Project

Potpourri

Bring the outdoors inside with this easy homemade potpourri. Using flowers, herbs, and leaves foraged from the garden, plus your favorite essential oil, you can give a natural, long-lasting aroma to your home.

Photography: Kara Whitten

Source: Martha Stewart

Introduction

This idea comes from our friend Kara Whitten of A Kailo Chic Life. "This wild foraged potpourri can be used in sachets in your drawer for a longer lasting potpourri or in bowls in your bathroom or bedside table," she says. "Since most essential oils are volatile, you may need to add more drops every few weeks to keep the fragrance long lasting."

In a potpourri mixture, essential oils are used to reinforce the natural scent of your ingredients. Most essential oils are volatile, which means they are likely to evaporate over the span of a few hours or days, leaving the potpourri with no fragrance. The fixative absorbs and preserves the scent, preventing this rapid evaporation. Some examples of a fixative include orris root powder, frankincense, sandalwood bark, or dry lavender—all of which can be found at your local health food and herbal store.

For more ideas, scroll through our entire collection of aromatherapy crafts.

materials

Assorted flowers, herbs, and leaves

Essential oil

Orris root, lavender blooms, cinnamon sticks, cloves, or any other fixative

Baking sheet

Parchment paper

steps

Collect flowers, herbs, and leaves by foraging from around your home, garden, or communal neighborhood garden.
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Spread out foraged greenery in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and bake for 1 hour to dry out the petals and leaves.
Toss the dried flowers with a fixative. (Note: For this potpourri, we used lavender flowers.) Add a few drops of essential oil to the potpourri mixture and toss to coat.