Video: Thom Filicia has a summer decor tip for you: lighten up!

It's officially Summer!  Get inspired by the sunny season and lighten up your home.  From your sun room to your living room, here are some easy and simple tips for a chic summer with a few sustainable touches because being "green" is always in style.  

Who better than Thom Filicia, design expert, author and Emmy Award-winning TV personality, to help us with tips and techniques to bring summer into our homes while being responsibly green!

Thom's Summer Tips Include:

 ˇ         Refinish, Repurpose or Recycle: One of the easiest and most economical ways to freshen up a room in an eco-thoughtful way is to refinish or recycle an older piece of furniture with a splash of VOC-free paint.

ˇ          'Lighten' the mood around your home.  Create your own light source and set the mood by repurposing a wine bottle to create a glass lamp featuring an energy-efficient light bulb. While CFLs may immediately come to mind, try SYLVANIA's halogen SUPERSAVER light bulbs. They replace commonly-used 40, 60 and 100-watt incandescents in the home, feature a traditional shape and don't contain any mercury!

ˇ         Create an indoor garden for color and recipes. Take an old wooden box, paint it (or leave as is) and plant a layer of wheatgrass seeds or herbs. Water and place near the window and within a few days you'll have the perfect dose of country-chic in the middle of your home!

ˇ         Bring the Outdoors.  Look for beautiful dried branches, drift wood, interesting stones and flowers to bring a nature-inspired elegance to your décor.  Just fill glass jars, vases or bowls and place around the home.

ABOUT THOM FILICIA No living, working designer can include a list of credentials as diverse and fascinating as these:  One of House Beautiful's Top 100 Designers and House & Garden's Top 50 Tastemakers for 2006.  An Emmy Award for a breakout, standout TV show.  Appearances on Oprah, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Ellen DeGeneres and The View.  Host and the driving force behind the Style Network's Dress My Nest and Tacky House. Thom Filicia-fresh, vibrant and extremely accessible, has achieved all this and much more.  Before Thom came into the public eye with his first television role as the design guru on the ground breaking series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, he was an emerging superstar of interior design with a prolific and respected New York City practice, Thom Filicia Inc (TFI). Founded in 1998 TFI clients include high profile celebrities, international luxury hotel chains, and prestigious clientele in the fashion, entertainment, media, real estate and finance industries.  An environmentally conscious designer for the past 10 years, Thom received a Bachelor of Interior Design at Syracuse University's School of Art and Design and has worked at the most venerable firms in NYC including Parish-Hadley, Robert Metzger and Jeffrey Bilhuber.