New Ways To Make The House Smell Good

Potpourri—that is, in its most classic form—is a thing of the past, according to in-the-know home goods salespeople.

Last week, Residence visited two home goods stores in Bridgehampton Commons to learn what up-to-date products East Enders are using to keep their houses smelling their best.

Williams-Sonoma coordinator Jennifer Fowkes says it’s as simple as filling a home with feel-good aromas.

“What makes people happy? Food makes people happy,” she said, gesturing around the store. “People walk in here and say, ‘Oh my gosh, it smells just like my grandmother’s kitchen.’”

And the effect is easily achieved without baking a single dish, she said. Pour water and vanilla into a French porcelain bowl, stick it in the oven with a stick of cinnamon, and heat it to produce a baking scent—a perfect move for realtors and builders, she added.

“My husband’s a builder, and we were selling a house that we were living in at one point, and a prospective buyer came in and she said, ‘Oh my gosh, it smells delicious in here,’” Ms. Fowkes said. “And my husband said, ‘We’re baking an apple pie.’ And meanwhile, we literally had a little pot on the stove with just some cinnamon and spices going. She bought the house, and to this day, she thinks that we were baking an apple pie.”

For an even more convenient approach, the store also carries Mulling Spices—a blend of orange peel, apple, clove, cinnamon, allspice and berries—explained general manager Shari Courbois. Simmer the spices on a stove top with water for an autumn aroma, she said.

“Honestly, it just makes your house smell lovely in the fall,” she said. “It really gets you excited about the weather, the change in the weather.”

A 6-ounce tin costs $10.95, and should last the season, Ms. Courbois reported.

“It doesn’t take much,” she said. “It’s meant for seeping and it will make the strongest scent when you do it that way. I guess you could do sachets and put it in a drawer, but it sends more smells out if you simmer it.”

Across the plaza in Salty Home, owner Jessica de Kerillis offered traditional alternatives to rose-petal potpourri, she said, including candles, diffusers and decorative fragrances—a twist on the classic home fragrance.

Ms. de Kerillis said that her customers source out the store’s Trapp candles. Popular scents include Bob’s Flower Shoppe, Orange Vanilla and Water.

“When I say they’re the best, they’re truly the best,” she said. “And they’re not super expensive, compared to those other candles that you buy and they don’t smell. These have an incredible aroma, even when they’re not burning. It’s intense, but not headache intense.”

The large, 7-ounce candles, which burn for about 50 hours, cost $22. The 20-hour votive candles run $3.50 a piece.

“You would think you wouldn’t get so much scent from a votive, but you really do,” she said. “You really get a lot of bang for your buck.”

Of the countless testers Ms. de Kerillis has received in the mail, she decided to carry just under a dozen scents of Aromatique brand diffusers. A kit, which includes a decorative bottle, sticks and oil, costs about $26. The 4-ounce refill oils are $12.50.

The same diffuser scents run in the decorative fragrance line, Ms. de Kerillis explained.

“This isn’t your average potpourri,” she said.

Each collection features bold pieces, from seashells to fake flowers, which are fragranced with specially blended oils and can be made into decorative arrangements that are a far cry from typical potpourri.

“It’s actually like having an arrangement of flowers in your house,” Ms. de Kerillis said of the Flowers of the Field collection.

Like the diffuser kits, the potpourri utilizes refresher oils, which can be sprinkled on top. They cost about $8. The original potpourri packages typically run from $14 to $22, Ms. de Kerillis said.

“I had a store in Florida, and when we were closing and moving here, we had people saying that their potpourri still lasted from when we first opened, and that was a little more than five years,” she said.

The most popular collection on the East End is Splendor in the Bath, a combination of seashells, sand dollars and starfish scented with an ocean breeze aroma, according to Ms. de Kerillis. That particular scent costs $10.

The store just received its holiday shipment, Ms. de Kerillis said as she deeply inhaled the Smell of Christmas package.

“It really is exactly what it says,” she breathed out. “It’s real cinnamon in there.”

If the scent is too much in one area, Ms. de Kerillis recommends splitting the bag up into different rooms.

“Depending on the space and the ventilation, you can choose what’s right,” she said. “If it’s a small bathroom, it might be too much. But this really is the quality brand. It lasts and it’s gorgeous. It saturates the room without being too overwhelming.”