Combine nature and elegance to transform home
Combine nature and elegance to transform home

Adding a touch of casual luxury can be as easy as adding an unexpected accessory to a traditional room or simplifying a room by removing excess items. When deciding how to add that element of elegance to your home, you first must find your own vision of casual luxury.

To Gina Bruno-Dunn, buyer for Bruno's Home Furnishings, casual luxury means comfortable, warm rooms that invite you to relax with friends and a glass of wine.

"Most homes these days are very casual,” she said. "In the past, when we were kids, everyone had this formal living area that no one sat in. You don't see that much anymore. They have turned into more entertaining rooms.”

She loves to mix unexpected accessories to make a room "pop.”

"If you have your Grandma's old bedroom suite and you don't want to part with it because it has sentimental value, well, you paint your walls, let's say a cool Tiffany blue color, and you buy a really cool bed ensemble and some really cool crystal modern lamps. How cool would that room look? You would go in there and go ‘Wow!'” she said.

To Marc Vassallo, author of "The Barefoot Home,” casual luxury is more a feeling than a decorating style. He likes to embrace things such as fresh air and sunlight in making a home "more casual, more open, more light, more connected to the outdoors.”

He recommends doing things such as installing big windows on a south-facing wall to track the arc of the sun through the day, even from inside. He suggests stringing up a hammock — inside. He said you can add a sense of tranquillity by getting rid of half the furniture in a room. Another idea is to create an outdoor living space or meditation room in a garage or garden shed.

"Even one or two small things can make a difference,” he said. "The key is to let yourself off the hook and do what feels relaxed to you.”

Vassallo said casual luxury is elegance achieved without apparent fuss.

"It's letting things be what they are and honoring them for their true nature, not gilding over everything,” he said. "A serene, pale orange wall of softly troweled plaster with the sun hitting it just right is casual in its simplicity, luxurious in the richness of its texture.”

Here are several tips from Vassallo and Bruno-Dunn to transform your home from casual everyday to casual elegance without hiring a designer and starting from scratch.

•Embrace the sun. Make your windows and doors really big, with lots of glass. Let sunlight pour in through clerestories, skylights and transom windows.

•Live outside as well as in. Open whole walls to the outdoors, extend the roof outward, let the floor slip seamlessly outside to become a deck. Cook and eat on the patio, build a fire in an outdoor fireplace, take a nap in a hanging bed on the porch.

•Listen to the rain. Replace the downspouts hanging from your gutters with rain chains. The next time rain falls, go outside and listen to the chains sing.

•Embrace the unexpected. Design today is eclectic, so mixing decorating styles and trends is a great way to add an element of casual luxury to a room. Blend a traditional bedroom suite with contemporary accents for a stylish twist.

•Paint the town, or just a wall in your living room. A coat of paint can make a huge difference in your room's fashion statement. Whether you choose a pale yellow or green on all the walls or a fiery red on one main wall, paint is an easy and affordable way to add interest to a boring room.

•Go metallic. Since furniture trends tend to follow fashion and jewelry trends, warm metal tones are where it's at this year. Changing dated brass fixtures to a brushed bronze or pewter finish can update a room instantly.

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