Hi, I'm Elise
I've been renting small apartments for the better part of a decade, and I started Nest Small because I couldn't find the advice I was actually looking for: real ideas for real renters with real restrictions.
Every tip I share comes from living in spaces under 600 square feet. I know what it's like to work with landlord-beige walls, IKEA budgets, and a strict no-holes policy. Nest Small is where I put everything I've learned, organized by room, by challenge, and by how much it'll actually cost you.
I write about studio apartment layouts, room divider ideas that actually work, small bathroom storage, and all the little styling decisions that make a tight space feel intentional instead of cramped.
No sponsored content disguised as editorial. No "just buy a bigger place." Just the honest small-space perspective.
My first studio was 340 square feet in a building with no storage and a landlord who handed me a two-page list of what I couldn't do. No nails. No paint. No mounting anything to the bathroom tiles. I spent the first month sleeping in a room that looked exactly like I'd just moved in, because I couldn't figure out how to make it feel like mine without breaking any of those rules.
What changed things for me wasn't a bigger budget. It was figuring out the right sequence. Rug first, before anything else. Then something at eye level on the walls that doesn't require drilling. Then one good light source that isn't the overhead fixture. Those three decisions did more for the room than anything I bought afterward.
I started writing things down because I kept repeating myself to friends who were moving into their first small places. The same questions, the same mistakes, the same moment of realizing that a 300-square-foot studio isn't a smaller version of a house. It's its own thing, with its own rules. Nest Small is the guide I wish I'd had.
I've moved five times in eight years. Each apartment taught me something the last one didn't, about what furniture actually scales, which IKEA pieces are worth it and which ones fall apart after two moves, what a 4x6 rug looks like on a real floor versus a product photo. That's what I write about here. Specific stuff, with dimensions.
Follow along on Pinterest where I pin small-space ideas daily, or browse the articles below and start with whatever room is giving you the most trouble.