luxury living through the senses

Engaging all the senses in a pleasing manner enhances a hotel stay. Whether it be the feel of sumptuously soft linens, delicious menu offerings to delight the tastebuds, live music that enlivens an evening, a beautiful soul-soothing view, or finally, a pleasing fragrance to encapsulate the moment into memory, hoteliers enjoy providing guests with a full sensory experience. All this focus on our senses during hotel stays begs a question. Do we review our daily living against a full sensory experience? Do we honor our sensory preference in everyday life?

Let’s focus our sensory lens on the sense of smell. Imagine curating your home’s very own signature scent, much like luxury hotel, to enhance a stay in your very own home. This particular bodily sense is a powerful beginning on our sensory journey because it is often called the strongest sense we possess. The sense of smell can create subtle sensory bonding among household members when they share a homelife scent (Who doesn’t have that one friend whose worn the same perfume for decades so no matter where you catch a trace of that scent you can be transported to a memory of their company?), entice a longer stay in certain home areas, celebrate the familiar by claiming a consistent fragrance, and conjure long lasting scent memories well beyond the actual aroma infused moment. How wonderful that homelife can evolve in so many ways just by incorporating a signature scent.

“Homelife and seasons are more recognizable or celebratory when scent infused. Family is forever intertwined, one sniff at a time, through scent memories.” – Hotels to Home Page. 99

Let’s create a signature scent for our homes and enjoy the added layer of luxury in the everyday. Wondering where to begin in defining your home’s signature scent? The nose, knows. Scent memories are powerful, so chances are you already have a wonderful roadmap to follow in defining your home’s signature fragrance. All you need to do is take some time and listen to your personal preferences.

Start with a fragrance list. Name your favorites. A simple exercise of listing those favored aromas. As examples: fresh mowed grass, a lit match, rubber tires, roast dinner, bacon frying, vanilla, coffee brewing, burnt toast, grapefruit, clean sheets, or freshly baked bread are often cited as favorites. Be sure to take an inclusive approach if cohabitating. Include your entire household so that you can define the best smells for everyone to further define your homelife scent schematic. Also, the added benefit of engaging the entire family is learning more about each other. Perhaps you didn’t know your husband loves the bouquet of fresh lilacs, or your son a heady spiced perfume, while others enjoy a whiff of evergreen know matter the time of year. Even if you decide on a household scent that doesn’t reflect each individual favorites due to comprise, think of the gift-giving opportunities that knowing these preferences has unfolded! Getting to know each other through scent can be rather rewarding.

Now that you have defined your fragrance preference the next step is deciding the where (in the home) and when (typically time of year). Many hotels employ an aroma strategy that includes different wafts of scent in varying areas of the property and/or others change with the season. What is your preferred scent approach? There are no wrong answers here. Many households enjoy a constant theme since they have agreed on the preferred scent, but others like to change out fragrances to herald in a new season. Perhaps your household is a bit split on preferences. One family in this situation divided the scents by room, so they diffused a certain fragrance by bedroom. Yet another wanted a consistent, singular scent that complimented the entire home’s setting so common areas shared a fragrance. Decide on the location or time of year, or in true Hotels to Home living style, matrix both! A matrixed approach might lead to common areas sharing the same aroma stylings, but the favored scent changes every six months Whatever you decide, create a signature scent that can be relied upon to say welcome home or a series of scents that say this is how we celebrate living.

Remember entryways and workspaces when thinking upon the impact of a signature scent. An entryway has a wonderful way of engulfing one with a warm arrival and seeing you off with positivity when the aroma is coordinated with personal preferences. Adding a cheering or pleasant scent to any workspace, like an at-home office or laundry room, can add a more whimsical tone to the ordinary. Daily activity becomes more dreamlike when the scene smells well.

Now that scent preferences are defined and the where and when has been decided, the final step is deciding on a diffusion mechanism. The simplicity of aromatic candles, linen or room sprays, and reed diffusers can give way to the complexity of HVAC systems that amplifies the diffusion through heating and cooling systems. Who hasn’t fallen victim to a retail outlet using these systems that beg you to enter the store because the scent is so inviting - imagine having that in daily living – you may never leave home! Scent inducing solutions are plentiful, but only you and your household can decide the ideal or most rewarding method to support your wellbeing.

Open your home to the wonderous world of scent possibilities and reveal lifestyle enhancement opportunities that celebrate luxury living in the everyday. Take a nod from hotels and introduce scent as a lifestyle component to build a memory-making foundation and increase daily living satisfaction. A signature scent adds a layer of luxury that can be shared by all as well as prompting individual homelife pride. One young guest buying a first home exemplifies this beautifully. She walked into a hotel, took one sniff and thought, this is how I want my new home to smell! She quickly inquired about the beloved fragrance and found the gift shop offered candles that reflected the scent. Her condo is now peppered with these aromatic candles across living spaces, and she couldn’t be happier. Let’s all relish, like she does, in the power of scent across everyday living.

Inhale and smile!

The Concierge