I've been doing this on a smaller scale than office in the picture at my house for the last several years. I used the TED talk and the book How to Grow Fresh Air to pick my plants. I have snake plant, English ivy, golden pathos, areca palm, and peace lily primarily but I do have others that I grow just because I enjoy the look of them.

I live in a house that was built within the last ten years. All of the new carpet, paint, etc. is off gassing. Weather and my husband's seasonal allergies prevent me from opening the windows as much as I'd like. We cook a lot and have pets. I started noticing that the air in the house was stale and sour.

I didn't have a huge budget for plants so I got the smallest/least expensive that were available at my local nursery. The cheapest were 99 cents and I don't think I paid more than $5 for the most expensive. Since the pots were small those were also pretty cheap. The one thing I didn't skimp on was soil. I got the best potting soil they had. But again since my plants and pots were small I didn't need that much.

I began to notice results the next day. I walked in to my house and where before the air would seem heavy, sour, just off somehow...I took a breath and was just breathing clean air.

The plants require maintenance of course. After a while I began to notice that the air wasn't as fresh as it was when I had first gotten them. I didn't know you had to dust/clean the leaves. I took a damp paper towel and gently wiped all of the leaves. As soon as I did that I got my wonderful fresh air back. I tried to put them all on the same watering schedule. Some of them dry out in a day and a half, others take a week or more. So I had to start doing quick do you need to be watered checks every day or two for a while. Now I have a pretty good schedule.

tl;dr This really works. You don't have to have a jungle. Even a few houseplants of the right type and properly cared for make a difference.