Furnishing a 10-Person Office in Kathmandu: A Practical Setup Guide

Before choosing any desk model, measure the usable floor area of the space — total area minus columns, the stairwell or lift lobby if shared, and any fixed service ducting. A workable rule for a general office (not open-plan call-centre style seating) is to budget roughly 45-65 square feet per person once you include circulation space, not just the desk footprint. For 10 staff that puts you around 450-650 square feet purely for workstations, before adding the reception, meeting room, pantry corner and storage.

Many rented floors in commercial buildings around Koteshwor and Gwarko run long and narrow rather than square, which changes the layout logic — a narrow floor plate usually works better with desks arranged in two facing rows along the length of the room rather than clusters, since clusters need more turning space at the ends.

Kathmandu offices still plan around occasional load-shedding and voltage fluctuation even though scheduled outages are rarer than a few years ago, so most small offices run an inverter or UPS backup for at least lighting and networking equipment, sometimes for every desk socket. Decide this before finalising desk positions, because inverter output is usually wired to a limited set of sockets, and desks farthest from the inverter panel need longer, properly channelled cable runs rather than loose extension boards crossing walkways.

Where possible, choose desks with a built-in cable tray or grommet hole so LAN and power cables run underneath rather than across the floor — this matters more in a 10-person open office than it sounds, since loose cables across a shared floor are the most common cause of minor workplace accidents and constant re-arranging headaches.

A 10-person office rarely needs more than a compact reception desk and two visitor chairs — oversized reception furniture eats floor area that is better spent on staff seating. One meeting room seating 6-8 comfortably (with a table that can be pushed against a wall when not in use, if the room is small) covers most client and internal discussion needs for a team this size.

Storage is usually underestimated. Beyond individual desk pedestals, plan for at least one shared filing or storage unit per 3-4 staff for physical documents, plus a lockable cabinet for shared office supplies and IT accessories. If the office regularly hosts client visits, a small closed cabinet near reception for coats, umbrellas and shoes (especially useful during monsoon) is worth including from day one rather than added later.

Staff sitting 8+ hours a day need chairs with adjustable seat height, a supportive backrest, and ideally lumbar support — this is not a luxury add-on for a 10-person team, it directly affects sick days and afternoon fatigue. Visitor and meeting-room chairs can be a lighter, non-adjustable design since they're used for shorter periods. If budget needs to be prioritised, put the better chairs at the desks used all day and the simpler chairs in the meeting room, not the other way around.

For a 10-person office, made-to-order desks, storage and reception furniture typically need a realistic production window once wood, laminate and hardware are confirmed — plan around 2-4 weeks for standard designs and longer for fully custom layouts, and add buffer if your move-in falls near Dashain-Tihar when workshop capacity tightens across the Valley (see our separate guide on festival lead times). If your timeline is tight, a practical phased approach is to bring in ready-stock chairs and basic desks first so the team can start working, then follow with custom reception and meeting-room pieces once they're ready.

Site access also affects delivery scheduling: buildings with narrow stairwells or shared lifts around older commercial blocks in Koteshwor or Lagankhel may need furniture delivered knocked-down and assembled on-site rather than pre-built, so mention your building's access during the site visit, not on delivery day.