SPRING HOME IMPROVEMENT 2026

Spring SPACES

Home Improvement Sunny

trends

How to get more mileage out of your

By JOLIE KERR

The Washington Post

Flex spaces, those multiuse areas that bend and grow to accommodate the disparate and changing needs of a household, took off during the pandemic. We had to get creative about how we used space when we were home 24/7, making room for work, school, hobbies, fitness and, well, everything else. But they’re still very much a part of how we live now.

One of the hottest iterations of this outside-the-box thinking about space is the dining library, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a hybrid of an elegant formal dining room and a cozy reading space. “The table is central, but so are the shelves that surround it,” says

Cait Barker, the creative director and co-founder of Bessette. “A dining library brings character, warmth and purpose to a room that’s often underused.”

Jen Baxter, the founder of Baxter Hill Interiors, describes dining libraries as “intellectually and visually immersive” spaces that reflect your personality through your choice of books and collected objects, which can offer conversation starters for dinners with friends. Or they can morph into “a flexible place where the dining table becomes a surface for spreading out your reading, research or projects like puzzles, crafts or Legos.”

Dining libraries contain multitudes

There are multiple ways to approach the dining library. The more classic ap-

proach, Barker says, is “book-forward and formal, usually with floor-to-ceiling shelves and a dedicated dining table. It’s designed primarily for reading, entertaining and quiet conversation.” By contrast, she says, “the multiuse dining library is more flexible, blending books with everyday activities like crafting, homework or working from home; and the entertainer’s dining library prioritizes hosting, incorporating bar storage, serving surfaces or display shelving for glassware alongside books.”

Regardless of which style you choose, there are some fairly standard elements.

“Shelving, layered lighting and a large communal table tend to anchor the space,” says Alice Moszczynski, an interior designer at Planner 5D. “Rich textures like wood, textiles and warm paint colors

DINING ROOM

The multi-use home space trend is coming for your dining room.

Jason Doiy/Getty Images

help create a cozy atmosphere that encourages lingering.”

Creating a dining library in your home

Adding a dining library to your home could be as simple — and relatively inexpensive — as rearranging some furniture or adding some DIY shelving. Or it can be a full-scale renovation led by contractors and designers. “A budget-friendly version, using prefabricated shelving, plug-in sconces, paint and thoughtful styling, can be achieved for $1,000 to $3,000,” Barker says. “At the high end, a fully custom dining library with floorto-ceiling built-ins, detailed millwork, wallpaper, paint and custom lighting can range from $20,000 to $50,000-plus.”

If a full reno isn’t in your budget, these tips can help you turn your existing dining room into a book-centered flex space.

For inspiration, get out into the world. There’s no better way to get ideas than by looking at how other people and spaces display books. “Visiting libraries in person can be invaluable and often leads to more thoughtful design decisions,” Baxter says. And looking online is no substitute for seeing things in person, she adds. “Historic homes or well-designed hotels are great places to see how light interacts with different finishes and materials. That kind of insight is difficult to capture online.”

Make it book-forward. “The most basic requirement of a dining library is a strong book collection,” Baxter says.

To design a room around books, mix them with ceramics, small pieces of art and objects to create depth. “The goal is a collected look that feels personal rather than precious,” Barker says. “When in doubt, go vintage — timeworn pieces add instant character and keep shelves from feeling too polished or predictable.”

To bolster or build a book collection, “local estate sales, secondhand and online thrift shops are excellent resources for sourcing books affordably,” Baxter says. She recommends choosing hardbacks over paperbacks for a more elevated look. “Removing dust jackets can also help, particularly if the sleeves feel overly glossy or clash with the room’s palette. The clothbound cover underneath often feels more refined.” Designing with books also offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to styling a room. “They can be organized by color, size or theme, and rearranged over time,” Baxter says.

Add shelving. Built-in bookshelves lend architectural weight, but freestanding bookshelves offer more flexibility, leaning either formal or casual depending on the style — and on the styling. “For a looser look,” Baxter says, “books can be stacked on side and con-

sole tables or low surfaces rather than relying solely on shelving.”

To mimic custom millwork on a budget, try using freestanding bookcases painted the same color as the walls. “There’s some great Ikea hacks for this,” Moszczynski says. Then accessorize. “Add a warm rug, a dimmable table lamp and curated books or objects to create a library-like atmosphere without construction,” she adds.

Choose your table wisely. A large central table is a staple of both dining rooms and libraries. “From formal rectangular to casual round, this is the room’s anchor,” Barker says. “Choose a table scale that leaves comfortable circulation around chairs.” To get the scale right and avoid a too-big table that leaves the space feeling cramped, she says, “A trick I love is taping out the table’s size on the floor before buying to see how it actually looks and feels in the room. You want enough room to pull chairs in and out comfortably and still have easy flow around the table.”

Color is king. “Dining libraries tend to feel most successful when the palette is intentional and grounded,” Baxter says. “Deeper or more muted tones make sense in this context, but darker colors are by no means required.” Color drenching — using one hue or a set of closely related shades to paint an entire room, including the walls, ceiling, trim, fixtures like radiators and even small pieces of furniture — is well-suited to a dining library, says Darlene Molnar, an interior designer in the D.C. area. Popular dark paint choices for a dining library include navy blue, rich chocolate brown or even a bold scarlet. Lighter tones that create richness include pearl gray, butter yellow, muted terra-cotta and sage.

The finish also matters. “For dining rooms, a matte, eggshell or satin finish if the room is humid, is typically recommended for its subtle sheen and durability,” says Chuck Reger of Five Star Painting. “Overly glossy finishes, or very bright, trendy shades may not suit formal spaces if they clash with the room’s style.”

Layer the lighting. You want multiple sources of lighting, rather than just one fixture in the middle of the room. “A stunning chandelier over the table sets mood,” Barker says, “then add sconces or picture lights to highlight shelves and sculptural objects.”

Get clever with storage. “In smaller spaces, a built-in banquette surrounded by shelving is a great way to save space,” Molnar says. Adding drawers or other storage spaces to lower shelves to hold linens and serving pieces “keeps the space beautiful and utilitarian,” Baxter says. “Some people even incorporate rolling carts or modular furniture so the room can transition from dinner party to reading nook seamlessly,” Moszczynski adds.

decluttering

By METRO CREATIVE

Spring is the season of nature’s rebirth. Trees and flowers begin to bloom anew each spring, and young animals can be seen frolicking with their parents. During a time when it seems like the entire planet gets a refresh, many homeowners turn their thoughts to refreshing their homes as well.

As the days lengthen and the weather warms, spring cleaning takes center stage. Spring cleaning is more extensive than simply washing away grime, as cleaning a home often offers a psychological reset for the coming months. A clear strategy can make the task of spring cleaning feel less daunting, and these tips can help cut down on clutter and other interior annoyances that have arisen after months spent indoors.

Declutter before cleaning

The rule of thumb when starting on spring cleaning is to combat clutter before cleaning. Trying to clean around clutter is inefficient and may result in throwing in the towel prematurely. It is important to remove as much as possible from each room before you begin cleaning. As homeowners move through each room, they can assess whether they’ve used items in the last year or whether they serve any functional or aesthetic purposes. If not, they can be trashed or donated.

Move top to bottom

It’s important to follow the rules of science when spring cleaning. That means that dust and debris will be affected by gravity. Engaging in a top-down approach will help make cleaning more efficient. Beginning at the ceiling and working down towards the floors will help people avoid having to clean the same surface twice.

Using a duster or a microfiber cloth, individuals can clear cobwebs from corners and dust from crown molding. Fingerprints will accumulate near light switches and door handles, so those areas should be wiped down, too.

Homeowners can conduct a thorough

Put some spring in your cleaning step

cleaning of heating and cooling output and intake vents as they likely have gathered dust over the winter. A down of floor moldings can get to any area near the floor or under furniture that doesn’t get frequent cleaning.

Do a kitchen reset

Focusing attention on the kitchen, which tends to be the busiest room in the house, is a wise idea for spring cleaning plans. This is the time for individuals to pull everything out of the refrigerator and pantry and check for expiration dates. Wiping down the shelves means cleaning away any accumulated food drips or spills. Additional areas to consider include behind the refrigerator, inside the dishwasher filter and inside the microwave.

Focus on air quality

It’s key to replace the HVAC system filters come springtime, as well as any air purifiers in the home. This will help reduce allergens and ensure that the cooling system will run efficiently when it’s time to turn it on.

Spring cleaning takes place each year. Prioritizing decluttering and following a systematic path through the home helps people eliminate stress and mess at the same time.

A BETTER BATH REMODEL

The tiny forests that could save endangered trees

By KATE MORGAN | The Washington Post

David Easterbrook is an unlikely influencer. The retiree has more than 1 million followers watching him water his plants on Instagram. Easterbrook doesn’t have your average backyard garden. The horticulturalist and former curator at the Montreal Botanical Garden is one of the world’s leading experts in bonsai. The art of bonsai originated in Asia more than a thousand years ago. The word translates, roughly, to “potted tree,” and growing a bonsai involves strategically and often aggressively pruning a plant and its roots to create a miniaturized version.

For Easterbrook and other experts, bonsai is a fascinating and fun hobby, but it also has potential as a tool for conservation. Bonsai trees can be remarkably long-lived — some examples in Japan are hundreds of years old — and Easterbrook sees them as a way to ensure species persist in an uncertain environmental future. Trees threatened by climate change, habitat loss, overharvesting and invasive species can often thrive in a smaller form.

“Bonsai preserves genetics,” he says. “Every tree has an ecological memory in miniature. So, in that sense, bonsai practitioners are sort of very quiet conservationists.”

A bonsai tree is no different genetically from its full-size brethren. Despite their small size, they function like normal trees. They lose their leaves and needles in autumn, and some varieties even bear fruit. Chris Baker, curator of bonsai at the Chicago Botanic Garden, believes bonsai collections can act as DNA repositories, with the potential to use them for future restoration projects, or to further work to find pest- and disease-resistant varieties of threatened species.

“Institutions can work together to continue to do that work,” he says, “looking for genetic anomalies, or subspecies that are more adapted to certain temperatures. Bonsai can help us find those survivors, and they can be propagated and maybe even reintroduced.”

This creates an opportunity, Easterbrook says, “to try to preserve some of our native species so that our children and grandchildren can see them.”

The art of bonsai was introduced to North America relatively recently, Easterbrook says, “basically after the Second World War. It took a long time for bonsai to become established, and at first peo-

ple thought a tree could only be a bonsai if it came from Japan.”

In fact, explains Baker, when most people imagine a bonsai tree, they probably picture a commonly used species native to Asia, like some types of juniper, Chinese elm, or Japanese maple or pine.

“But through the years, we’ve begun utilizing more and more of our native species here in North America, and species from other regions throughout the world,” he says. A project at the botanic garden highlights bonsai versions of many of those species, including European olive trees, coastal redwoods, the limber pine and the metasequoia.

“It’s a great opportunity to expose a broad audience to these trees which grow in threatened areas, or that are dying because of climate change,” Baker says. “We’re losing their native environments, and at some point, we’re going to get to where these trees don’t exist in nature anymore. There is going to come a time where certain species

might only exist in captivity, if you will.

“In the meantime, not everybody can go walk in Muir Woods [National Monument] on the West Coast,” he adds. “Not everyone can go down south and experience the swamps. But far more people can come to the Chicago Botanic Garden or visit other public and private bonsai collections.”

The trees can act as educational ambassadors, Easterbrook says, offering an opportunity for people to get close to species they might not get to experience otherwise. “I have several American elms in my collection,” he says. “They’ve pretty rapidly disappeared from the landscape because of Dutch elm disease.” He has an American chestnut, which dominated eastern forests until it was almost completely wiped out by an early 20th-century blight. “I’ve often gone to the very far north of Quebec, on the tundra, collecting several-hundred-year-old larch trees,” he says.

And in addition to preserving native species, Easterbrook says, the hobby can help control non-natives. In New York state, where a variety of euonymus (otherwise known as burning bush) has become invasive, “a nature reserve asks bonsai people to go in there and dig them out to use as bonsai,” Easterbrook says. He also points to the pine-like casuarina, which is native to Australia and has “become a menace in Florida.” Their sale, cultivation and transport are now restricted by state law and require a permit, “but bonsai people still find wild ones and collect them,” Easterbrook adds, “and they’re doing the environment a favor.”

Many bonsai growers and enthusiasts get interested in the hobby simply because the trees are cool to look at, says Baker. But the art is a gateway, he believes, to a much deeper ecological understanding.

“The best bonsai isn’t just a tree in a pot, but a composition,” he says, “with understory and herbaceous plants, rocks, mosses. You create an ecosystem, and now it can teach people not just about a single tree, but how that tree ties into the environment. I think that’s where the real value is.”

Easterbrook agrees, and part of what makes his work so popular is that he’s not just miniaturizing one tree at a time. He makes bonsai forests: Complete, thriving biomes several feet high, which offer an opportunity to study and understand a forest ecosystem. His most-watched videos feature him simply watering his miniature forests of larch, sequoia, ginkgo and more. Whenever he displays his work, Easterbrook says, the forests are what really seem to capture audiences’ imaginations.

landscapes

High return-on-investment outdoor living components

By METRO CREATIVE

Outdoor living has become a coveted feature for many homeowners and those looking to buy. In 2026, landscape architecture has shifted from something that is purely ornamental to features that are functional and resilient. The American Society of Landscape Architects says a professionally designed landscape can increase a home’s value by anywhere from 15 to 20%. Some projects can yield a return on investment of even more — even recuperating the entire cost.

Where is a homeowner to start when it comes to maximizing the potential of a landscape? These projects and components can be a good place to start.

• Natural stone patios: A highquality patio can offer a great ROI. These patios may use the same stone levels and lines as the interior of the home.

• Outdoor kitchens: HGTV says an outdoor kitchen ROI can range from 55% to 200%, depending on the location and comparable homes in the area. High-value versions include builtin grills, weather-resistant cabinetry, and stone prep areas.

• Climate-controlled pergolas: Pergolas on their own can add interest and function to outdoor spaces. Those that feature motorized louvers that adjust for sun and rain have become a luxury essential for many homeowners. They help extend the usability of outdoor spaces during various seasons.

• Smart lighting systems: Integrated systems with LED lights controlled by apps are now major selling points for homes. These systems improve security and curb appeal at night. According to Urban Oasis Contracting, outdoor lighting doesn’t just show a space, but also transforms it. Adding carefully placed lights can redefine the property in distinct ways.

• Softscaping improvements: Mature trees can add character to a property and also reduce cooling costs via natural shade. Landscapes that require low irrigation are outperforming traditional lawns, according to Organic Valley.

Is

sunroom additions right for you?

To decide if a sunroom really is a worthwhile endeavor, it’s important for homeowners to consider the footprint of their homes/yards, how they plan to use the space, and the amount of sun the home receives.

By METRO CREATIVE

There is no denying the appeal of a sunroom. Sunrooms bring more of the outdoors inside by bridging the gap between home and yard. Demand is shifting, with more than 61% of homeowners now preferring four-season insulated rooms for year-round use, according to Market Reports World. A sunroom has the potential to offer a roughly 50% return on investment and can cost anywhere from $22,000 to $72,000 on average.

A sunroom addition is a significant investment and a decision not to take lightly, as it changes both the interior floor plan and backyard space. To decide if a sunroom really is a worthwhile endeavor, it’s important for homeowners to consider the footprint of their homes/yards, how they plan to use the space, and the amount of sun the home receives.

Home footprint

Professionals with the National Association of Realtors say that a sunroom should not consume more than 30 percent of the remaining backyard and urge homeowners to avoid over-developing a lot. If installing a sunroom will leave a homeowner with only a small patch of yard afterwards, the result can feel heavy and unbalanced. It also won’t match the neighborhood. Another consideration is the local zoning ordinances where a person lives. The City of Los Angeles, for example, warns that most towns require a setback between the sunroom structure and the property line. It’s also important to look at the home’s roof and whether or not the sunroom will fall right under the eaves or if it will require an expensive tie-in to the existing roof.

Utility

It is vital that homeowners determine how they will use the space and when. This will dictate the type of sunroom that should be built. A three-season room is typically uninsulated with only single-pane glass. This is ideal if someone is looking for a screened-in retreat without all of the bugs and a little weather protection. Four-season rooms are fully insulated and tie into a home’s HVAC system. This space will be functional all year long, but it is a more expensive undertaking as well.

Light evaluation

The purpose of a sunroom is to benefit from the sun. The value of the space will depend entirely on which way the room faces. North-facing sunrooms have soft light with minimal heat or glare that likely can be used all day. Morning people can appreciate an east-facing sunroom while drinking coffee or reading, and the space will cool down in the afternoon. South-facing rooms will be bright most of the day and may need high-end HVAC hookups or shades to stay comfortable, even in cooler months. West-facing sunrooms are great for watching sunsets, but the hot afternoon sun must be considered. UV-rated glass to prevent floor fading and even sunburn likely will be needed. It is important to work with a company that specializes in sunrooms. Such firms are experienced in helping homeowners design and ultimately build these spaces to avoid common pitfalls, advises Champion, a window, sunroom and home exterior company.

In general, a sunroom is not a DIY project since it typically involves a major structural change. It can be a viable addition to a home when built correctly to remain durable through every season.

outdoors

Prepare a yard for evening entertaining

By METRO CREATIVE

Even after the sun goes down, the opportunity to entertain outdoors is still possible. Transforming a backyard into an evening oasis does not necessarily require major renovations, but it should involve adjusting the atmosphere to facilitate comfort and visibility. The following tips can help hosts optimize outdoor spaces for nighttime events.

Layered lighting

Lighting is the main priority when hosting at night. Lighting establishes ambiance and creates safety in the space. Hosts should avoid floodlights which can be too harsh and create a clinical feeling. Instead, melding different lighting options together can set the scene. String lights provide a warm, even glow that can outline the perimeter and “ceiling” of an outdoor room. Lowvoltage LEDs or solar lights can make walkways

more visible and call attention to changes in elevation. Accent lighting, such as small spotlights uplighting trees or architectural features, will create depth and keep the yard from feeling like an abyss beyond the patio or deck.

Create focal points

Individuals will gather around various focal points in the yard. These established zones will encourage conversation and other activities. A fire pit is a natural magnet for outdoor events. Arrange seating around the fire pit to keep conversation flowing. An outdoor bar also is a great place for people to gather, whether it’s stocked with alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks. Mark off an area where people can mingle and dance. Set up an outdoor speaker in this area.

Outdoor comfort

Contending with bugs and weather is a natural

side effect of spending time outdoors, particularly in the evening. Citronella candles can keep mosquitoes and gnats at bay. A simple electric floor fan also can be effective against mosquitoes, which are weak fliers that can’t fly against the breeze. A fire pit, propane patio heater and a basket of blankets can help tame the chills if the temperature drops. Keeping pop-up canopies at the ready will help if rain starts to fall.

Accessibility to food and drink

Beyond the bar, having self-service stations in various spots enables guests to grab food or drink as needed instead of having to trek indoors. Make sure these spots are well-lit. Space drinks away from the food to prevent traffic jams. Invest in some covered containers that will keep food safe from ants or flying insects and trays to easily transport glassware and other items back into the house.