Take Five Friday.

Today's featured blogger writes with a wit and honesty that always keeps me laughing.

Morgan, of The Brick House

Morgan is renovating her mid century cement brick house near Palm Springs. Each project she takes on (with some help from "the boy") is chronicled in real time, on a real budget.

What advice can you give readers on getting started when decorating a new home?
Maybe take the whole decorating thing slow. Being a totally obsessive maniac I want everything perfect now now now. Realistically, that method won't work unless you have oodles of cash (and even then things take time). Take your time, use the space and figure out what your needs are. Then you might not have to rip out a bunch of hastily made decisions later.

(morgan's dining room)

How do you draw inspiration for the rooms you design?
I look at tons of beautiful images of incredible homes online and get really discouraged that I'll never be able to achieve the same polish. Then I get depressed about having a really limited budget. After wallowing a bit I go to thrift stores and flea markets and craigslist and try to make something out of nothing. It's all incredibly time consuming and usually there is no real "master" plan, just a vague idea of what I think might be rad. Mostly, I'm always responding to objects I really love that I can find at an affordable price. Then I try to throw it all together in an aesthetically pleasing way. That's why everything is always changing around the house as I find new things or get tired of stuff.

What has been your most successful DIY project?
Probably the Ace Hotel inspired plumbing shelves. I've seen it built again and again all over blog land. It's a great project!

(morgan's entry)

Least successful?
Our paver patio. We did it all backwards and wrong and it was a complete mess. It turned out fine in the end, but took twice as long and was frustratingly difficult because we didn't think through the installation steps properly.

(morgan's patio)

Share some advice on building a successful design blog.
BIG pictures and original content. That's what I'm always looking for and tends to be the thing that keeps me reading. Also great taste, gotta have some good taste and unexpected ideas to keep it fresh and different than every other blog out there. I tend to get bored with shopping lists and repetitive inspiration photos. Do something! Get dirty! I think process is fun and inspiring for everyone to see. Seeing people tackle real projects in real time with real budgets keeps me motivated and doesn't make me feel so much despair when I see all those effortlessly perfect before and afters that seem devoid of sweat and frustration and agonizing decisions floating around the internet.

Thank you Morgan for taking five out of your busy schedule to be with us today! If you'd like to see more of Morgan's clever work, be sure to check out The Brick House.