How to use this list.
We wrote this as the checklist we hand office managers who just signed a lease and start moving in on Monday. Sequenced by what matters when — sit-and-work furniture first, then supplies, then the things you will only notice missing at 5pm on day two. Prices are ex-VAT at trade tier and current as of this quarter.
Day one · the furniture floor.
- 30 desks · sit-stand where budget allows, fixed-height rectangular otherwise. £120–£380 per desk depending on tier. Total: £3,600–£11,400.
- 30 task chairs · lumbar-adjustable mesh backs are the sensible middle ground. £110–£290 per chair. Total: £3,300–£8,700.
- 4–6 meeting chairs per room · a 30-person office needs two enclosed rooms and one open collaboration space minimum. Twelve to eighteen chairs total. £45–£90 each.
- 2 filing cabinets · four-drawer lockable steel. Even in a paperless team, HR and legal need one. £180 each.
Day two · the working surface.
- Monitors · one per desk minimum, two per desk for anyone in finance, ops or code. 24″ 1080p is fine for general work; 27″ 1440p for anyone reading spreadsheets. Budget £120–£280 per screen.
- Keyboards and mice · wired unless people actively fight for wireless. Wired is one less battery to replace and one less pairing bug. £15–£30 per set.
- Monitor arms · one per screen. £35 each. Buying them at day one is cheaper than buying them at day 60 after three neck complaints.
- Under-desk cable trays · £8 each. Skip these and you will pay the same amount five times over as people trip on extension leads.
Week one · the paper stack.
- A4 copier paper · 10 boxes of 5 reams (25,000 sheets). Enough for six to eight weeks at normal office volume. £22–£28 per box.
- A4 lever-arch files · 20 to start with. Colour-coded per department if you have three or more. £2.20 each.
- Manilla folders · a box of 100. £14.
- Envelopes · DL window (invoices, letters) and C4 (packs). 500 of each. £18 for DL, £24 for C4.
- Printer + toner · A3-capable mono laser at the minimum; add a small colour laser for marketing. Skip the all-in-one printers with per-page contracts unless you enjoy being audited. Budget £450 for the printer, £80 for one full set of consumables to keep on the shelf.
The desk kit everyone forgets.
- Ballpoint pens, 4-colour, per person · £1.20 × 30 = £36.
- Post-it notes, mid-size pastel, 12 pack · £14.
- Whiteboard markers · 12 pack, £18.
- Staplers and staples for each pod · four sets at £8.
- Scissors, per pod · four pairs, £16 total.
- A4 highlighters, mixed 4-colour · two packs of 10, £12.
The kitchen and welfare shelf.
- Dishwasher tablets · a box of 60. £8. If you have a dishwasher, budget one full run per day.
- Hand soap · large refill bottles. £14 for two litres.
- Kitchen roll · 24-pack. £22.
- Toilet roll · commercial grade, 36-pack. £26. You want the ones that fit the standard commercial holder — the domestic packs jam.
- First aid kit · standard workplace kit for 30. £34. This is a legal requirement, not a nice-to-have.
The running total.
At the middle of each range, kitting out a 30-person office comes in at approximately £13,800–£24,600 for furniture (that is the largest line by an order of magnitude), £4,200–£8,900 for tech, and £680–£950 for supplies and welfare. Total: £18,700–£34,500 all-in. Everything after that is replenishment.
Trade accounts save between 20% and 35% off that figure. If you want to keep this list open as a working spreadsheet with the matched SKUs from our catalogue, reply to any of our emails and we'll send you the version with the shop links baked in.