I'm not a decorator

Earlier today:

I give up.
I'm finally giving in to getting new furniture for my office - at least a couple pieces, not the whole gamut. About a week into my job the Finance guy came down and said I needed to order all new furniture. I said, no, because all of what I had was usable and functional. Sure, only 3 pieces matched and all the rest was hand-me-downs and stolen items from others who had upgraded, but it was usable. I come from the culture, sometimes to my detriment, that if it works then keep using it! (This should be proof by my 13" TV from 1993 - still works great! It's just really really tiny).

I thought I was doing okay after I had moved things around to begin with, getting rid of the one big credenza that did nothing but take up space and getting some items that worked, and rearranging everything so I felt a little normal (not quite feng shui, but closer than it was - at least my back wasn't to a door and 3 windows anymore). But looking at the mess on my floor and desk and chairs this morning and wishing I had better storage for all the crap that gets thrown my way and maybe more pictures and color on my walls in general, I gave in.

Luckily, everyone who's been telling me this still agrees and are willing to help me.

So I've been working on some layout designs on floorplanner.com as close to scale as possible. I think I can make it work for all parties involved by only getting rid of maybe 3 large items - 2 of which I may already have a home for - and 2 chairs; then gaining a small sectional workstation which could double as storage and shelving, a side table and two new chairs on rollers that match the neighbors for my guests and those in the 'waiting zone', some plants (I need real life here, not plastic!), and a magazine/file rack to hang on the wall so the forms people always need and reading material can be placed there instead of on my tables, desk, etc. The latter will also be my inbox so my desk can open up a bit or at the very least my outbox so I don't have to think about that stuff anymore too.

I also want some rugs, but I think I'll just buy those myself and then I can take them with me when I leave. They have to go with my Kandinsky print anyway.

I should take some before and after pictures. I'll do that if the items do get ordered. You really should see what I have here. I love my office. I love that I have an office - with windows! And doors! And it's mine! - and so I've just been thankful for that. Now I get (re:need) to decorate and I'm a little nervous. I can only do so much but hopefully I can do a little bit so it feels office-y yet home-y for me.

Update: So I met with our contracting dude and he suggested I change everything. He commended my frugalness but basically, if I'm going to change some of the pieces I might as well change it all. I talked it over with my boss and showed him my plan from floorplanner (office 4) and he approved. So I spent most of the afternoon going through the catalogs and picking out my pieces. I'm still not sure about this. The design isn't really what I want – I'm worried it's going to be really cramped once all the pieces are there. But it needs to be done. I just can't quite find what I want for storage and filing. It seems to either all work for filing or all be storage. I need both and enough of each without overcrowding. I'm worried.