Smells like Home
Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.
Helen Keller
Every home has a smell. You know it… the one you’ve gone “nose-blind” to, as Febreze so famously put it. But there’s that smell when you walk into a space that’s distinctly… it. Luxury hotels know this and pipe it through the air vents to ensure a particular scent that invites a particular feeling. And it makes you want to spend hundreds of dollars to bring it home with you.
My home’s natural musk leans toward something like wet dog, baseball equipment, and whatever mysterious musk teenage boys seem to produce simply by existing, with some base notes of leftover pizza.
But it’s not for lack of trying. I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time thinking about what my house should smell like, and dreaming it smells like something other than dog sweat. This is either a sign of excellent priorities or of someone who desperately needs another hobby. The jury is still out.
Scents matter, though. Think about your grandparents’ house, your childhood best friend’s house – one of the first things that comes to mind is how it smelled. You can distinctly remember it, even decades later.
When my children are grown and remember our house, I do not want them to think “Eau de Locker Room.” I want them to think of home, comfort, and freshness.
I used to just pick out a lot of candles and hope that would do the trick, but it just wasn’t quite what I was looking for. So I set out on a years-long quest to create the Hawthorn House signature scent. More of a side quest, really, since I spent the time testing scents instead of doing other things like laundry and spreadsheets.
Being a history student is something I will never outgrow, so I naturally did some research. The ancient Egyptians understood smells, perhaps because it was pre-indoor plumbing. They burned kyphi—a fragrant blend of honey, wine, resin, and spices—not only in temples but also in their homes. The Greeks perfumed rooms with herbs gathered from the garden. Medieval households scattered lavender, rosemary, and sweet herbs across stone floors so that every footstep released their fragrance into the room. The Victorians filled their homes with beeswax polish, fresh flowers, and simmering pots of citrus and spice because they believed a gracious home should delight every sense. And also because there was no indoor plumbing.
But that’s the type of feeling I wanted our home to have – something that is uniquely us. And years from now when my boys smell grapefruit and cinnamon and cedar and old books, they think of home.
It’s taken years to really nail down the scent I’ve been looking for but have finally found it.
I started with all of my favorite scents – I like things that are grounded and earthy, not floral or sickly sweet. Citrus makes me think of clean, and cinnamon and clove feel like something is baking in the oven. The white tea and pine give it the outdoorsy freshness I love. Tobacco and cedar because everything should smell like a library.
If your home had a signature scent, what story would it tell?
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