7 Design Tips To Know Before Opening Your Coworking Space in 2025
Opening a coworking space is like designing your dream office utopia. It’s an exciting process of exploring layouts, choosing the right furniture, and fine-tuning each area to meet diverse needs. However, achieving the perfect balance between reducing noise, providing privacy, and fostering collaboration takes a thoughtful mix of creativity, practicality, and strategic planning.
Having gone through the ups and downs ourselves, we at Deskworks know firsthand that success lies in the details. And we’re not alone—our friends in the industry have shared their insights and experiences with us to help bring you the best advice.
Table of Contents:
- Embrace Flexibility in Your Workspace Design
- Make Tech Convenience a Design Priority
- Design with Your Member’s Experience in Mind
- Create Diverse Work Zones
- Find Your Niche and Matching Aesthetic
- Foster Community Through Thoughtful Space Design
- Create an Unforgettable First Impression
1. Embrace Flexibility in Your Workspace Design
Why? First and foremost, your members and guests need to feel comfortable, and this is achieved through the flexibility of your space.
Coworking spaces must cater to a wide range of needs—from quiet, focused work to team collaboration—and flexibility is the key to meeting these demands. Modular furniture, movable partitions, and adaptable walls make it easy to transform your space, whether you’re hosting a large event or creating a quiet work environment.
Jerome Chang, founder and architect of BLANKSPACES Coworking, sums it up nicely: “Spaces need to be set up and serviced to meet the needs of wildly disparate bookings.”
As Clark Rinehart, founder of LOCAL Coworking, expertly shares, “Have a good plan, but make sure everything can change. Come with 85% of the plan, and put everything on casters so that, if and when a part of it doesn’t work, you can change it up quickly. Perhaps you’ll change a conference room into an office, or an office or two into more of an executive play. Everything is flexible in the event that our best guess didn’t work.”
For added comfort, invest in high-quality, ergonomic chairs and adjustable standing desks. Options that promote posture health and long-term comfort are invaluable, as members often spend hours at their desks, and uncomfortable seating can lead to frustration and reduced productivity.
2. Make Tech Convenience a Design Priority
Why? Flexibility is inherent to the flex space industry, but certain tech-related essentials are non-negotiable.
Make sure each workspace, lounge area, and meeting room is equipped with accessible power outlets and charging ports. In common areas, consider installing power towers or charging stations that serve multiple people at once. After all, in a tech-driven environment, having ample power outlets is crucial for members who rely on laptops, phones, and other devices.
In workspaces where frequent video calls, virtual meetings, and collaborative sessions are the norm, managing noise is crucial. Install sound-absorbing materials like acoustic panels, carpets, or ceiling tiles to reduce reverberation. Unwanted noise is one of the biggest complaints in shared spaces, and creative work zones do help (see #4). Nevertheless, poor acoustics can create distractions and hinder productivity.
Finally, invest in a robust internet infrastructure with high-speed, reliable Wi-Fi and tools to manage bandwidth effectively, ensuring fair access for all. Throttling usage prevents monopolization and enables upselling premium plans for tasks like media editing, production, or large file transfers. Reliable internet is essential for any coworking space, so include backup connections or failover solutions to ensure uninterrupted service. Don’t forget hardwired internet connections for those needing a more stable connection.
As LiquidSpace’s Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships, Sam Shea, puts it, “Two things are necessities for coworking: strong wifi and strong coffee. You cannot have a space without those two things. Without those two, it’s not coworking.”
Pro tip: Supercharge your operations by integrating coworking software like Deskworks with your network infrastructure. Deskworks’ patented Intelligent Network Check-In automatically tracks usage and syncs it with your billing, ensuring accurate, automated invoicing without lifting a finger. This not only saves time but also eliminates revenue leakage, giving your members a seamless, tech-enabled experience from check-in to check-out.
3. Design with Your Member’s Experience in Mind
Why? A few overlooked elements can disrupt a visitor’s sense of ease and belonging, affecting their overall perception of the space.
Much like any seasoned developer knows that creating a great UI requires a strong focus on UX, we as coworking operators must consider the member experience to design an exceptional space. Every aspect—wayfinding, signage, layout, and how the coworking space flows from one area to the next—should create a seamless, welcoming experience.
Jaime Munoz, Managing Director of CO+HOOTS, highlights the importance of thoughtful design: “For example, when you walk in, and there is no front desk, guests immediately feel like they don’t know what they’re doing, or where they’re meant to be. Another space I’ve been to is on the 9th floor, and there is no place to park. Then you walk into the building, and there is no signage to indicate that you’re in the right spot. The onus is on the space operator to lead their members to success, but they missed the mark on helping people even arrive.”
To truly understand what works and what doesn’t, it’s important to put yourself in your members’ shoes. Visit as many coworking spaces as possible to observe their design and identify what makes you feel comfortable or frustrated, such as lighting, seating arrangements, accessibility features, and overall layout. Also, consider visiting other community and hospitality-centric businesses like hotels, restaurants, spas or gyms. By refining these details based on real-world experiences, you can help members and guests feel supported throughout their time in your space.
4. Create Diverse Work Zones
Why? Not every member works the same way. Some need silence, while others prefer collaboration.
It’s important to divide your space into distinct zones: quiet areas for focused work, open areas for collaboration, phone booths for private calls, and meeting rooms for larger teams. A flexible layout accommodates various work styles—such as focused solo work, group brainstorming, and video calls. By including a balanced mix of private and open areas, you can cater to diverse work preferences and create a dynamic, adaptable environment.
Sam Shea emphasizes that the best coworking spaces are designed with diverse work styles in mind: “Take Workbar for example, they feature a café area with music, creating a vibrant coffee shop vibe—sometimes spanning the entire first floor of multi-level sites. Other sections cater to louder activities, like sales professionals making calls, where the energy is palpable with conversations and background music. For focused, heads-down tasks, a library-like space ensures quiet and concentration. Finally, there are common areas without music, ideal for team meetings and collaboration. This thoughtful variety accommodates different work personas and needs while maintaining a balanced approach.”
5. Find Your Niche and Matching Aesthetic
Why? Your coworking space needs a strong identity that reflects your values and appeals to your target demographic.
Create a cohesive aesthetic that reflects your brand–whether it’s sleek and modern or cozy and creative. Use color schemes, furniture, and artwork to reinforce your brand identity, but avoid making the space feel too themed or cluttered. A clean design with thoughtful touches will give your space a professional yet welcoming feel.
As Kevin Whelan, Marketing Consultant at Everspaces, puts it, coworking and flexible offices “cover a broad spectrum that doesn’t have a single shape or form. Everyone is looking for different things for different reasons. Some people are looking through the lens of their own personal preferences and others are looking for the best place to accommodate their team.
Details like where you are located, what features and amenities you offer, and whether you have a built-in culture or community… it all matters to varying degrees depending on who’s buying.“
As the space provider, you need to find your niche and deliver on the specifics you propose. “To make an offering for everyone,” Whelan concludes, “is a mistake. Eventually, you have to choose your lane based on who you’re ideally serving. And that’s what determines how you engage your community, what amenities you offer, what programming you include, and how you design your space around their specific needs. Success is about making trade-offs in all these areas and more. And that’s precisely the hard part.”
6. Foster Community Through Thoughtful Space Design
Why? A thriving coworking space isn’t just about physical workspaces; it’s about building a sense of community.
Large, comfortable communal spaces play a crucial role in facilitating connections. Areas like cafes, lounges, or even game zones encourage members to relax, interact, and build relationships. In the ’90s and 2000s, we sought out local coffee shops for that coveted “Third Place.” In the Roaring 20s of this new millennium, your coworking space should fill that role.
Jerome Chang captures this perfectly: “It is those serendipitous moments that foster more community than any other programming or amenity. With that one “Aha” moment, members realize why they are here. That serendipity is very valuable. Those collisions need to happen. If you don’t enable those to happen, then you’re not doing your part.”
“Even if they’re not interacting and are focused on heads-down work, people come for the buzz and energy that can’t be replicated at home,” adds Kayley DiCicco, Director of Enterprise Accounts at EXPANSIVE. “People like the feeling that there are others in the same boat and that we can all be productive in the same way. There will always be chitter-chatter and the spontaneous water cooler moments, but it’s really about that buzz and energy.”
7. Create an Unforgettable First Impression
Why? In a world filled with seemingly endless office options, your first impression can be the key differentiator between a struggling bottom line and unstoppable success.
“Those first impressions are so vital,” Jaime Munoz notes. “The human mind compartmentalizes and analyzes at all times, and we are looking for safety before work, let alone creative work.”
Jerome Change adds, “Think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. How are we meant to self-actualize and be creative when we don’t even feel safe in the space?”
When Taylor Mason, Principal at Talemaker, went into a coworking space for the first time, he knew he was right where he was meant to be: “It was a cool, converted industrial space with big open areas and a concrete, leather, and wood kind of vibe. It made me want to be there—that industrial yet rustic vibe. I knew, if I were to bring a client in, it would certainly make me look good. Plus, I met tons and tons of different people in that space. Seeing everyone else doing their thing and chatting with them made me want to be there. And many of those connections are still in touch with me today.”
Designing a coworking space requires attention to both the physical and emotional needs of your members. By incorporating flexibility, prioritizing technology, and designing with community in mind, you can create an environment that fosters productivity and connection. As you implement these design tips, consider leveraging Deskworks coworking software to streamline operations, enhance the member experience, and manage your space effortlessly. Deskworks provides the tools you need to bring your vision to life and ensure your coworking space thrives.
Transform your coworking space with Deskworks. Start your free trial today and simplify your operations while elevating your members’ experience.
