Style & Decor Blog

There are pros and cons to working on the same floor as the Canadian Living magazine’s Test Kitchen. Although it means the Style At Home crew are often well-fed — they kindly let us indulge when sampling new recipes (Or maybe we’re their guinea pigs… Haven’t worked that out yet…) — it also means that the aromas of their latest concoctions inevitably waft through our office. Not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but sometimes you just don’t want to be engulfed in a cloud of garlic and onions at 8:30 in the morning.

Instead of kicking up a stink (sorry, couldn’t resist), I used the opportunity to test out a few home fragrance samples that just came by my desk. Dans Un Jardin is a Boucherville, Quebec-based company, originally founded in Paris in 1976, that specializes in the art of parfumerie for bath, body and home. A few hits of Dans Un Jardin’s “Buds & Leaves” home fragrance mist, and those cooking smells are replaced by the ambiance of an English garden: very clean, fresh notes of sun-ripening tomatoes, lemon zest, greenery and musk. Delightfully fresh, and surprisingly gentle — a number of my colleagues are extremely sensitive to smell, and they all commented on the subtlety of this spray. Love it!

7.5 oz Buds & Leaves home fragrance spray

Price: $6

To order online or find the closest retailer: Dans Un Jardin, Boucherville, Que., 450-449-2121

When I was speaking with Steven and Chris yesterday, we somehow got on the topic of spring cleaning (I’m a master at going off on tangents!), and I asked the guys specifically about their strategy for a spring freshen-up. Here’s their recipe for success:

Chris: “Get rid of things that are blocking your energy. If there’s something in your home that doesn’t make you smile, and you don’t actually need it, let it go.”

Steven: “We recently had Peter Walsh — the king of de-cluttering — as a guest on our show. We learned so much about how physical clutter in your house can lead to a kind of “mental clutter” in your brain — the two go hand in hand.”

Chris: “I think it’s time for ‘less is more’, and that’s not as simple as having a modern, minimalist home; it’s about paring down. If you’re not using it, lose it.”

And there you have it! Make it your spring cleaning mantra!