Growing Niche in Office Furniture Caters to Women

Office furniture retailers like Ikea and OfficeMax have finally begun to listen to the demands of women for more fitting office chairs, smaller office desks, as well as furniture that has more storage to hold women’s purses and personal items.

“Everything is too masculine, edgy, too modern, and heavy on the metal,” said Jennifer Selby Long, who is in the management consulting business, in an interview conducted by the Associated Press.

While women’s design preferences cannot be lumped together, experts say they have definite tastes and, unlike their male counterparts, look at their furniture as an extension of their image.

“Women really want to personalize their space. Men are looking for more functionality,” said Kim Roffey, a strategist at Kurt Salmon Associates in an interview. “When men buy an office chair, they focus on whether it rolls under the desk and provides good back support,” Roffey said. She also added that while women look at those factors as well, their top concern is how it fits with the look of the room.

Office Depot, the nation’s second-largest office supplies retailer, is considered the pioneer in staking out the female entrepreneur market. It teamed up in 2003 with decorating guru Christopher Lowell to create items such as whitewash executive desks evoking beach-house decor and hutches with antique finishes. Earlier this year, it introduced decorative shelving.

Rival OfficeMax recently struck exclusive partnerships with Sharper Image to make a line of modern office furniture and Broyhill Furniture Industries to create a traditional furniture line with details such as antique pewter ring hardware. Sharper Image designs just hit the stores, and the Broyhill collection includes writing desks priced at $399.99 and small hutches retailing for $199.99.

Long began her quest for feminine office furnitures when she relocated from an office with leased furniture to an unfurnished one in February, her decorating problems began. After shopping at different stores, all that the 43-year-old San Francisco resident could find was furniture made with a “5-feet-10-inch man in mind.” Long, who is 5-feet-6, ended up doing a lot of improvising, buying bookcases from Crate & Barrel and inheriting a reddish gold wood desk from the last office tenant.

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Growing Niche in Office Furniture Caters to Women

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