Follow these tips and get your home smelling as good as it looks.
There’s a certain something – appealing and luxurious - about walking into a home that smells sensational. And when it’s your home it’s even better. Fragrance has the power to lift a mood in an instant – or kill it! – so factor it in as a must-have accessory in your home, and set out to greet yourself with a sweet scent each time you open the door.
Open up
It may seem obvious but many people don’t open all the doors and windows on a daily basis. Even if it’s just for a few minutes, a dose of fresh (and free) air will instantly replace the stale air and refresh your home – making it healthier too.
Herbs and flowers
While weekly bunches of sweet smelling flowers throughout the home can challenge the budget, planting fragrant herbs and flowers in strategic places is a more lasting investment. Try wild rosemary, lavender or mint right outside doors and creeping forms of mint or thyme as groundcover along paths and between pavings so that when you approach the home or brush past these plants their perfume is released. Think also about creepers and other scented plants which perfume the air such as indigenous jasmine, wisteria, wild camphor and buchu with its wonderful fynbos fragrance.
Essential oils
Essential oils are a relatively cost effective way of introducing aroma into a home. They can be used with burners in places where they are not a fire hazard. They can also be used with reed diffusers. (Refill an existing diffuser with a blend of essential oils of your own choice or make your own reed diffuser by adding a mix of essential oils to an empty perfume bottle along with a few thin dowel sticks.) Essential oils can also simply be dropped into a jar of salts or petals (in a bathroom for example) or into a bowl of hot water. Use them also to trick your loo sweet by popping a few drops on the cardboard tube inside a toilet roll. Every time the roll is used the fragrance is released. The choice of which aromatic oils to use or blend is both personal and seasonal but good ones to consider are mandarin, vanilla, eucalyptus, mint, gardenia, rose, tuberose and lavender.
Scented candles
Quality scented candles tend to be pricey, but are great for using when guests are expected – dot a few in strategic places such as the entrance and guest bathroom. Alternatively make your own by adding a few drops of essential or fragrance oil to the wax pool in an already burning candle. Sweet beeswax and vanilla scented candles have a warm and inviting fragrance while fresh smells such as citrus give even the plainest spaces a bit of sparkle.
Cook up a storm
While the scent of freshly baked goods and just brewed coffee is always a winner, one can’t always be baking. Simmer water in a small pot, and add cinnamon sticks, cloves and orange or lemon zest for a subtly warming scent, or combine citrus slices with herbs such as lavender and mint for a fresher feel.
