With a degree in applied economics, Melissa Sanabria was working in the financial industry when she moved to Capitol Hill. After years of on-the-job travel, she was happy to settle down. Remodeling the vintage row house she’d bought with her husband and toddler tapped into a lifelong love of design, and in 2016 she launched “Pretty Little Row House,” a popular blog chronicling her design journey, ideas and inspiration. “Readers began asking me to do small jobs in the neighborhood,” she recounts. “Eventually, I quit my job and hung out my shingle.”

Two years later, Sanabria & Co. employs six part-time staff members with a focus on whole-house renovations. “I’m the conduit between the client and the design team,” Sanabria says. “When everyone else has left, I’m still there installing the custom drapes.”

Sanabria’s transitional “old-meets-new” sensibility lends itself to row-house redos. “I love old homes,” she observes. “The history is important to me. I think of the house as a client too.”

In fact, the majority of her projects are located around historic Capitol Hill by choice. As Sanabria notes, “I want to live and work in my community.”

Interior Design: Melissa Sanabria, Sanabria & Co., Washington, DC. Contractor (Capitol Hill): Wall to Wall Construction, Inc., Washington, DC.