Though we can do our best to keep our homes clean by vacuuming, dusting, and mopping the floors regularly, doing these things doesn’t necessarily make our homes smell good. Cleaners often have strong, unnatural scents, and air fresheners aren’t always better.
Many people dislike air fresheners because the scents are too perfumy and can even lead to headaches. Not only that, but some people also prefer to avoid the chemicals aerosol fresheners are made with. Luckily, you can DIY your own natural room freshening spray, and it’s super easy.
You’ll only need a handful of materials, and you may even save money by making your own room spray. Though some essential oils can be expensive upfront, you’ll be able to make several room sprays before you use up a bottle, which may mean long-term savings.
Even if this weren’t the case, these DIY room sprays smell so much more delightful than store-bought options that they’re worth every penny.
Materials Needed to Make DIY Room Sprays
The materials you’ll need to make your own room spray are the same for every recipe, aside from the choice of essential oil. Here’s what you’ll need:
- 8oz spray bottle
- Essential oils
- 6 tbsp distilled water
- 2 tbsp alcohol, vanilla extract, vodka, or witch hazel
You’ll notice for the final ingredient that we’ve offered a number of choices. First of all, the point of adding alcohol, witch hazel, or the like is to help the essential oils combine with the water. In the case of alcohol, it’ll also help your spray dry faster, so it doesn’t leave surfaces wet.
Which option you choose may depend on what you already have on hand or what is easiest for you to obtain. Rubbing alcohol certainly works, but be aware that it may add to the scent of your spray. Some people can’t tell, but others prefer to use a different ingredient or to use perfumer’s alcohol.
Vanilla will most certainly add to your spray’s scent profile, but if you’re a fan of vanilla, then this is a good thing. Vodka and witch hazel don’t have strong scents and are the least likely to affect the smell of your room spray.
Instructions for Making Your DIY Room Spray
As with the materials you’ll need, the instructions for these room sprays are essentially the same, so rather than repeating them for every recipe, we’ll only share them here. As you can probably guess, creating a room spray is a straightforward process.
In fact, there are just three simple steps.
1. Add the Ingredients
Pour all of your ingredients into your spray bottle. The order doesn’t really matter. If needed, you can use a funnel to help prevent spills.
2. Shake
Simply shake the bottle to combine all the ingredients.
3. Spray
Spray your concoction to test its potency. You might decide that you want the smell to be stronger, in which case you just have to add more essential oil. If it’s too strong, you can dilute the mixture with more water.
The nice thing about DIY room sprays is that they can be made exactly to your preference. Some people will prefer lightly scented sprays, whereas others will want something strong. Remember to shake the bottle before each use in case the oil separates from the water.
DIY Room Spray Recipes
To help get you inspired, we’ve gathered our favorite DIY room spray recipes for you to try out.
Simple Single-Scent Spray
While there are a number of lovely blends that you can make with essential oils, it’s always good to start simple. Pick out your favorite scent to be the star of this DIY room spray.
We personally love citrus scents like lemon essential oil or orange essential oil, but this can be anything you want it to be!
Ingredients:
- 30 drops of your favorite essential oil
Scintillating Citrus Spray
Citrus scents are bright and uplifting. They’re said to be able to help improve one’s mood and even give a little energy to those that may be feeling sluggish.
Because there are so many types of citrus essential oils available, we’d like to share two different blends of citrus room sprays. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your favorite citrus oils to make your own!
Citrus Blend 1
- 15 drops orange essential oil
- 10 drops grapefruit essential oil
- 10 drops lemon essential oil
Citrus Blend 2
- 5 drops orange essential oil
- 5 drops grapefruit essential oil
- 5 drops lemon essential oil
- 5 drops lime essential oil
Calming Chamomile and Lavender Spray
It probably comes as no surprise that the oils we’d recommend for a relaxing room spray include chamomile and lavender. Chamomile tea is a staple when it comes to relaxation as is lavender anything (there are countless “relaxation” sprays, lotions, candles, etc. that use lavender). When inhaled, chamomile has been found to reduce stress hormones.
We recommend using vanilla extract instead of witch hazel or alcohol in this particular blend. The hint of vanilla is a very pleasant addition to the chamomile and lavender. If you’re looking for a room spray that smells nice and helps you relax, then this is the spray for you. You can even spray it on your pillow before bed if you’d like.
Ingredients:
- 15 drops lavender essential oil
- 10 drops chamomile essential oil
Cold and Sinus Soothing Spray
If you’re feeling a little under the weather, this is the room spray you’ll want to go to.
The main ingredients are eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils, which are soothing when one is experiencing the symptoms of a cold, allergies, or sinuses — anything that makes you stuffy or gives you a sore throat. In fact, eucalyptus has even been shown to help those suffering from bronchitis.
Ingredients:
- 15 drops eucalyptus essential oil
- 10 drops peppermint essential oil
Floral Spray
Flowers brighten up a room and can leave it smelling wonderful if they’re potent enough. However, they only last two weeks at most and often are rather expensive to buy at the store. Even if you have your own garden, many of the most vibrant-smelling flowers only bloom for a specific period of time and will not be available to you year-round.
Therefore, a great way to get a natural floral smell in your home is by making your own room spray out of floral essential oils. Our favorites are geranium and ylang-ylang as they have sweet scents that aren’t too perfumy.
Adding citrus to the mix can help balance the scents and provide a touch of fruitiness. This blend includes grapefruit essential oil, but other citruses, like lemon or orange, would work great as well.
For this recipe, you may also prefer to use vanilla extract instead of witch hazel or alcohol if you enjoy florals mixed with vanilla.
Ingredients:
- 15 drops geranium essential oil
- 10 drops ylang ylang essential oil
- 5 drops grapefruit essential oil
Spicy Holiday Spray
If you love the colder months of fall and winter and all the holidays that come with them, then this is the room spray for you.
The orange essential oil keeps things bright and fresh while cinnamon is a staple of the holidays and holds nostalgia for many. Cinnamon and clove together bring out the spice we often associate with the holiday season.
The warm notes of vanilla are also a pleasant touch for this spray. Therefore, we recommend you use vanilla extract as your mixing agent instead of alcohol or witch hazel.
Ingredients:
- 10 drops orange essential oil
- 10 drops cinnamon essential oil
- 10 drops clove essential oil
Woodland-Getaway Room Spray
For those of you who are outdoorsy and love woodsy scents, this is the perfect room spray. Pine and cedar essential oils provide a woodland aroma while lavender diversifies the scent with its warmth. Adding in spearmint gives a crisp, refreshing note to the spray.
These oils come together to make you feel as if you’ve escaped to a woodland getaway.
Ingredients:
- 10 drops pine essential oil
- 10 drops cedarwood essential oil
- 10 drops lavender essential oil
- 10 drops spearmint drops essential oil
Pet Safety When Using Room Sprays
As delicious as these room sprays smell, not every member of your household is going to agree with them. If you’ve ever dabbled in essential oils before, then you may have heard that some oils are not safe for your pets. In fact, they can even be toxic enough to result in a trip to the vet.
Therefore, it’s important for you to research the oils you’re interested in using in your sprays. Dogs and cats are the most common household pets, and they are not sensitive to the same oils. Some oils bother cats but don’t bother dogs, and vice versa. Other pets may have altogether different reactions to oils as well.
In some cases, oils that are dangerous to pets when ingested are okay when inhaled. This is because essential oils are extremely concentrated extracts of plants. When used in room sprays, they are diluted with water and the amount going into the air is comparatively negligible to the undiluted contents of the bottle.
Either way, be sure to keep essential oils stored where pets can’t get into them.
DIY Room Sprays: Natural, Refreshing, Personalized
DIY room sprays are a great way to create a scent that is personal to you and meets your preferences to a T. In the long run, they can even be cheaper than buying air fresheners at the store because one bottle of essential oil can make several bottles of DIY room spray. This is especially true if you opt for cheaper brands of oils like Nature’s Truth.
Homemade room sprays tend to smell much more natural, too, and they don’t have any harsh chemicals. If you find store-bought air fresheners to be too heavy or perfumy, then making your own is definitely the way to go. Just make sure that the oils you choose for your room sprays are safe for any pets that live in your household.