You walk into your living room and see that corner. The one that fights you every single day. A tiny nook that has to be a dining area, a home office, and a place for your aunt to crash when she visits from Cleveland. I have been there. My own apartment was a 42-square-meter puzzle where every piece of furniture had to earn its keep or get evicted. The catalogues showed me rooms the size of airplane hangars, with furniture my salary could never touch. That is when I stopped scrolling and started staring at my actual floor plan. Real interior design inspiration does not live on a Pinterest board. It lives in the constraints you have right now. The gap between the radiator and the wall. The awkward pillar. The lack of a single closet for bedding.

The biggest problem in small spaces is the sleeping situation. Overnight guests mean either a blow-up mattress that deflates by 3 a.m. or parking someone on a lumpy couch with a neckache the next morning. I tried both.