Twelve Weeks of Christmas, Week 9: Homemade Linen Spray (Febreze alternative)

***To catch up on what you may have missed — the 8 other ”Weeks of Christmas” — go here.

Last year, I received a bottle of linen spray as a Christmas gift.  At first, I was dubious.  I mean, a gift like that reeks (get it!?) of just-something-else-I-don’t-need-that’s-going-to-take-up-space-that-I-don’t-have.  However… I soon changed my tune.

Linen spray is awesome!

If you’re like me, you love the effects of Febreze, but you dislike the smell (really, I sorta hate it).  And if you’re like me, you have a serious problem with allowing dogs on the furniture (I try to stop myself, really I do, but they’re just so darn cuddly…).  We-ell… Linen spray is a great solution.  I find myself using it weekly on the couch, the rug, and our bedding.  If we burn bacon or something and there’s a particularly strong smell in the apartment (because you know these NYC apartments don’t have exhaust fans or good ventilation), we follow up with a few sprays of the stuff.

So… when I was thinking of Christmas gift ideas this year, I wanted to sort of pay it forward with this great gift.  (I know, I know… the phrase “pay it forward” is usually reserved for loftier causes like charitable contributions, but I couldn’t think of a better way of describing it… and linen spray really is pretty awesome.)

When I looked up prices for linen sprays, specifically the amazing one that was given to me, I found they were a little more expensive than I expected/could afford.  So, I did the Google thing and found a few recipes, combined my favorite parts of each one, and I think I ended up with a pretty good mix (and it was made from things I already had at home so it was FREE!).

Here’s the finished product:

homemade linen spray

And here’s how you make it…

You’ll need:

• Water
• Isopropyl alcohol or vodka
• essential oils
• a spray bottle

1. Combine 1 part isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol or vodka to 5 parts water to a spray bottle.  I used an empty Bath and Body Works spray bottle, then removed the label (this took a little time and effort — about one episode of Pan Am – plus acetone, windex, and a lot of scraping).

linen spray label

I love damask.

Here’s the document, in case you want to do something similar:  GPP linen spray label

Note:  When attaching the label, you may smudge the ink a bit. To get rid of these smudges, carefully erase them with a pencil eraser.

And here’s the finished product (again):

homemade linen spray

And a little bit closer…

Something that I didn’t note on my label, that may have been smart in retrospect:  The spray will initially give off an alcohol smell when you first spray it.  However, after a few seconds — once it evaporates — this smell is gone and the essential oil fragrance remains.

Now… because I had all of these things lying around my house, I was able to make this project for free.  However, if you don’t have any of these things, it would still be super affordable.  I searched each item and found at found at least one affordable source (listed below):

Spray bottle, Dollar Tree.  Here’s an 8 oz bottle and a 28 oz bottle.   $1

(I also remembered that Dollar Tree sells linen spray for $1 on their website.  However, I have actually used their stuff before and I found it to be very weak.)

Water, your faucet, free

Isopropyl alcohol, any drug store, $0.50-$2.00

Vodka (an alternative to the rubbing alcohol), can be found a variety of places.  Here’s a link to some pricing.  $1-$20

Essential oils, available a variety of places, including eBay, $3.00

Approximate Total: $6… more likely less.

Consider the oils an investment, as they will last a long time and could potentially create dozens of bottles of linen spray.

(And if  ”dozens of bottles of linen spray” seems a bit daunting, but you still want to be able use the oil beyond this project, here are some other great uses: here, here,  and here.)

I think this linen spray would be great as a teacher/neighbor gift.  Hope you found this tutorial helpful!

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Other handmade gift ideas:

Vinyl record bowls

Tile Coasters

DIY dry erase boards