We often open the double doors onto the terrace and those at the opposite end of the house leading to a walled garden to let the canyon breezes flow through the house, bringing in the scent of ash juniper, rosemary, and sage. When the doors are closed some of this freshness remains, augmented with other scents to create a unique and personal olfactory experience.
We have several of these antique baskets and basket lids filled with dried lavender. Once a week we add a few drops of lavender essential oil to the mix. Lavender is commercially and privately grown in the Texas Hill Country. There is an annual festival of lavender each summer in Blanco, Texas. We chose to use dried lavender in our home for its clean and exotic scent and because lavender is a local product of the Texas Hill Country.
How you choose to create your home scent is very personal and can be completely uplifting.
The dried orange peel is left from a period of experimenting with making our own potpourri using dried evergreen sumac leaves and a variety of additives. To me, it looks almost like bits of the coral I saw on the island of Capri in Italy.
My attempts at making potpourri naturally never equaled the quality of the Santa Maria Novella potpourri. The Santa Maria Novella is a pharmacy founded in 1221 in Florence, Italy and opened to the public in 1612. The potpourri is made in terracotta vats using local plants. This is what inspired me to personalize potpourri making using our local plants, such as the evergreen sumac, a native on our land. Until such time as our potpourri is improved, it is a lovely experience to have the original Santa Maria Novella potpourri here at home!
When I first encountered this potpourri at a beautiful dress shop it enchanted me. The scent was a part of the experience of being in the store. It seems that a particular scent can be integral with a place. When we sold our home in Galveston, Texas the people who bought it asked us to share with them what home fragrance we used as they wanted the house to continue to have the same scent when they went there to live.
Here is a little invention of mine; a silver votive from Capri on top of a vintage silver candlestick from Galveston. The two are attached with Gorilla Mounting Putty. This makes me so happy as the votive reminds me of a trip to Italy with my sister and the candlestick of Saturday morning forays into Galveston to comb the vintage markets. Inside is a candle from Tina’s on the Strand in Galveston. The candle and associated products are also called Tina’s. This is a custom scent developed by them and one we have used in our home for many years.
When we lived in the loft in Houston, we met a man who was a master upholsterer. He came to our home to pick up our dining room chairs and the fabric for reupholstery. He loved the Tina’s scent so much he and his wife drove to Galveston the next weekend to purchase some. Others who passed our door in the hallway told me they loved walking by because to them, the almond and vanilla notes smelled like cookies baking. It is a special scent!
Design books are a great source of inspiration to me. The photos and text let me see how others live and often a single image provides me with an idea to enhance our environment.
Live Beautifulby Athena Calderone is special as she shows us her homes and writes about her decision-making related to their design. She has also chosen designers she admires and done the same sort of analysis with their homes.
She shared how she had a Jacque Adnet chestnut sideboard stripped and bleached to fit the color scheme she wanted in her home. To me, the bleaching of the sideboard brings out its detailed façade.
Athena Calderone revealed how she searched for tile online to replicate the look of the antique marble and travertine tile she had seen and loved for a more reasonable price. Her terrace is stunning and seems to express her personality and design sense.
In Live Beautiful Athena Calderone introduces us to designer Oliver Gustav, who has a store and showroom in Copenhagen, Denmark. These images are from his showroom and demonstrate his “eye” and his sensibilities in arranging antiques, art, and objects.
A quest to learn more about Oliver Gustav and his work led me to an online site, Studio Oliver Gustav. Here, in these photos from his website, you can see that he also designs objects for the home, including this fascinating piece, what appears to be a stone on an iron stand which he infuses with an essential oil he has created.
So, a design book introduced me to a designer whose website had a series of images which prompted an idea. The Texas Hill Country is replete with porous limestone rocks and fossils. There was a particular limestone rock I had passed many times on my morning run through the hills and often thought about bringing home with me. The next day I plucked it out of the rubble, brought it home, and washed it off gently with a garden hose.
Dried and placed on a piece of light-colored wood, it felt like a soft and creamy version of Gustav’s stone. A few drops of lavender essential oil into the holes in the porous stone created a sculptural potpourri on a table between two wing chairs. Now, when we sit together in the evening reading there is a quiet scent of lavender in the air between us.
What fun to be inspired by others to look around you and use what you have at hand to enhance your life! Perhaps you will become more aware of what you see each day and let it inspire you.
