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Best Hardware Store

Cherrydale Hardware

If you live in an old house and need to match the Williamsburg paint on the shutters that were installed 30 years ago, Cherrydale Hardware has your color in stock. Much of the merchandise at this mom-and-pop (a family business since 1938) is tailored to the area, including specially blended grass seed for shady, sunny or dog-occupied yards in Mid-Atlantic climates. “We also have the little oddball adapters that old houses need,” says general manager Mike Egbert, “like plumbing pieces to fix old vanity sinks that were clumsily installed 40 years ago.”

And you don’t have to buy more than you need. If the repair calls for one screw to fix a doorknob, you can buy one for 10 cents. No need to buy the entire bag.

This pragmatism has made the Cherrydale institution a favorite among locals like McLean resident Lynn Kay, who has been renovating four family properties in Arlington since December of 2011 (she’s now on a first-name basis with most of the staff).

“If I have a problem, they’ll give me solutions,” Kay says. “I can call and explain what I’m looking for, and they’ll text me a picture of what they have in stock. I’ve never been disappointed.”

3805 Lee Highway, Arlington, 703-527-2100, www.cherrydalehardware.net

Other top vote-getters:

Ayers Variety & Hardware
Bill’s True Value Hardware
Brown’s Hardware
McLean Hardware