Is Refurbished Furniture Right for You? Here’s What You Need to Know

Ida Gorecka • December 12, 2024

Your workspace needs an upgrade. Your team deserves quality office furniture. But when reviewing current market prices, the figures can be startling. Three months' lead time for office chairs? £20,000 for ten desks? There must be a more practical way to create a professional environment without compromising your budget. For forward-thinking businesses, there is - and it might surprise you. Let's explore a solution that could transform your approach to office furnishing.

The Truth About Modern Refurbished Office Furniture Standards

Forget any ideas about patched-up chairs or wobbly desks. Today's refurbishment transforms quality second-hand office furniture into pieces that look and work like new. Think of it like restoring a premium car - every part gets checked, tested, and either restored or replaced. Only the best pieces make the cut, and they're chosen specifically for their solid build quality and long-term reliability.

Skilled professionals take each piece apart, inspect every component, and fix or replace anything that's not perfect. When a chair or desk leaves the workshop, it's ready for years of daily use. Every mechanism, every adjustment feature, every surface gets brought back to original specifications.

The Quality of Refurbished Office Chairs and Desks

Quality office furniture for sale is built to last - not just for a few years, but for decades. The best manufacturers like Herman Miller, Steelcase, and Haworth design their furniture knowing it can be refurbished later. They use strong materials and smart, modular designs that stand up to heavy use and make future repairs straightforward.

Look inside a quality office chair during refurbishment, and you'll find something surprising. Even after years of use, the core mechanisms often work perfectly. The gas lifts, tilt mechanisms, and structural components - the expensive parts that really matter - usually have plenty of life left. Once restored, these pieces perform just like new ones - especially those expensive ergonomic office chairs with all the adjustable features.

The Environmental Impact of Refurbishing Office Furniture

Here's a fact that might surprise you: every refurbished desk or chair keeps about 40-80 pounds of material out of landfills. Since most refurbishment happens locally, you're also cutting down on shipping pollution from new furniture made overseas. When you multiply this across an entire office, the environmental impact becomes clear.

Each piece of office furniture has an environmental cost from its original production - materials, manufacturing, shipping. When you choose refurbished office furniture, you're basically recycling all that embedded energy and preventing the need for more manufacturing. For companies tracking their environmental impact, these numbers add up to measurable progress toward sustainability goals. It’s possible to actually calculate the carbon savings and include them in environmental reports, just like we do at Coggin SOS.

Availability of Refurbished Office Chairs and Desks

Need office furniture next week? While new pieces often have lead times stretching 8-12 weeks or longer, Coggin SOS maintains a ready supply of quality refurbished office furniture. We keep a comprehensive inventory of chairs, desks, and storage units on hand, and can quickly source additional pieces through our extensive network when needed.

This rapid availability makes a real difference. Whether you're expanding your team, relocating offices, planning an office clearance, or replacing damaged furniture, waiting three months for furniture isn't just inconvenient - it's costly. Quick access to quality pieces can keep your projects moving forward without delays.

Adaptable Second-Hand Office Furniture: Perfect-Fit Solutions

Need a desk that's slightly smaller? Want chairs that match your colours? Refurbished furniture can be adjusted to fit your exact needs. Whether you are looking to resize your desks to suit your new layout, or thinking about a new shape to match your new workspace identity, refurbishing your existing portfolio can offer a low cost, effective and environmentally friendly solution. Corner workstations can be adapted to fit tricky spaces. Chairs can be reupholstered in fabrics that go beyond the standard corporate blues and blacks - you get durability and style that matches your new workspace design.

This flexibility means you're not stuck with standard sizes or limited colour options. Your furniture can be tailored to your specific requirements while maintaining its professional appearance and structural integrity.

How Choosing Refurbished Office Furniture Affects Your Budget

Outfitting an office with refurbished furniture can dramatically reduce costs compared to buying new. A complete workstation with a desk, chair, and storage costs a fraction of the new price. These savings can be redirected to other business priorities like technology upgrades or employee training.

The benefits extend beyond initial cost savings. Refurbished furniture comes with comparable warranties to new pieces and offers similar longevity. You'll often find maintenance costs are lower since these items have already proven their durability. Plus, you get the advantage of immediate delivery rather than waiting months for new furniture.

When considering quality, warranties, customisation options, and delivery speed, refurbished furniture offers exceptional value. You don't have to compromise between staying within budget and maintaining high standards - refurbished options often provide both.

Want to Choose Refurbished?

If you're considering refurbished furniture for your workspace, at Coggin SOS we can help you understand all your options. Our specialists can walk you through our refurbishment process, show you examples of completed projects, and help you evaluate what would work best for your needs.

Visit our showroom to see the quality of refurbished furniture firsthand, or contact us to discuss your workspace requirements. Whether you're looking to refurbish your existing furniture or purchase professionally refurbished pieces, we're here to help you create a workspace that works for your team and your budget.

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Why Buying Cheap Costs More: The Long-Term Value of Quality Refurbished Furniture

By Ida Gorecka • July 30, 2025

You’re in the middle of planning an office space. Budgets are tight. Lead times are short. It’s tempting to type “cheap office chairs” into your browser and find something that fits the spreadsheet. But here’s the problem: cheap furniture is rarely cheap in the long run . The market is saturated with budget desks, chairs, and storage that look good online, but fall apart in practice. And when they do, they cost more - more to replace, more to dispose of, more to fix (if that’s even possible), and more in lost time and productivity. It’s a vicious cycle that undermines your budget, timeline, and any potential ESG goals. According to WRAP , the UK disposes of over 200,000 tonnes of office furniture every year - much of it barely used. When furniture fails quickly, so does your investment. In a commercial setting, that failure shows up in missed deadlines, spiralling budgets, and sustainability goals slipping out of reach. So before you hit "order" on another bulk buy of flat-packed furniture, take a moment. In this article, you'll learn the hidden costs of cheap office furniture and why refurbished premium office furniture is the smarter alternative. If you're looking to reduce hassle, save money, and build a workspace that actually lasts, keep on reading. Need help getting started? Get in touch with our team for advice, audits, or to browse our refurbished stock .

Refurbished Office Furniture Saves Overbury Over £2000 on Site Setup Costs

By Ida Gorecka • July 18, 2025

Anyone who's worked in construction knows that site setup costs can quickly spiral. For Overbury , one of the UK's leading fit-out and refurbishment specialists, managing these costs while maintaining professional standards is a constant balancing act. When setting up their latest construction site office, they faced a challenge familiar to many in the industry: creating a functional workspace quickly and cost-effectively. After seeing what we achieved together on their previous project, Overbury approached us with clear priorities - they needed a professional office setup delivered on a construction timeline. With tight deadlines to meet and costs to manage, they needed their office space ready quickly while avoiding the expense and environmental impact of buying new office furniture. Like many construction projects, this one came with complex requirements - specific layouts, tight timelines, and budget constraints - yet Overbury knew from experience that refurbished office furniture could deliver exactly what they needed.

From Purchase to Repurpose: How to Extend the Lifespan of Your Office Furniture

By Ida Gorecka • July 16, 2025

If you're managing an office move, refit, or hybrid transition, you've likely faced this question: do we buy new furniture, or make use of what we have? Every year, over 1.2 million desks and 1.8 million office chairs are sent to landfill in the UK- enough to fill Wembley Stadium twice. ( Source: WRAP ) With Landfill Tax raised to £126.15 per tonne in April 2025 (S ource: UK Government ), the cost of disposing office furniture is increasing fast. If you’re trying to balance budgets , meet ESG goals , and minimise downtime , choosing refurbishment over replacement could be the most strategic decision you make this year. In this guide, we’ll show you how to get more from what you already own. Saving thousands, supporting your ESG goals, and creating a more flexible, future-proof workspace. Got a project coming up? Get in touch and we’ll help you explore your refurbishment options.