Tips for Choosing the Best School Site Amenities
Schools | Apr 22, 2022
If you are considering investing in new outdoor furniture and site amenities for your school, knowing the factors to think about and the right furniture to select can help you through the purchasing process. This outdoor furniture guide for schools will walk you through everything you need to think about when investing in new outdoor furniture.
Table of Contents
- Uses for Outdoor Furniture for Your School
- Factors to Consider When Purchasing Outdoor Furniture
- Outdoor Furniture for Your School
- Invest in Outdoor Furniture for Your School With Wabash Valley
Uses for Outdoor Furniture for Your School
Schools can do a lot with outdoor furniture. Whether you are looking for a place to sit or a way to keep the grounds clean, investing in new furniture and site amenities for your campus’s outdoor areas can help you reach your school’s goals. Some potential uses for outdoor furniture include:
- Rest: Many options for outdoor furniture offer your students, faculty and visitors places to sit around your campus. Whether you purchase seating options for teachers watching students play during recess, students waiting for their parents at pickup or guests watching a nearby football game, you can offer people a comfortable place to sit, rest and socialize. Older students can even use these spaces to study after school or rest between classes.
- Cleanliness: You can keep your campus clean with furniture and site amenities. Trash and litter receptacles collect trash to maintain a beautiful and clean campus all the time. You can even strategically place receptacles in places that gather more trash, like near entrances to the cafeteria or by sports fields.
- Aesthetic: Outdoor furniture can help make your school’s campus look nice. With places to sit, talk and study, your school will seem approachable and welcoming to students, teachers, parents and visitors. Further, you can often customize the color of your furniture to match your school’s aesthetic, creating a campus look that fits your school and helps it stand out against others.
- Teaching: Your teachers can even use outdoor furniture to teach lessons outdoors on nice days. Students can use tables and benches to support their notebooks and other necessities while taking notes and listening to lessons. Children will appreciate the change of scenery while having a space where they can still be productive. Some classes, like the sciences, can even use outdoor spaces and furniture to have more hands-on lessons.
Outdoor furniture can offer many uses for students, teachers and other school visitors. If you are looking for a reason to invest in new outdoor furniture for your school, look no further than its functions.
Factors to Consider When Purchasing Outdoor Furniture
Many factors go into the decision-making process for buying new outdoor furniture and site amenities for your school. You can streamline and strengthen your school’s purchasing decisions by considering all the essential factors listed here. When you keep all elements in mind as you buy new furniture, you can ensure you are making the best investment for your school and its students and teachers.
Health and Safety
Schools aim to keep students safe and healthy while educating them, so investing in outdoor furniture that can uphold that standard is necessary. As you search for new outdoor furniture, ensure each product is high-quality so you can maintain your school’s health and safety.
Especially since the furniture will sit outside, you should pay close attention to rust resistance for the products you consider. Rust can decrease your furniture’s quality, and cuts caused by rusted metal can lead to serious health problems. Additionally, cheaper wood can easily splinter. Ensuring you invest in only the highest quality items can help you uphold the health and safety of your students and faculty while they are outside using the furniture.
While maintaining health and safety through product quality is an essential factor to consider, you can also think about how your outdoor furniture and site amenities will support these measures. For example, investing in trash receptacles can help keep outdoor spaces clean, prevent children from touching dirty or unknown items and keep critters away from the school. Benches and tables can provide learners with clear areas to sit while they wait for the bus or their parents and let teachers watch children as they play safely.
Offering spaces where children can rest while playing outside can be a great way to keep them safe at recess. Students can take a moment to relax and catch their breath or even use the structure to help them stretch, keeping them healthier while supporting their natural energy levels.
Space
As you search for new outdoor furniture, think about the space you have available for these amenities. Incorporating furniture into existing structures like gardens and playgrounds or on sidewalks can be a great way to enhance the function of these spaces and provide areas where students and teachers can rest or socialize. Even sports fields can benefit from additional furniture. Knowing what space you have available can help you determine what furniture your school may need.
Considering your space is also essential to determining what size furniture you need or can accommodate when exploring your options. Measuring your area can help you later when looking at furniture dimensions to better ensure the furnishings you purchase will perfectly fit your spaces.
Like with implementing outdoor furniture into existing structures, consider available greenery around your school. Furniture looks great next to bushes and flowers, but placing it under trees can be a great way to take advantage of your property’s natural shade. This strategy can help you use your space efficiently and make outdoor furniture appealing to teachers, students, parents and faculty.
Function
Each piece of outdoor furniture will have a unique function, and you will likely have specific uses in mind for how it can best serve your school. As you explore your options from different suppliers, you will want to ensure their products meet the function you have in mind.
While meeting your function is essential for finding the best outdoor furniture and site amenities for your school and standards, you will also want to ensure the items you choose can uphold their use and your students’ and faculty’s needs. For example, if you are searching for new trash receptacles to help keep your campus clean, you will want to ensure they can keep trash from blowing out of them and into the wind and keep animals like squirrels out.
Durability is essential when considering your furniture’s function. While long-lasting models can help you maintain the health and safety of your students and staff, a furniture investment that will last for years can also ensure its function for that time. If you are buying more benches for your school, you want to ensure students will have somewhere to sit for years to come.
You can also increase your furniture’s function by exploring customization options. Your students or staff may need things like arm and backrests, wider seats or cup holders, which can help your investment best serve your target audience. Further, many pieces of furniture can benefit your school’s aesthetic. Exploring different colors and designs can help you find the furnishings that fit seamlessly into your campus and cater to school spirit.
Age of Students
While student age seems like a small detail to consider compared to others listed, it is vital, especially if you want to select furniture and site amenities that can best serve your student body. Younger students have different needs and requirements than older ones. Young learners will need access to furniture closer to the ground so they can reach and use it without adult guidance.
For example, if you are considering new trash receptacles for your preschool or elementary school, you will want to ensure young students can reach the openings. This ability will allow students to do their part to keep the campus clean and healthy while building a sense of independence and initiative when they can clean after themselves.
Even furniture like benches should have student size in mind. If students are younger, benches may need to be closer to the ground so they can more easily sit down and use the seats to rest. However, when purchasing furniture for older students, you will want to ensure all items can support their weight so they can safely and peacefully use the furnishings you carefully picked out.
Budget
While product quality should be your main priority, keep your school’s budget in mind while searching for your new outdoor furniture. Establishing a budget before exploring furniture options can help you realistically determine what you can afford and how much you can buy.
Buying high-quality furniture and site amenities is essential, even if you are working under a strict budget. Higher-quality furniture is more likely to last longer, allowing your school, students and teachers to get more use from it through its life span. Functional furniture with a long life span can help motivate your school or school boards to invest money toward quality furnishings.
Knowing your budget and understanding what that means for purchasing decisions is crucial as you begin acquiring new furniture.
Outdoor Furniture for Your School
Knowing the factors to consider when shopping for outdoor furniture and site amenities is vital for developing a plan and set of realistic expectations. Still, you should also know which furniture items your school needs. With many options to choose from, each piece offers unique functions and can serve your student body and faculty differently.
Trash Receptacles
Trash receptacles are essential for creating a clean campus. Whether you want to uphold your students’ health and safety or show off your shining school grounds, trash receptacles can help you maintain your cleanliness goals.
Trash receptacles are perfect for keeping animals and insects out of your trash, helping you protect your students and visitors from pests with various receptacle shapes and lids. As you search for trash receptacles, consider the furniture’s function and your personal goals. Exploring various accessories and shapes can help you block animals from your receptacles and keep trash in.
When you invest in trash receptacles, you can ensure a higher-quality campus by sealing out trash odors. While the trash receptacles help contain physical trash, the smell that accompanies trash can also remain within the containers, creating a cleaner campus. Your students, teachers and visitors will appreciate the natural scents from plants or greenery while moving around campus.
You can enhance your trash receptacle’s function by investing in accessories like mounts, lids and liners. Accessories improve your receptacle’s ability to contain trash while making it easy for maintenance workers to remove full cans. Choosing the right lid can create a specific look for your trash receptacles while allowing your students and staff easy access so they can efficiently throw away trash.
At Wabash Valley, our trash cans come in many colors and designs so that you can cater to your school’s aesthetic and environment. With the right look, your trash receptacles can blend into your campus perfectly and provide everyone with a place to dispose of trash.
Benches
Benches are practical furniture for schools with many uses. While benches can provide your students and staff with comfortable places to sit around campus, they are also critical social fixtures where people can gather to talk. Some learners can use benches to study or eat outside before or after school. Your benches’ careful placement can help enhance their function.
Putting benches near your school’s entrance or pickup/drop-off point can give your students places to wait for their bus or ride while keeping them away from traffic. If your school has beautiful natural features you want to enhance, like gardens or ponds, you can place benches within those spaces to draw more attention and give people a place to relax.
When selecting benches, you have many customization options. Each bench has unique features and functions. Some things you should think about when considering benches for your school include:
- Backs: Benches can include backs or be backless. Depending on where you place your benches, you may need a back so people have a place to comfortably rest. However, backless benches can be good options for benches placed against walls or the sides of your building, or if you want a more open space. Considering your bench’s location and function can help you select the right back.
- Seats: You can even find variations for your bench’s seat. Some benches have long, continual seats, while others have separate seats that determine a specific number of people who can sit on that bench. Continual seats are great for providing open, welcoming spaces where people can socialize, but separate seats can be great for outdoor studying and eating spaces where people may need more space to themselves.
- Armrests: Like with bench backs, armrests are also optional, and you can select how many your benches have. Armrests are another great way to add comfort to your benches, and students can even balance notebooks on them if they work on the benches. If you like the look of continual seats for your benches but still want to limit how many people can sit, adding armrests to the middle of your benches can help you further customize them.
- Size and spacing: Benches come in various sizes, from single seats to seating that can accommodate multiple people. Your bench’s size and spacing may depend on its function, like outdoor eating or study spaces, or cater more to student size. Younger students may require smaller benches they can better fit on, creating more comfortable spaces for them to sit outside. However, older students and staff will need larger benches for optimal comfort.
- Color and style: Visual elements are important for finding a bench that fits your school’s design and look. Benches can cater to many styles, allowing you to find the one that works best with your school. Further, you can instill school spirit in your students and faculty by investing in benches that support your school’s colors.
Understanding the different factors you need to consider when choosing benches for your school is essential for finding the perfect one.
Picnic Tables
Like benches, picnic tables are a great way to boost social and outdoor activity at your school. If your students need spaces to study or eat outside, picnic benches can provide a comfortable place to sit and offer a table where they can set their things down. Outdoor social spaces are great for giving students a place to relax or work while getting fresh air and vitamin D.
Picnic tables are excellent choices for enhancing open spaces. You can transform empty fields, lots or courtyards into active social areas where your students can get more from their campus. Create outdoor lunch areas where learners can sit when the weather is nice, or give them the freedom to determine what they can use tables for.
Like many other outdoor furniture options, picnic tables come with many opportunities for customization. Choose from circular or rectangular table shapes that allow you to optimize your space. Your seats can range from continual benches to individual chairs, allowing you to cater to student interest and function. Some tables even let you attach an umbrella, offering your students shade and weather protection.
Umbrellas
Umbrellas are a great accessory you can add to the picnic tables around your school. Umbrellas can provide you with more freedom when planning your tables’ location and setup, allowing you to add seating options to spaces with less natural shade. While spending time outdoors is good for students and teachers, offering shade can protect them from the sun on hot or sunny days.
Umbrellas come in many different designs and colors. Carefully chosen color allows you to match your umbrella to other furniture and its surrounding environment so that it fits perfectly into your outdoor spaces. The various designs accommodate different umbrella shapes, increasing the umbrellas’ ability to provide shade while letting you choose another element of your area’s layout.
We design our umbrellas at Wabash Valley with nylon and fiberglass to help increase their durability so they can better withstand high winds and resist rust. With us, you can ensure your umbrellas last for years, enabling many students and teachers to enjoy the shade and sun protection.
Dining Sets
If you want to create a space where students and teachers can relax and eat, investing in a dining set is an excellent solution. Many people love the option to eat outside to enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery, and the fresh air and sunlight are a great way to boost physical health.
Dining sets make it easy for schools to offer outdoor seating space with durable furniture that easily integrates into their desired areas. Even though this dining solution is a set, you have a lot of flexibility to select which elements you want to include. Choose from different options among tables, attached chairs and umbrellas. With a wide selection of colors and designs, you can discover the dining set that will best complete your outdoor eating spaces.
Invest in Outdoor Furniture for Your School With Wabash Valley
The process for how to choose outdoor furniture for schools involves understanding all the factors you need to consider and carefully selecting each item. Even design and style elements are key factors when choosing the right outdoor furniture. These components let you create a recognizable look that fits the desired style and mood for your campus.
At Wabash Valley, we offer a wide selection of outdoor furniture and site amenities to help you curate a safe and functional outdoor environment for your school. Since we specialize in outdoor furniture, we design all your products with durability and weather resistance in mind, so your furniture can endure. Our collections incorporate many styles and colors to help you find the right fit for your campus.
Categories
Recent Posts
Sign up for our newsletter
Share this post: