My office has nice furniture, although it’s certainly not pricey nor trendy.  I sit at an executive-U that was manufactured by a top-notch mid-market manufacturer, OFS, but it is not cutting-edge in terms of its look or price tag.  It’s a solid product with a good look at a reasonable price – kind of how I think furniture should be.  The U gives me space to spread out some of my paperless paper, and there’s adequate storage for items that shouldn’t sit out.  It’s also now four and a half years old, it still looks good and all of the drawers open and close with no problems.

What should you worry about with your furniture purchases?  My recommendation - evaluate what I described above – function, value and form, in that order.  If you have customer meetings in the office, your conference room should reflect what you want people to think about your company.  If you’re a small ad agency that wants to be trendy, edgy and aggressive, you shouldn’t have a traditional conference table.  Maybe you should go with something more modern yet reasonably priced.  If you’re an engineering firm that just needs a work table, maybe the right answer is something more utilitarian. 

Furniture can be intimidating, but it doesn't need to be.  Set your budget, understand what you need the furniture to do, then look at your options.