Published: 30 August 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

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Categories: Casework & Millwork

Carroll Seating Company recently finished a beautiful custom millwork job at Round Lake High School in Round Lake, IL. CSC created a wall cap on the stairs that was manufactured by Kohout Woodwork.

This job is an excellent example of how Carroll Seating can excel in customizing. This job may look easy, but it took a lot of field measurements and talent went into making this cap look seamless in the field.

For more information on custom millwork for your school or office, contact Carroll Seating Company today at 847-434-0909.

Published: 18 August 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

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Categories: Locker Solutions

A school locker room can be one of the most unsettling places in the world. You have to change your clothes, do so in the presence of classmates, and leave all your personal items in an often times unsupervised dungeon. This can be pretty scary. This means it is the school’s responsibility to provide safe and comfortable places to change clothes, and often that means better locker rooms (and thus better school lockers).

The Importance of the Safe Locker Room

Nothing is more satisfying than knowing you are being looked after in a difficult situation. In a school locker room, this means giving your students privacy and the assurance that they are protected in a vulnerable situation. Regardless of the circumstances, needing to change for a gym class or sport is a difficult thing, and the right gym lockers can help give your students the privacy and security they need.

Maximize Your Layout

When re-doing a school locker room, the first thing to consider is the layout. The lockers should be set in a way that promotes privacy while changing, but also an open floor plan to guarantee people never feel vulnerable. An open locker layout and connected changing stalls are a great way to give students privacy while also having the security of being in a group.

Choose the Right Lockers

With children having more expansive equipment in their pockets than ever before, it is imperative to supply secure lockers. Quality athletic lockers are an extremely important aspect in making sure students actively participate in athletic activities. If they are always worried about their things being stolen or messed with, they are going to be less likely to participate.

The right layout is a very tricky beast to wrangle. You have to worry about providing privacy while also eliminating vulnerability. Carroll Seating Company has immense experience walking this thin line and what’s more, we offer some of most premier equipment available. With us as a resource, you’ll get the perfect locker room every single time.

Published: 10 August 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

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Categories: Medical Offices

There was a time when hospitals were gigantic, all-encompassing Goliaths that treated everything from broken bones to infectious disease. These days, though, a lot has changed, and as a society, we’ve worked hard to decentralize healthcare and offer specialized clinics. Even with advancements like these, people still hate visiting medical offices for any reason, but it is possible to make them feel a bit more at ease thanks to the right medical office furniture.

Can Furniture Really Change the Environment?

Take a moment to think about what your patients see the moment they walk into your office. Does the furniture itself really put your practice in the best light? If it’s not conveying a sense of organization or professionalism, think about how that might reflect on you. What’s more, if you don’t have enough seating for your patients, they’re likely to be incredibly frustrated before they ever reach the exam room. Medical office furniture absolutely changes the feel of your office, and making the right choice for your patients can enhance their comfort and state of mind before they ever enter your office.

Creating a Better Space for Your Staff

Creating a modern medical office design is hardly just about the patients. Updating a medical office layout and furniture could bring in new and exciting ideas to the practice.

Better accessibility and a more open environment promote a steady and swift flow of patients. This leads to much less confusion between administrative and medical staff and a good design can create better communication. Clean, flowing, and practical layouts within a medical environment can make all the difference in a stressful job and one that makes sense.

With so much research going into spatial and environmental layout, there are always new ideas for what is best. At Carroll Seating Company, we pride ourselves on being ahead of the curve, making sure that when you refit your medical office furniture, it is going to get the job done for many years to come.

Published: 2 August 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

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Categories: Bleacher seating

In the world of school athletics, things are never static. In a single season, multiple sports can have games on the same day, and this means seating for parents, fans, and students. It would be nice if they all shared the same field and took turns using it, but we all know this isn’t the case.

With each sport having its own playing field, it’s difficult for schools to furnish them all with seating. Sure, you can spread funding around and give each field a mediocre seating arrangement, but there are much better options out there.

New designs and mechanics have given way to portable bleachers that are often much more comfortable than the stationary ones they will replace. Schools can put multiple sets together in order to provide seating for a large event. Versatility is much better than rigid and expensive options, which is why these 5 scenarios are only some of the reasons to get portable bleacher seats.

Large Events – If your school is in the position to host a large sporting event like state championships or a big meet, portable bleachers will allow you to easily put together seating for all in attendance. These types of events can be stressful and even impossible for some schools to handle, but allowing yourself the option to do so can mean bringing in funding for your school.
Winter Storage – For those schools with harsh winters, having the option to store bleacher seating inside is a must. This will greatly prolong the life of bleachers and means tons of money saved on equipment. Many options are easily collapsible so they won’t take up much room in storage.
Seating for Non-athletic events – Schools are always having non-athletic events that require seating. Portable stadium seats make sure you can host these events anywhere instead of strictly at sports fields.
Easy Future Redesigning – If your school ever needed to rearrange the sports fields, stationary bleachers would make this process unnecessarily difficult. While it doesn’t happen a lot, there are times when the fields need to be switched around or there is a total redesign. When planning, make sure it’s easy for future generations.
Many Events – Track meets are good examples, and there are plenty of other times where your school hosts multiple events at once. With dynamic portable bleachers, all of these events can have their own designated seating area so that things can take place all at the same time.

Carroll Seating Company is ahead of its time with portable and easily portable bleachers. In order to save your school time and money, Contact us today to see how much more efficiently your sports areas can be arranged.

Published: 27 July 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

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Categories: Gym and Sports Equipment

Just thinking of the words school pride transports you to the days when you were part of a gigantic, diverse team. School spirit is an important part of education for its unifying and encouraging effects, so make sure you reward students with the recognition, and a trophy case, they deserve.

Highlighting Accomplishments

Many schools have their awards cabinet tucked away in some hallway or office with little foot traffic. What’s more, they look like the cabinets were made in someone’s basement. This is no way to reward students for working hard to compete in what they love.

Upgrading the school trophy case is easy. There’s no better way to engrave accomplishment and participation into the foundation of your school, which is why it’s important to follow these three pillars for having a great school display case:

Put the exhibit somewhere it will be seen, not just noticed. Some great ideas are in the main hallway, the top of a central staircase, or right at your school’s main entrance. Also, make sure all the trophies are in the same place so that each student and activity gets equal recognition.
Have a beautiful yet modest school trophy cabinet. It should have highly visible glass for display and exhibit a well-made look. Also, make sure to leave room for all the future trophies to come.
Support your students once you have a great trophy case and encourage them to participate. The more trophies and acknowledgments a school can display proudly, the more students will feel honored to be in such an accomplished school.

Trophy cases need to be seen by everyone. They give schools a unique chance to show the diversity of their students, so get creative with the awards displayed and make sure not to stick with only sports accomplishments. When your whole student body feels noticed, great school spirit will be the result.

Published: 21 July 2016

Written by Carroll Seating

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.