The Woman Behind Mianestliving (And Why She Thinks Small Spaces Are Worth Every Bit of Effort)
You found this blog because something in your home is not working. Maybe it is the studio apartment that feels like a shoebox no matter what you try.
Maybe it is the one-bedroom you share with a partner and somehow there is still nowhere to put anything.
Maybe you have just moved somewhere smaller than you planned and you are standing in the middle of it wondering where to even begin.
That is exactly where Mia started.
You found this blog because something in your home is not working. Maybe it is the studio apartment that feels like a shoebox no matter what you try.
Maybe it is the one-bedroom you share with a partner and somehow there is still nowhere to put anything. Maybe you have just moved somewhere smaller than you planned and you are standing in the middle of it wondering where to even begin.
That is exactly where Mia started.
The Apartment That Started All of This
Three years ago, Mia Louise moved into a 340-square-foot studio in a city she had never lived in before. She had a residential interior design qualification, a suitcase, a fold-up table she bought off a stranger on the street, and absolutely zero furniture that made sense for the space.
She spent the first two weeks sleeping on an air mattress pushed against the wall because there was nowhere else for it to go without blocking the only path to the bathroom. She measured the room fourteen times. She drew floor plans on graph paper at the kitchen counter, which was also her desk, which was also the only flat surface she owned.
What she found, once she started actually solving the problem, was that small spaces are not a design limitation. They are a design challenge, and there is a very real difference between the two. A limitation is something you accept. A challenge is something you figure out.
Mianestliving is what came out of that figuring out.
Who Actually Reads This Blog
If you are decorating a house with four bedrooms and a dedicated dining room, this is probably not your corner of the internet.
But if you are renting a studio and trying to make it feel like somewhere you actually want to come home to, you are in the right place. If you are in a one-bedroom apartment and you need a home office, a guest sleeping space, and a living room all in the same 600 square feet, this blog was written for you.
If you cannot drill holes in your walls, cannot paint, and cannot make permanent changes because your landlord will charge you for it, Mia has been there and she has tested more peel-and-stick solutions than she would like to admit.
This is a blog for people who are working with what they have, in the space they actually live in, on a budget that is not unlimited.
What Mia Actually Knows
Mia holds a qualification in Residential Interior Design and has spent the last four years applying it specifically to small and compact living spaces.
She has rearranged the same 340 square feet more times than any reasonable person would. She once spent an entire Saturday testing six different configurations for a murphy bed and a fold-down desk in a space that measured exactly 11 feet across.
She has a particular focus on rental-friendly solutions, space-saving furniture, and the kind of storage that does not look like storage. She keeps a running spreadsheet of every compact furniture piece she has tested, reviewed, or recommended, which currently sits at 180 entries and growing.
Before launching Mianestliving, Mia spent time working with clients in smaller urban apartments, which is where she learned that the gap between what interior design magazines show and what actually works in a real rented flat is enormous. Most of what she writes here comes directly from closing that gap.
What You Will Find When You Read Here
Mianestliving covers four core areas right now, and each one connects back to the same question: how do you make a small space work properly? More categories are coming as the site grows, but these four are where everything starts.
This is where the site goes deep. Murphy beds, sofa beds, nesting tables, fold-down desks, storage ottomans. Real specifics, not just product roundups.
Layout and zoning problems that come with living in one room. How to make a single space do three jobs without any of them feeling compromised.
This goes well beyond baskets and bins. Storage that does not look like storage, designed specifically for renters who cannot alter the walls.
The category that holds everything together. The practical, everyday side of living small that most design blogs skip over entirely.
Rental-friendly decorating, small space kitchens, small bedrooms, tiny bathrooms, and home office ideas for compact apartments are all planned. The site grows one focused category at a time, so every new section is built properly before the next one opens.
How Content Gets Made Here
Every article published on Mianestliving is researched, written, and reviewed by Mia before it goes live. Nothing is published based on assumptions. If a product is recommended, it has been evaluated against real criteria, not just listed because it appeared in search results.
Affiliate links are used on some pages, and they are always disclosed clearly at the top of the post. Sponsored content, when it appears, is labeled.
Mia does not recommend products she would not use in her own space, and she updates older articles when information changes or better options become available. The goal is that every piece of content on this site is something she would be comfortable handing to a friend and saying: this is actually useful, I checked.
One Last Thing
Small spaces have a reputation for being something you tolerate until you can afford something bigger. Mia does not believe that.
The apartment you are in right now is worth making work. Not because bigger is not better sometimes, but because the space you live in today shapes how you feel every single day you come home to it. That matters. It is worth spending a Saturday on. It is worth a well-researched murphy bed. It is worth figuring out.
That is what this blog is for.
If you have a question, a space problem you cannot solve, or just want to say hello, the contact page is always open or you can email here: contact@mianestliving.com
Mia Louise Founder and Senior Editor, Mianestliving