating?

We’ve been working with spaces like yours since 1952, and we know bleacher seating and stadium seating better than any other company today. We have the experience, the knowledge, and the products to help make certain that you achieve your goal again and again. We even offer service and support should you have any questions or issues after installation. From start to finish, Carroll Seating will be there to help you with every step of the project. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help.

Published: 31 May 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

No comments

Categories: Locker Solutions

Choosing new hall lockers for your students? You certainly have your work cut out for you. Whether you’re designing a brand new building or you’re retrofitting an old one with a locker facelift, there are several things you need to do before you choose school lockers for your student body. This guide can help.

Step 1: Identify How Many Total Lockers You Need

Before you can even begin to consider locker design, you need to think about your population and just how many lockers you might need during the course of the year. Carefully consider how many students you have and whether your entire population will need lockers or if you’ll pair some students up with others, thus needing only a single locker for two students. Also, keep in mind that enrollment projections are often low, so you’ll want to go a bit higher than you expect to ensure you have the necessary facilities for all of your students.

Step 2: Consider Size

The next major consideration is the size factor. How much do your students have to store in their lockers? If you don’t have gym locker facilities for your student athletes, they may need more space than the average student. Likewise, if students carry a backpack from class to class, they may also only need a small amount of space. In the event you’re a fully digital school, book space may be unnecessary. Students may simply need a place to store a coat and a backpack for each class. Think carefully about what students store in their lockers, and you’ll better know whether you should move forward with a full size locker or something smaller.

Step 3: Consider Durability

Don’t forget to think about how durable a hall locker is going to be. Students often use them multiple times per day, and that can mean a serious beating. While you can buy a fairly light gauge locker, the chances are good that you’ll be replacing it far sooner than you want.

Step 4: Don’t Forget About Features

School lockers come with a number of different features these days, including shelves, colors, and a variety of other options. A student’s locker is like a home away from home, so don’t hesitate to make some upgrades and make it the best locker your students have ever seen.

To learn more about selecting lockers for your student body, contact us today.

Published: 25 May 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

No comments

Categories: laboratories

Designing that perfect lab for young scientists? It’s tough to balance the needs of young scientists with the realities of budgets and space today, but these laboratory design tips can help you get the science space you need now.

Don’t Forget to Build In Storage Space: If you want safe, effective science instruction for your students, you’re going to need a pretty solid amount of storage space. There are a number of ways to do just that. Add extra shelving to your design for glassware. Consider hidden storage spaces in cabinets. Think about adding a storage closet at the back of the room. Whatever you do, though, make certain that you add storage to your overall design from the outset.
Consider Your Work Surface Carefully: There are a number of different work surfaces to choose from, and the key to durability will be how yours is going to be used. The needs of elementary school science classes, for instance, are very different from the needs of high school science classes, so think about your work surface options before you make a final decision.
Think Utilities: The best science labs have a gas supply, electricity access, and good drainage systems. You may need to consider that as you build out that perfect lab design, particularly if you’re refurbishing an old space into a brand new lab.
Make it Inspirational: Don’t forget that you’re actually building out a classroom, so you need to consider that as you work toward the perfect layout. Add color, themes, and a bit of imagination to help better motivate students to learn.

Let us help you design the ideal science lab. When you choose Carroll Seating Company, you’ll work one-on-one with a project manager who will not only ensure you get that perfect laboratory design, but also great casework and equipment to ensure your classroom is second to none. Contact us today to learn more.