DIY Air Freshener – How to scent wood with essential oils

This DIY Air Freshener project has become one of my most popular (and most copied) blog posts on both Pinterest, and other websites. And the funny thing, it wasn’t even planned but rather the result of a happy accident that occurred, simple because I had a messy office and the fact that I was trapped in my house under mountains of snowbanks one winter.  That being said, it’s very easy to make this DIY Air Freshener, but it’s also easy to scent wood with essential oils. 

At the time I put this together, the winter we endured was the second coldest that we had on record in 25 years. Needless to say we lost our minds from being cooped up indoors. The last thing you want to blog about are home projects when you’re staring at everything you want to change in your house, but can’t change and are trapped inside the same 4 walls.

You can’t get into your garage to do all the projects you want because it’s -35 with the windchill, and that cold air will follow you in there like the smoke monster from LOST. Spray painting season in our neck of the woods, doesn’t begin until at least April or May.

So while I was reorganizing the chaos that is our home office (my husband keeps telling to admit that it’s a craft room, but I will die before I admit I have a craft room because that will officially solidify my suburban mother status), I had left my scented baking soda dough ornaments in the same container as my craft wood shapes, and pieces of wood veneer.

And in a Captain Obvious discovery, I realized that some of the wood had absorbed the scent of some of the essential oils.

Sort of like when you find a piece of furniture that you love at a thrift store that, but you can’t bring it home because it reeks of cigarette smoke and damp home odors, deeply embedded in the wood. The one that you know is going to require a crazy amount of work to get it out.

But in a good way instead. Like how awesome fresh cut cedar smells.

In which case because my kids closet was smelling, well, like a kids closet and the bathroom was smelling, well, like a bathroom, I decided to actually make little air fresheners out of some wood cubes and wood shapes.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE YOUR DIY AIR FRESHENER

• Wood cubes or wood shapes of your choice
• Your favorite essential oils
• Plastic ziplock bag or glass jar
• Small craft paintbrush (but not always necessary)

STEP 1 – HOW TO SCENT WOOD

Choose whatever scented aromatherapy or essential oil you’d like and put some in a container or on a small bowl/plate. Then with a paint brush, brush on the oil.

For the wood cubes, I put them in a jar with several drops of oil and shook them up until the oil had gotten all over them. I had some lemon, lavender and orange oils laying around, as well as some of my Body Shop perfume oils.

Both worked.

I even tried spraying perfume on it and that also worked.

But if you do that, you NEED to ensure that you do it on a relatively thicker piece of wood or the wood will warp. The perfume ones did not last as long as the oil ones did.

STEP 2

After you cover the wood with the essential oils, in a closed container, let the wood sit overnight to absorb it.

Then hang or place your air freshener where ever you’d like. And that’s it. Super simple.

DOES THE SCENT LAST LONG?

I did this project early on February because I wanted to see how the oils would affect the wood and how long the scent would last. And all the ones in the closets are still going strong.

Especially the lemon scented ones. If the scent fades, all you have to do is re-add some oil to it again and re-use. Citrus blends tend to work better and this is the same for the Scented Wood Christmas Ornaments. 

We did some with various shapes for the cars.

Nothing says “Drive Safe!” like something hanging off your rear view mirror. Before you send me emails, this was a photo illustration only. I put them elsewhere inside the car.

For example, if you don’t want to hang them, just get a small Velcro sticker and put it on the backs of the wood and adhere them wherever you’d like.

Or just sit them in a bowl on a shelf.

Between this and the scented candles all over my house, I can now pretend that Spring is actually coming versus that musty smell of winter.

And plants. I need to go find some plants. Send me plants please. I promise I’ll make a nice planter to match it.

Want some more scented crafts?