With family in mind, local designers transform too-bland living spaces into chic, inviting havens

Savvy shoppers know that checking food labels is a key to helping your family eat healthy. The bad news? "They're incomplete," says Bruce Silverglade, director of legal affairs for the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). He helped Bergen Health & Life identify five important points food packages fail to reveal:

When Roy Weber first moved into his Ridgewood Colonial, the recently divorced father of two couldn't have told you what his design preferences were. "I'd never really thought much about decorating," admits Weber, 66, a lecturer at Rutgers Business School.

"Nothing is more the child of art than a garden," said Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott. Indeed, with a hefty assist from Mother Nature, every garden possesses a unique, ethereal beauty-and Bergen boasts a wealth of private plots bursting with inspiration. Read on for an inside look at three, plus helpful tips from the Bergenites who tend them.