Selecting startup office furniture is something of a balancing act. Brand new businesses need to attract excited, energized innovators who don’t mind putting in long hours at work. This means the office furniture really needs to be good quality. At the same time, funds may be a little tight. It doesn’t make financial sense to budget for a fancy office if it means there’s no capital left to put a big idea into production. Here are five tips for furnishing your startup office without breaking the bank.

Make Furniture Do Double Duty

If space is limited, bring in lounge furniture and create a collaboration space that can double as a break room. Choose low tables for this area that work equally well for snacks, laptops, or sketch pads. Low filing cabinets can offer extra work space or mobile filing pedestals that have padded tops can serve as occasional seating. Encourage employees to get creative in their use of office furniture. For example, it’s fairly simple to turn a regular desk into a height adjustable work table with a few boxes.

Select High Quality Refurbished Pieces

Cubicles and desks are two items that you should really never buy new for a startup. It’s easy enough to find a small group of matching cubes from brand name manufacturers at a fraction of the cost of new. Check out the selection of used cubicles available from office furniture dealers in your city. For a modest surcharge, you might even have the cubicles refinished in your company’s colors. That’s a great way to make your office look well-established from day one.

Splurge on Office Chairs

Ergonomic task chairs that employees use for hours every day can’t be bargain basement if you want to keep your workforce motivated. If you spend well for this essential startup office furniture, you can spend less on seating for other areas. For example, workers won’t mind rolling their own seating over to the conference room for meetings. In fact, you may have to pry them out of their comfy chairs at the end of the day. Don’t worry about having matching chairs—function is definitely more important than form. To capture the loyalty of new employees for the long term, offer them a range of chair choices. You can even let them pick the upholstery color for a padded chair if you are buying new.