Scenting your home can transform the tone and feel of your living space, without the cost of a home refurb or stress of extensive DIY.
Ambient scenting can help humble spaces impress guests, help you unwind after a long day, and soothe social frictions in a shared living space.
Above all, scenting a space will transform it into your home. Here’s how to make your home smell good, room by room.
Scenting Your Living Room
Your living room is where you entertain guests, relax after a long day, and make cherished memories. As a central communal space, for household members and guests alike, the living room is one of the best ways to scent your home.
The quickest room freshener idea is to simply spray scent into the corners of your room. This is ideal for short and last minute visits to your home. Your perfume will gradually and evenly release from each corner into the room, whereas spraying it into the centre of the room could make guests choke and make you look unprepared.
When hoovering a carpeted room, you can make your room smell like a hotel. Lightly dusting your carpet with a perfume powder before hoovering (using baking powder as your base powder) will deodorise and renew. Your carpet’s subtle new scent will be perfect for perfumed entertaining or self-care days.
Potpourri coated in signature scent can make your living room smell like a hotel. Dried flowers and herbs can combine with your scent, adding new dimensions to your scent and aesthetics to your space. Potpourri paper or improvised scrap can add a rustic charm to your room on a budget.
Another creative idea is to repurpose perfume bottles as home decor. Fill them with scented oils or reed diffusers to infuse your space with your favourite fragrances. Paint your perfume bottles, or fill them with fire glass, to add colour highlights to your living room table or windowsill.
Scenting Your Kitchen & Dining Room
The kitchen is the heart of the home, where delicious meals are prepared and shared. But it's also a place where odours can linger. Combat unwanted smells by incorporating DIY home fragrances into your cleaning routine.
A perfumed cleaning tip is a DIY scented cleaning fluid. This can be as simple as adding fragrance to a water bottle spray with a little washing up liquid, or adding baking soda and citric acid for something stronger. When you clean, your surfaces will be freed from muck and grime and imparted with a familiar smell.
You can add perfume to fresh mop water to impart a subtle scent onto your kitchen floor for slow and even release throughout the room. As most kitchens have extractor fans, this is less wasteful alternative to simply spraying your scent in the air.
Scented potpourri could be the centrepiece of your dining table.
Don't forget to place room fresheners strategically to maintain a pleasant atmosphere while cooking and dining. When the liquid in your room freshener runs out, consider refilling with your signature scent to keep you company while you cook.
Scenting Your Bathroom
With the right scenting strategy you will have your own spa at home, helping you feel relaxed and rejuvenated.
Remember that scented baking soda carpet powder we mentioned? It’s also a bath bomb. Sprinkle some in your bath water to add a silky and fizzy texture to your bath water. The baking soda in your perfume powder can help soothe skin irritation and infection, making your scented bath ritual both relaxing and therapeutic.
If you prefer bubble bath or bath salts, simply add a few drops of perfume to your water for a similar effect.
To keep your space clean and fresh, and impress guests in your home, you can add your favourite scent to a homemade toilet and bathroom cleaner. Simply add this to an unscented cleaner, or make your own with baking soda and citric acid.
To add ambience and aesthetics to your toilet or bathroom, consider turning your scent into a reed diffuser or add an essential oil diffuser.
Scenting Your Bedroom
Fragrance for linens and can help you sleep and relax by adding a soothing and freshening effect when you get into bed. Simply add spray your valance or fitted sheet, as well as the underside of your duvet. You’ll wake up refreshed, and covered in your favourite perfume.
For meditation and mindfulness consider an essential oil diffuser for aromatherapy at home. A scent necklace can help you take this mindfulness with you when you leave your home.
For fragrance in small places, and surprise pops of slow release scent, consider putting scented potpourri or cotton balls inside your bedroom closet or drawer. This will help your clothes and documents stay fresh, greeting you with a subtle aroma when used. For sensitive fabrics, this reduces the risk of spraying your clothes with scent directly.
The scent you choose for your bedroom can serve different functions. A familiar, calming scent may be best for you or your child’s room at bedtime. A clarifying scent may be help you be mindful for meditation. To foster intimacy with your partner, a warm and subtle scent may be best. A luxurious scent could help welcome and impress guests in your spare room.
Scenting Your Home Office
You can use perfume in your home office to boost focus and release stress. Choose a fresh, sharp scent to stay alert and productive, or a casual perfume to calm your nerves before a big meeting (they can’t smell it online). Spray your papers to keep entertained and organised during extensive admin. Use a reed diffuser or air diffuser for a set it and forget it approach.
Scenting Your Home Safely & Sociably
Consideration should also be given to air quality for the people and pets who may enter your home, as well as how the dimensions of your home can affect home scenting.
Home Scenting with Children, Pets and People with Allergies & Smell Sensitivity
Children can be more sensitive to perfumes than a human adult, so it’s important to research what is in your perfume and go slow when it comes to scenting.
Many pets smell differently than we do, and some ingredients in perfume can be toxic for certain species. For example, pets may have sensitivities to certain fragrances
Individuals in your household with allergies or smell sensitivity may need to opt for hypoallergenic or unscented products.
Scenting Enclosed Spaces & Large Rooms
When scenting small rooms, start with small amounts of perfume and work your way up. To maintain air quality, take care to always ensure your room has access to good ventilation.
When scenting large rooms, you may need a larger amount of scent for even coverage. If your supply is limited consider a weaker or localised scent release strategy, such as potpourri or carpet powder.
Regardless of room size, you should always be considerate of guests when scenting a room. Too much of a good thing can offend personal tastes, and even be unsafe or distressing for guests with conditions such as asthma or hyperosmia.
Responsible Usage & Disposal
Always prioritise safe and eco-friendly perfume practices to minimise environmental impact and ensure the well-being of your household.
Conclusion
The art of scenting your home is simple yet transformative. With a few simple changes, this can be done both quickly and safely. Be mindful of why you want to scent your home, and how home scenting may affect the health and wellbeing of your household and guests.
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