Scent-Scape your home in Summer

Lately our homes have been our whole world. Transformed from the places we live into multi-functional spaces that had to serve as an office, schoolroom, outside dining venue for family or friends in your 'bubble' and (hopefully) an area you could chill-out in, too.

That's a lot of heavy lifting on our surroundings, and it's been difficult to set boundaries. The weather is (finally!) warming up in the U.K., and some restrictions are lifting. But we're still not travelling or living as we used to, and the way we're using fragrance in our homes is changing, too.

Maxine Brady is an interior stylist, designer, TV presenter and lifestyle blogger. She recently worked with British-based fragrance house Floral Street during the launch of their new home fragrance collection. Maxine has long used scented candles as part of her interior design - for shows such as Grand Designs, Kirsty's Homemade Home, George Clarke's Amazing Spaces and This Morning. She reveals that, according to John Lewis, during the end of 2020 and the first half of this year, "the average online searches for home scents went up by 600%. For diffusers, the searches were up by over 1000%."

But Maxine feels during summer people often struggle to use home fragrance as naturally as they might in colder months. "Using home fragrance allows me to bring all seasons into the houses I decorate," she explains. Her so-clever tips offer fragrance solutions no matter the band of home scents you choose or what the weather's doing. But we think these are particularly useful if you're stuck in the mindset that scented candles should only be dusted off when you bring out your winter woollies. Don't miss out on the wonderful ways that home fragrance can transform your space this summer.

As Maxine says: "Scented candles and diffusers also allow us to transfer from a workspace feel to a more homely scape. It's a very clever way to balance our mental health as well as making our homes small beautiful - all year 'round..."

Summer Styling Tip 1

"Aroma can mark the changing seasons - fresher sunny scents in summer, and warmer woodier scents in colder seasons. Regularly changing those scents and bringing them into your house really helps stop one day blending into another."

Summer Styling Tip 2

"Use your nose as well as your eyes to decorate your home. Perhaps a hallway is where you put a lovely diffuser to welcome your guests and having it always smell gorgeous? As a decorating tool, home scents are a clever way to bring up & coming trends into your home without changing all the furnishings."

Summer Styling Tip 3

"Create an indoor garden feel with home fragrance. We know house plants have become incredibly important during the pandemic, a flow between your garden and indoors, or creating a garden feel if you don't have one. Dot unscented mini plants and succulents around a diffuser to bring the feeling of nature. You can reuse empty scented candle containers as plant pots or the diffusers as vases."

Summer Styling Tip 4

"Press the reset button with the power of scent. After a busy and stressful day, it can be hard to mark a line between weekdays and your weekends. Reclaim your home and say 'the weekend starts now' with home fragrance. Clear away work things, laptops from tables, shove the kids toys in a box and light a candle as a scene-setter and mood re-setter."