Don’t Forget To Stretch!

Are you spending up to 8 hours in your office chair each day? If the answer is yes, you should know that prolonged sitting places excessive strain on your back, neck and limbs. Leaving you feeling stiff, sore and with a higher risk of injury.

By integrating some simple desk stretches into your daily routine, you can make yourself more comfortable and protect your body from permanent injury that could affect your muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons .

Stretching also increases mental alertness, improves circulation, reduces fatigue and lowers stress and anxiety.

Here’s 6 of our favourite stretches to get you started. To reap maximum benefits make sure you breathe easily, don’t bounce, take your time, feel the stretch and know your limits – stretches should never be painful!

In addition to stretching, it’s also important to invest in ergonomic office furniture that promotes the correct posture and provides adequate support. To read more about ergonomic furniture click here.

5 Reasons to Have Plants in Your Office

Apart from looking great, there are other advantages to having plants in the office. Five of the key reasons are listed below:

1.   Improved Air Quality

Offices are full of toxins generated from elements such as carpet, air-conditioning, paint, cleaning products etc. People also excrete volatile substances such as acetone and methanol, along with scents from their perfumes and soaps. Plants clean the air by absorbing these toxins and reducing carbon dioxide. In effect, they are a much cheaper alternative to expensive air filtration systems.

2.   Regulate Temperature and Humidity levels

During transpiration (the cooling process of plants), plants cool down the office by releasing moisture into the air. The amount of moisture released ensures a suitable level of humidity depending on the internal office climate. On cooler days for instance, less moisture is released to keep the office warmer and vise versa on warmer days.

3.   Improved Employee Health

Improvements in air quality also result in healthier employees. Offices that have introduced plants have noted a reduction in staff headaches, eye irritations, lung impairment and respiratory problems. Plants have also been known to reduce symptoms and occurrences of asthma and bronchitis.

4.   Reductions in Stress Levels and Productivity Increases

With the elimination of toxins and optimal humidity, people feel less drowsy and have heightened concentration. Recent studies have indicated that offices with plants are 12% more productive than offices without plants. The presence of plants in the office also connects people with the outside world, making them feel more comfortable in their surroundings.

5.   They Serve as Room Dividers

Greenery also offers an attractive room divider. Plants can be placed strategically throughout the office to divide areas and to create more privacy. Plants also have varying levels of acoustic properties that can help dampen office noise.

With so many benefits, you should definitely consider some plants for your office. Have a look at our planters. We have varieties that can fit onto the top of storage units, stand freely or fit onto our Trak system.

Happy Planting!

How to Work Out Seating Numbers for Different Sized Meeting Tables

The best way to calculate how many people can fit at different sized meeting tables is to calculate the perimeter of the table.

As a general rule, each person should have a minimum of 600mm space. A minimum of 600mm space each is necessary to have enough arm and leg room and to allow ease of movement to and from the table. Of course, the space requirements will vary for different types of settings. For an executive boardroom table up to 800mm is appropriate, but for a casual breakout table 600mm is fine.

Take a 3000mm wide by 1200mm deep meeting table for instance, it has a perimeter of 8400mm, so depending on the purpose of the table, we could potentially seat up to 14 people. However, this size is more commonly used as an executive boardroom table, so we would recommend between 10 or 12 seats. Another example is a 1500mm diameter table, which has a perimeter of approximately 4710mm. We would recommend a maximum of 7 people for this size table.

The space you elect for each person will also help determine which chairs can be used. Choosing a more compact chair maximises each person’s space. Chairs such as the Zoot, Arc, Sax and Ess are just a few of our compact chairs which allow more space for each user.

Below is a suggested guide for the amount of seats suited to different sized meeting tables.

3600W x 1200D 12-14 people
3000W x 1200D 10-12 people
2400W x 1200D 8-10 people
2100W x 1200D 6-8 people

See our range of Meeting Tables here.

Enter Our Virtual Easter Egg Hunt!

Can you believe it’s almost Easter already?!?!

To celebrate this extra delicious time of the year, we’re hosting a Virtual Easter Egg Hunt on our website. If you can find the virtual Easter Egg you will be entered into the draw to win one of three ultimate Easter Egg Packages.

All you need to do is locate the Easter Egg on one of our product pages. We’ve included a clue below to set you on your way. When you find the virtual egg, just click on it and you’ll be able to complete an entry form for your chance to win.

Good luck in our virtual Easter Egg Hunt and we wish you and your families a safe and happy Easter break!

Our Team Competes in the Sri Chinmoy Race

Last Sunday our team put our running boots on to battle it out in the Sri Chinmoy race around the gorgeous Iron Cove ‘Bay Run’ track. Those of us that competed, ran in either the 7km or 14km races.

To celebrate reaching the finish line, we indulged in some delicious and well-deserved pancakes.

Next up is the City to Surf,  bring it on!

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Krost 2013 Catalogue Launch Party!

Last Thursday we hosted a party to celebrate the launch of our 2013 Office Furniture Catalogue.

Some cool tunes, pizzas rolled on site and yummy cocktails, shared with great company made it a night to remember! Thank you to all who joined us, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

The catalogue is definitely worthy of the celebration, it marks the release of our new 2013 products including Tex, Hush, Trak, Lift, Sonic and Ajay.  The 154 page fully coloured catalogue has been dispatched to many via post but if you haven’t received yours yet let us know.

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Advantages of Mesh Seating

Have you ever experienced a sticky back after a long day in the office? Mesh office chairs can leave your back nice, dry and well ventilated. Mesh upholstered chairs have come into prominence over the last 10 years and are the preferred choice of many office workers.

The mesh material allows for heightened ventilation and breathability by allowing air to flow through the chair to you while seated. This is a revolutionary advantage over traditional fabric or leather chairs which often restrict airflow, causing warmth and discomfort. The added ventilation also reduces the chance of unwanted odours.

The woven material and absence of thick padding allows the mesh to take the shape of your back assisting both comfort and back support.

Mesh upholstery is more cost efficient than fabric or leather upholstery. It is also likely to last longer, as its tightly woven fabric is less likely to rip or tear and there’s no padding that can lose its original shape. Cleaning and maintenance is really simple too, a wipe over the mesh with a damp cloth is all that’s required.

Finally, when you’re ready to say goodbye, mesh chairs are a more environmentally friendly option as they are manufactured using significantly less material.

With so many benefits there’s no wonder mesh seating has become such a popular option. Take a look at some of our favourite mesh ranges: Future, Spyder, Ess, Flow, Sonic and Vigo.

9 Tips To Get Back Into Work-Mode for 2013

We know sometimes its not easy getting back into the swing of things after a relaxing break. That’s why we’ve decided to put together some handy tips to help you beat the ‘back-to-work blues’. We hope they help!

1. Ease into the workload – Get into a working mindset by starting on a small and manageable task. As you make progress you should start to realise that it’s not as tough as you first thought.
2. Prioritise your work – Don’t get overwhelmed by the 300 emails sitting in your inbox, but rather spend 25 minutes separating your inbox into 2 files ‘Urgent and Later’. This way you can prioritise your work by importance and won’t have 300 sitting in your inbox, but rather 20 or so that need to be actioned right away.
3. Communicate – It’s easy to forget after a 2 or 3 week break. Speak with your manager and colleagues to make sure you’re still on the same page.
4. Set goals – Goals are an essential part of getting motivated. Have a think about what you want to achieve throughout the year and then plan how you can achieve it. Forecasting is a great way to set goals, this involves writing your goals in your diary on the dates you hope to achieve them by, this makes sure you always have something to work towards.
5. Stay social – Arrange after-work activities on evenings or weekends, so you can escape the daily grind and have something to look forward to throughout the working week.
6. Clean up – Pack away your Christmas decorations or any clutter from last year, it will help you get out of holiday mode.  A clean environment is also easier to work in.
7. Stay healthy – Regular exercise, eating healthy and a healthy sleeping pattern will give you the energy you need to conquer the New Year.
8. Stay positive – Be thankful for the refreshing break and think of going back to work as a fresh start. After a rejuvenating holiday, you’ll be full of great ideas and with the right attitude, you’ll be very productive as well.
9. Plan a holiday – Having something exciting to plan and look forward to can make the hard work seem worth while.

A Big 2013 in Store!

Welcome back. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas break – we certainly did and now we are keen to start the new year with a bang!

We’ve got lots in store for the upcoming months, including our soon to be released 2013 office furniture catalogue and with that the introduction of a bunch of new and exclusive products.

With a refreshed team, we are eager to hear about your office furniture needs. Let 2013 be the year that you give your office the attention it deserves!

Happy Holidays from the Krost Team

As 2012 comes to an end and we prepare for another great year we would like to thank you for your continued support.

It was an exciting year for us at Krost with the release of many new products – the Aero, Web, Kari,Ess, Chia, Duo and Kale to name a few – which have already become hits.

Apart from the new products this year, we also revamped our showroom with a whole new configuration and design. It’s looking as good as ever and we can’t wait to show you around! Be sure to pop in, just remember we will be closed from the 21st and will be reopening on the 9th.

2013 is set to be better than ever! For starters, new products and a brand new catalogue are set to be released early in the year.

Until then, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Our New LED Energy Efficient Lights

We just switched over to LED lights exclusively. This includes all the big high bays in our showroom (over 70) and all the down lights in our office (over 150).

It’s just a small change we’ve made as part of our company’s commitment to the environment. We strive to have a positive environmental impact across all areas of our operations from the products we sell to the transport we use.

We aim to sell only environmentally friendly office furniture. This includes E0 boards and only water based glues. Additionally, we are ISO 14001 certified and a large percentage of our products and fabrics feature third party environmental certifications.

These LED lights will provide us with a huge reduction in our energy consumption – and hopefully an equally large reduction in our electricity bill – as they use less than half the power of conventional lights.

They give a great colour light and show our office furniture brilliantly, take a look at the pics.

Our Xmas Lawn Bowl Party

We all had a ball at Paddo Bowls Club for our 2012 Christmas Party. The evening kicked off with a fun-filled lawn bowls tournament. Most of us had never been near a bowling green before so it was filled with laughs and good times. It was the perfect way to celebrate a fantastic year!