Do you want to establish an appealing scent in your home that reflects your personality? It's an easy task that is affordable and rewarding.

To begin this fragrant adventure, you will need to establish a specific smell goal for your home. Things to consider are: do you want a permanent scent or a seasonal fragrance; a feminine smell like fresh cut roses or something more masculine like woodland aromas; something homey like pecan pie or freshly baked apple crumble or something free spirited like the seaside; or something seasonal like Christmas Hollyberry.

Once you have chosen your scent, you need to establish the potency and its possible effects. Do you want an underlying scent throughout your home that is ever-present and inviting, or high potency in some rooms with a caution that it could affect some people with headaches or even encourage asthmatic reactions?

Reed Defusers: A great way to begin is to place reed defusers in one or two rooms of your home. These little glass bottles are filled with your chosen essence of oil and several reed sticks are put into the bottles to absorb the oil and defuse your fabulous scent. These attractive displays continue to infuse the air for months in both large and small rooms. Place one defuser on each level of your home and your entire home come alive with the fresh aroma of your favourite scent.

Votives, Wax Tarts, Aroma Warmers, Oil Lamps: These products will help enforce your chosen fragrance by renewing or adding to the underlying aroma of your home. The burners come in a large variety of styles and colours to suit almost every dcor. The products last for hours on end or can be burned for short periods, which will infuse the fragrance into the air for hours afterwards. These products are less expensive than the defuser and are very effective for many hours of use.

Plug-ins, Light Rings: These are ideal to continue the scent in the bathrooms or other small rooms. These products are self-regulated so you don't need to turn them on or off, and they last for about six weeks before you need a refill. They are relatively inexpensive and will aid in establishing your chosen scent throughout your home.

Air Fresheners and Sprays: These are ideal for that quick fix in the bathroom or change room, and help to enforce the attitude of your home fragrance at a low cost.

Incense: These sticks are inexpensive and will burn for many hours with their scent being quickly spread throughout your entire home. The challenge will be getting the incense to match the scent of your chosen home fragrance. While some complimentary scents could add to your basic scent, others could infuse a different fragrance into the rooms and ruin it. So, for those rooms that need that extra touch of fragrance, you might want to consider using any of the above suggestions for your fragrance rather than add a new one.

Potpourri: This is a beautiful attraction to any room as it emphasizes the attitude you are putting forth in your home scent. A periodic spray of the matching oil will freshen up the fragrance in the potpourri and help to maintain it as a fragranced centrepiece.

Silk Flowers: If your fragrance is floral, you can spray silk flowers with selected oil every couple days to bring the flowers alive with your chosen scent.

It is best to purchase quality products. They may cost more but will give you the most pleasant and longest lasting results.

Learn more about this author, Sara Bradley.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about How to control the scent of your home?
We want to hear your view. Write now!