Daryna Tobey

Before joining the Bob Vila team as a deputy editor, Daryna was an independent writer and editor whose work appeared on such websites as Fortune.com, Eater, Food52, and Time.com. Prior to starting her own writing and editing business, she was the site manager and editor of Gannett’s parenting website, MomsLikeMe.com, and a contributor to The Journal News, the local Gannett newspaper.

As an editor in Reader’s Digest’s books division for home and garden/health and wellness, Daryna spearheaded home-improvement titles such as “Save $20,000 With a Nail: More Than 1,900 Practical Tips for a Problem-Free Home.” As a senior editor and tasting panelist for Wine Enthusiast Magazine, she wrote and edited articles on wine, food, and travel, and evaluated more than 1,500 wines a year. She has also taught writing, literature, and critical reading courses at New York University and for Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth, where she received an outstanding instructor nomination.

Daryna has lived in a 1930s Cape Cod fixer-upper for over a decade and has endured two down-to-the-studs bathroom renovations, a gut kitchen renovation, septic field repair, Hardie Board siding installation, and a host of other major improvements, and happily takes on less- involved DIYs herself. Though an avid gardener—one who is adept at growing Hatch chile peppers, heirloom tomatoes, and other veggies—she can’t seem to keep apple trees or cilantro alive, no matter how hard she tries.