A Scent For All Seasons

Candles are an easy, inexpensive way to decorate your home for every season. Whether your style is fresh and fun or sensual and exotic, candles help you convey your personality, and enjoy yourself - every time you walk into a room! Scented candles are wonderful because they don't even have to be lit to make a room smell wonderful.

In bathrooms and walkways candles are especially fragrant, even when unlit, because these areas tend to be small. Candles come in all sizes and shapes to further complement your decor. In this article, I'd like to discuss some ways you can decorate your entire home every season with beautiful, fragrant candles.

Candles look great nestled inside decorations right by the entrance to a home. Try making a seasonal arrangement on top of some mirror or glass - for example, snow men or carolers in the winter, and vintage rabbits and eggs around Easter time – and then arrange your candle collection in with your arrangement. This would be especially cute with some sparkle-y snow sprinkled in, or some of that bright, cheerful plastic grass used to stuff children's Easter baskets. Be careful with fire around flammable objects, though. When you utilize your scented candles in arrangements like this, you may not want to actually light the candles. Wick-free candles that scent a room utilizing a warmer, are another option for a safe, no-fuss way to scent your home.

Candles look wonderful tucked into bookshelves. It's a great way to break up the line of book after book after book - turn three or four books over on their side to make a space for your candle, and then place it directly into the bookshelf. I also love to put a big selection of tall candles on stands inside my fireplace. This is a great, unexpected way to display holiday candles. It's chic and effortless, too - perfect in the summertime, when the last thing you want is a real fire.

Candles add something really special to a meal, too. Try having a theme dinner with one or two scented candles on the table or in the room. Be careful to select candles which complement the taste of the meal or which are unobtrusive. The end result will be like icing on an already delicious cake!

To decorate your house with seasonal scents, it can be fun to theme rooms differently, or to use complementary scents to create a sort of "candle potpourri." In wintertime, try refreshing mint scents in the bathroom to perk yourself up - mint is great in the living room, too, to stimulate conversation. Winterberry scents and cinnamon are a delicious highlight to this note as well, and of course apple pie is a perennial favorite for its homey-ness.

In the spring-time, try fresh, light scents, like green grass, cotton, or apple. You'll be surprised by what a difference this makes in your mood as you move throughout the house – cinnamon and apple pie are always wonderful scents in the home, but when the weather gets warm and the sun is shining, sometimes they can feel a little too heavy.

Don't forget to use candles for seasonal gifts, too! Everyone loves a delicious, charmingly packaged candle, and you can find candles to fit any budget. Great for co-workers or your children's friends, or even as a little reward to yourself, scented candles are the perfect way to make your house a delightful home.

Janice Oliver is a home decor consultant and content contributor for candleluxury.com, a shopping destination for Votivo Candles and hundreds of other scented accessories in the Candle Luxury line.

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