The area’s best lawn-care companies

(iStock photo / iStock photo)

A Washington Consumers’ Checkbook special report: By choosing the right lawn-care firm, you can put the green in your grass and keep the green in your wallet.

A family beach house makeover

A family beach house makeover

A Maryland couple works with their designer daughter-in-law on their Delaware beach house renovation.

How To

Top-drawer replacements

A broken pull from an ’80s Thomasville bedroom set needs to be replaced.

Two companies can help replace a broken furniture pull.

Fix a faded fiberglass door

HANDOUT PHOTO9: Hollywood, Md., reader photo for Local Living's 5/24/12 How To column. ONE-TIME USE ONLY.

How to reduce fading on a fiberglass door and block noise from an upstairs unit.

Distress painted brick

How to paint exterior brick to look aged, and repair wood objects and accessories.

Read more How To

Adrian Higgins

High on the list of climbing roses

HANDOUT PHOTO: Jasmina rose

A groomed climbing or rambling rose telegraphs to the world that here lives a gardener, not someone who signs a check to a landscape company.

Lanning Roper, standard-bearer

Photo taken at Chartwell, the much-loved Winston Churchill family home, in Kent, England. Image is of one of Lanning Roper's gardens, 1989.

Remembering garden designer Lanning Roper 100 years after his birth.

An ode to high design at Mount Sharon

ORANGE, VA - APRIL 25:  Columbine in the Spring Garden at Mount Sharon in Orange, VA on April 25, 2012. (Photo by Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post)

Go inside a true beauty: the classical garden at Mount Sharon in Orange, Va.

Read more from Adrian Higgins

A Cook's Garden

Apple growing requires foresight

Under an apple tree in an orchard

Apple trees are slow, and there are no shortcuts, but planting them is like a gift to the future.

A nod to the sunflower

Sunflowers with beans below and grape vines above in Barbara Damrosch's vegetable garden.

Sunflowers belong in a kitchen garden. After all, they are considered edible plants.

Still time for sweet potatoes

A9C9CP Sweet potato Vegetable Soil Field soil Industry Agriculture Kanto

If a fast spring has left you in the dust, sweet potatoes are the crop for you.

Read more from Barbara Damrosch

Handy Guide

Water filtration systems

(Bed / BED, BATH & BEYOND)

Handy Guide tells you what to look for when you’re shopping for a water filtration system.

Raise your AC IQ

(Sears / SEARS)

What you need to know if you’re shopping for an air conditioner this season.

What’s fresh in paint

(Courtesy of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum / COURTESY OF THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK.)

Although paint is easy to use, it’s not always easy to choose what’s right for you.

House Calls

Blue haven

A family in D.C. wants to get rid of all their furniture leftover from college and create a grown up home office in their attic.

A relaxed, stretched-out space

A den in Petworth needs to be redecorated and also pet-friendly.

The family room, Take 2

A couple asks for help in redecorating and modernizing their dark, outdated family room.

More home and gardening features

Living Well: Topher Paterno

Get to know local designer, builder, teacher and green living advocate Topher Paterno.

Don’t let ‘chains’ hold you back

When decorating your home, don’t dismiss the chain stores.

How to run a neat home on a budget

A new book by a West Virginia blogger offers up strategies for more of what we all want: organization, time, and money.

A Domino stands up again

Domino Magazine is resurrected as a special edition: Domino Quick Fixes.

Auctioneer’s advice: Collect what you love

LIVING WELL | Stephanie Kenyon of Chevy Chase dishes on where she shops and gives tips for picking out antique gifts.

Organizing the basement

One reporter faces the bane of her existence: her messy basement.

Fifteen/Eleven makes you say ooh/aah

Fifteen/Eleven paper boutique opens in Old Town Alexandria.

Ugly ducklings become pretty fly

Foundry home store, specializing in vintage, antique and repurposed goods, opens on U Street NW.

Darryl Carter’s dream store in Shaw

The Washington interior designer is rehabbing a rundown building.

Miss Pixie: Behind the pink facade

A Q&A with Pixie Windsor, owner of Miss Pixie’s furniture shop on 14th Street.

A color story told with bravado

An Alexandria couple hired a color consultant to make sure the paint on their walls showed off the couple’s artwork.

Jonathan Adler to open D.C. store

Adler, the New York designer known for his mod-meets-traditional home furnishings, is preparing to open his Georgetown store in May.

Photo galleries

The 2012 D.C. Design House

Before and after photos of the Spring Valley home that was made-over by 23 local designers.

Rediscover the Lenten rose

The Lenten rose bridges winter and spring in a way that no other perennial, bulb or tree can.

Darryl Carter’s Shaw restoration

Interior designer’s 19th-century commercial property will become a store and studio.

House Calls: Local rooms get virtual design makeovers

The Washington Post pairs local readers’ design challenges with an interior designer.

Local kitchen designs

Take a look at the inspiring kitchens featured in The Washington Post over the years.

Paint colors that pop

Take a peek inside this Alexandria home to see vivid colors on display.

Keeping the house warm

Are you freezing in every room of your house? Read this.

Finding the perfect daily planner

Deciding on a personal calendar system is more difficult than it sounds.

An Arlington mom feathers her nest and launches new career

Christen Bensten took to the used furniture market to scoop up inexpensive pieces she could bring back to life with chalk paint.

Re-pot that moth orchid

Moth orchids make a great floral gift for the holidays.

20 gift ideas for the home for under $50

The holidays have officially arrived, which means it’s time to start gift shopping. We’ve done the legwork for you.

Holiday-ready homes

An English cottage in Charlottesville has a simple and organic holiday style.

Linda Bond’s house in Chevy Chase

How a dark, dreary and dated house became light and elegant.

Make your spring blossom

We pick the best 10 bulbs for a superior garden show.

Winner of the Kid’s Room Contest

Ashburn mom Krista Salmon won for redesigning her daughter’s room.

Videos: Gardening

A season’s change

Higgins reaps the summer harvest and prepares a lettuce garden for the fall.

Summer in full swing

Higgins uses the arbor to make shade for the summer and demonstrates how to keep tomatoes standing tall.

Gardening high and low

Higgins explains how an arbor makes a small gardening plot more spacious and shows how to care for herbs and lettuce.

Community gardens

Higgins prepares his community garden plot for the start of spring and gives tips on sowing, growing and harvesting.