Amy Horta is a lifestyle blogger who shares with her readers the many adventures of marriage and motherhood. Amy and her husband, Bobby, recently moved their young family into a new home and began bringing their farmhouse renovation dreams to life. We were thrilled to hear about the Horta’s renovation success, and asked a few questions to get to know Amy, and her family, a little better.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Hi! I’m Amy, the writer behind The Magnolia Mom Blog ! My family and I live in sunny south Florida, on the blog you’ll meet my husband, Bobby, and my two boys, Matthew and Jacob. As a mom of two young boys, I enjoy our days outdoors running out their extremely high energy! We have been renovating our farmhouse for about a year now and what a year it’s been! You can see the before photos on my blog. My husband is quite a handy man - he has put so much hard work into our home and I couldn’t be happier or more impressed with his skills!
Tell us about your kitchen renovation.
We began our kitchen renovation along with the rest of the home, as the house was completely redone. We sat down about 10 times to design and redesign our kitchen. I knew that we had to design the kitchen to be be functional and spacious - all in a small space. I drew out the current kitchen and Bobby added the island idea. I honestly was so unsure how it would look since it is a larger size and I had a movable cart island in mind originally but, I am so happy I went with it now. Could it be any more perfect for the space?! Once we had the kitchen designed, we started looking at vendors for everything needed to put together our idea.
Spending months looking at cabinets, countertops, sinks and open shelves, we read reviews, looked at specs and came to a conclusion with the products we choose.
The most rewarding part of our kitchen renovation is definitely waking up every morning and brewing coffee in my dream kitchen! I can’t help but smile everyday when I see our kitchen
What are 3 words to describe your style? What made you choose a farmhouse design?
My style is definitely Relaxed, Cozy and Modern Farmhouse. I personally find Farmhouse design so cozy and family-friendly. So when we were designing our home and our kitchen, we added Farmhouse touches, such as: our gorgeous farmhouse sink from MR Direct, and beautiful wood open shelving. We also added industrial touches, such as: the sink faucet, bar stools, rod iron brackets under the island and a butcher block countertop on the island to offset the marble.
What has been the most rewarding part of renovating your kitchen? The most challenging?
There are so many ups and downs when you’re going through a renovation. If you’ve been through one then, well.... you know what I’m talking about. The most rewarding part of our kitchen renovation is definitely waking up every morning and brewing coffee in my dream kitchen! I can’t help but smile everyday when I see our kitchen.
Of course the renovation came with challenges. The biggest challenge of our kitchen renovation was certainly designing the space. This was not our first home renovation but it was our first time redesigning a kitchen from nothing. If you look at the before, you can definitely see everything is different, everything is moved around. We spent moths designing and redesigning this space.
I always remember a quote from middle school on my art teachers wall, “stay true to yourself, yet always be open to learn. Work hard, and never give up on your dreams, even when nobody else believes they can come true but you.”
My one piece of advice for someone who is starting a kitchen renovation would definitely be KEEP FAITH! Though all the hurdles, the late contractors, the wrong color items, whatever it may be, keep faith.
