Interior design should indulge as many of our senses as possible: hearing, vision, touch, and smell. When a space is designed with this intent, it can only then reach its full potential and satisfy people who live, work, or rest there.
Scientists state that smell is the most powerful link to our emotional system. However, it has often been overlooked. Only recently have people started to incorporate scents into their interior design features, and it has become a truly reasonable solution.
A scented area has the power to create a certain atmosphere and evoke particular emotions. So, choosing the right fragrance is just as important as picking the right furniture, textiles, artworks, and other features.
Introducing Scents to Your Home Environment
When choosing your perfect home fragrance, consider whether it will harmonize with its surroundings and stir the right emotions. The visual design sets up the mood and atmosphere, and the scent complements it.
People choose furniture, curtains, carpets, and other design features to match the colors of the walls, the house style, and the room sizes. When selecting the scents, there are many issues to consider. First of all, scents should perfectly harmonize with the already existing home fragrances. For instance, if you have kids or pets, choose a scent that won’t harm them. To eliminate nasty odors, pick a potent scent to cope with that task. Otherwise, you will not be able to smell the chosen scent at all.
Different Home Areas: Which Scent to Choose
At first, it may seem that scent diffusion throughout the house is easy, but, in fact, it is rather challenging. Let’s try to figure out what scents suit various home areas best.
Kitchen
Kitchens are usually associated with a mixture of scents, so clean and natural fragrances best complement kitchen spaces. It is essential to choose a scent that will not overwhelm the food environment, but still promote a feeling of freshness. Citrus and herbal scents like lemon, rosemary, basil, or mint are the best neutralizers of cooking odors. Unlike heavier or overly sweet fragrances, the kitchen-friendly scents evoke freshness, cleanliness, and a vibrant energy ideal for food-focused spaces.
Living Room
Living rooms are places where people socialize, communicate, and rest. That’s why warm, inviting, and balanced fragrances work best in these spaces. Sandalwood, amber, rose, and vanilla encourage comfort in the living room and allow people to unwind. Fragrances containing thyme and pine can stimulate conversation and boost a homey atmosphere. Living rooms are perfect for trying seasonal scents. Disperse cinnamon scent in winter or light floral scent in spring to give the room a unique ambiance.
Bedroom
A bedroom is associated with a retreat and calmness. It is a place where people come to forget daily stress and negative emotions, so bedroom fragrances should be warm and light. Lavender and jasmine scents are perfect matches for the bedroom as they boast relaxing and soothing properties. In addition to them, you may use ylang-ylang, vanilla, or sandalwood to create a cozy and tranquil atmosphere and prepare your body for sleep.
Bathroom
A bathroom provides a peaceful and serene atmosphere. That’s why the perfect scents for bathrooms evoke freshness and cleanness, ensure calmness and comfort, and, what is more, eliminate humidity and unpleasant odors. The list of suitable fragrances for bathrooms is quite long. It includes bergamot, lemon, grapefruit, eucalyptus, peppermint, rosemary, and lavender. All these scents have different purposes and pursue different goals, even if dispersed in the same room. Thus, eucalyptus and peppermint are great for morning routines, while lavender and rosemary ensure a perfect herbal scent bouquet for evening relaxation. Lemongrass is the best essential oil for neutralizing nasty bathroom odors.
Hallways&Corridors
Hallways and corridors should reflect a welcoming atmosphere and set the tone for the whole house or apartment without overwhelming the senses. At home, corridors and hallways usually ensure a refined and cozy feel, so people scent them with woody fragrances, such as cedarwood or sandalwood. By adding a citrus or herbal hint, you immediately create a balanced atmosphere for connecting entrance areas with the other spaces of your house.
Home Scent vs Interior Design: Expert Matches
Interior decor styles resonate with scents, making them essential for capturing attention, stimulating feelings, and building specific associations with the place. Here are some of the best design-scent combinations for enhancing the vibe you want to create.
Industrial Style
This design presents functionality as its key. It utilizes a range of materials with rough exteriors, including exposed bricks, unpolished metal, and even concrete. With its neutral colors, minimalist touches, and rigid features, it boasts a style, a tone, and trendiness. You’d better choose fragrances emphasizing spaciousness to accompany such a design with scent. White tea, bamboo, and burnt wood scents perfectly complement industrial design.
Eclectic Style
Eclectic style accentuates creativity and breaks traditional design rules. It boasts a mix of bright colors, styles, and creative zones to develop a stimulating atmosphere. Eclectic style is about maximalism, unconventional combinations, frank expressions, and uniqueness. Such interior design usually uses non-standard scent pairings, such as woody and citrus, floral and spicy notes, etc.
Art Deco Style
Art Deco boasts the combination of sophisticated materials, geometric shapes, mirror surfaces, and a deep color palette. In other words, this style reflects richness and elegance and requires the same scents. It is challenging to scent the room with such an interior using only one fragrance, but it is possible with a mix of them. Try amber, bergamot, and vanilla to uplift the atmosphere of the space.
Minimalist Style
This style is quite popular nowadays. It is ideal for everyone who appreciates openness and light and wants to avoid a mess. The minimalist style transmits a sense of tranquility and ease. It calls for fresh scents to accompany its airy and bright vibe. Citrus scents, bamboo, and lavender are top choices for scenting such areas.
Final Thoughts
Interior design goes hand in hand with scent. Together, they create an environment that tells a story about you, your life, and your dreams. It’s no secret that our home is an extension of our personality. Designing and scenting it is a multifaceted process, but knowing at least something about scent-design combinations can make the difference. Why not try?
