How not to spend $1.2 million to decorate an office

Jim Thain, ousted as chief executive officer at Merrill Lynch, has taken grief for spending $1.2 million to decorate his office and a few other rooms.

Without naming names exactly, the folks at IKEA U.S. bragged that the gear for their president's office cost $1,200-that's 1,000 times less.

At IKEA Mike Ward uses the same equipment as other employees, and his desk is in the general work space, not a private office.

Of course, IKEA is based in Conshohocken, PA., where the CEO culture might be different from in Manhattan.

"I think people are coming back to that type of value: What do I really need and what is appropriate, said Janice Simonsen, design spokesperson for IKEA. "Function, function, function. That's how we design our furniture."

Using figures for Thain's decor from CNBC, IKEA listed less-expensive substitutions. We shopped a few other stores to bring you these examples. Unfortunately, photos from Merrill Lynch, which has been taken over by Bank of America, are not available.

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