Post by Rebecca of Not-So-SAHM

I don’t know about you, but most parents I know are in need of some serious rest and relaxation. A spa day is nice, but my husband constantly says that what he really wants is just to chill out at home. To not have to go anywhere else. So we decided to help this dad out.

As part of our efforts to pull together our outdoor spaces (remember our Outdoor Art Space for Kids!?), we decided to spruce up the outdoor deck off of my husband’s office. We got him an amazing hammock (one of his most favorite ways to lounge) and with the help of The Land of Nod’s fantastic throw pillows, we are well on our way to setting up a relaxing oasis for him. But we also always love to include a great DIY present for him, so we tried our hand at making a few relaxing aromatherapy linen sprays to spritz on his new pillows.

We’re relative newbies at essential oils, but I bought a basic starter set. The combinations are seemingly endless and I love that you can play around to get the scent you like. The base for any linen spray is the same — you just add whatever combo of essential oils you want. We settled on two for this overworked daddo (the kids’ cute name for him): Stress Reliever and Chill Out.

Here’s what you’ll need to make a DIY Father’s Day Aromatherapy Spray yourself!

1.  a tinted glass spray bottle (we used these) — sunlight spoils essential oils, so the tinted glass helps. You should still also keep the bottle out of direct sunlight.
2.  essential oils — for our two combinations, we used: clary sage, lavender, lemon, pink grapefruit, orange, and bergamot from this starter set.
3. an oil emulsifier — we used this unscented witch hazel. You can also use rubbing alcohol or even vodka, but I didn’t love the idea of spraying those around.
4. distilled water
5. essential oil stickers — these are optional, but it’s a colorful way to help identify your sprays. I labeled each oil used and then the corresponding color combination on each bottle.

First, fill your spray bottle halfway with your oil emulsifier and halfway with the distilled water. Our spray bottles hold eight ounces, so I added four ounces of witch hazel and four ounces of water.

Next, add your essential oils. In general, you want roughly ten drops of essential oils per ounce of spray. So, for our eight ounce bottle, I added about eighty drops of essential oils total (combinations below).

Stir gently and then add spray bottle top. Spritz on linens and pillows and relax!!

There are so, so many different combinations of essential oils you can make. Here’s what we came up with for our Father’s Day DIY:

– Stress Reliever: Clary Sage + Lavender + Lemon. We used a ratio of drops of 6 to 4 to 2, so for our size bottle, I added: 42 Clary Sage + 28 Lavender + 14 Lemon.

– Chill Out: Pink Grapefruit + Orange + Lemon + Bergamot. We used a ratio of drops of 3 to 3 to 2 to 1, so for our size bottle, I added: 24 Pink Grapefruit + 24 Orange + 16 Lemon + 8 Bergamot.

We are going to store ours in Nod’s great High Contrast Cube Bin in easy reach of a (hopefully) relaxing dad. Thanks to The Land of Nod for helping us make a chill zone for Father’s Day!!

Rebecca is a mom to two young kiddos and, in her spare time (ha!), likes to pretend she’s a back-up dancer, craft cocktails, and run long distances. A relatively recent SAHM, she blogs family-friendly activities, DIYs and celebration fun at Not-So-SAHM.