Three DIY Stovetop Potpourri Recipes to Make Your Home Smell Fresh & Cozy!

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Use herbs, fruit, and extracts to make simple homemade simmer pot stovetop potpourri for a beautiful and natural way to add a heavenly scent to your home.

christmas simmer pot on the stove

Does your home ever smell like yesterday’s dinner mixed with teen gym socks? 😜

Freshen things up with these three DIY natural stove-top simmer pot scents! They’ll make your space smell super fresh and cozy! It’s a brilliant way to utilize herbs and extracts you may already even have at home. Simmer pots are also a smart way to save and reuse lemon and orange peels you’d normally throw away.

simmer pot with fruits, herbs and spices on counter

Just simmer a few easy ingredients and enjoy the aroma!

The directions for all three of these recipes are the same. Fill a pot with about 4-5 cups of water. Place the ingredients into the pot and turn the heat on the stove to medium for a bit to a light boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low. Your home will start to smell amazing. Keep an eye on the water level and add more as needed.
If keeping the stove on doesn’t sound preferable, consider placing ingredients in a slow cooker instead!

Are you loving this gorgeous glass pot?

woman holding a glass pot with sliced lemons and rosemary

Here are my top 3 favorite homemade stovetop potpourri scents that I personally enjoy using in my home!


1.) DIY Williams Sonoma Scent Stovetop Potpourri

williams sonoma simmer pot

When you walk into a Williams Sonoma store, it’s filled with an appealing citrus rosemary aroma. Their signature simmer pot scent is easy to recreate at home and smells so fresh and amazing.

I happen to have a rosemary plant in my backyard so I make this one often. Consider saving your lemon scraps when cooking to utilize for this.

For the Williams Sonoma simmer pot you’ll need:

sliced lemons and rosemary on a cutting board


2.) Pumpkin Spice Stovetop Potpourri

pumpkin pie simmer pot

If the warm scent of apples and cinnamon is your jam, create this easy pumpkin spice scent for cozy fall vibes. This makes your space smell inviting and is perfect for cooler weather.

Consider using an apple that is past its prime, or you can always swap in some apple cider instead for a similar scent.

For the pumpkin spice simmer pot you’ll need:

ingredients for pumpkin spice simmer pot


3.) Merry Christmas Stovetop Potpourri

christmas simmer pot recipe on the stove

Get your home holiday-ready with this glorious smell. My favorite simmer pot is this holiday scent. The clove and cinnamon smell so great together and it really does smell like Christmas! Plus, this one is so pretty and festive looking.

For the merry Christmas simmer pot you’ll need:

ingredients to make christmas simmer pot


woman holding stove top potpourri jar and pot

Tips for making homemade stovetop potpourri:

  • If you are buying ingredients in the grocery store, look for the more inexpensive brands sold in packets rather than spice jars. In my store, there is a Hispanic foods section with inexpensive packets of cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and anise.
  • Have fun and create scents using things that naturally grow around where you are. The best part is you can improvise and come up with your own variations too.
  • You can reuse your stovetop potpourri ingredients if you’d like. Remove them from the water and place them in a jar in the fridge. Then throw it in some fresh water the next day. I have done this and it works!

What’s your favorite stovetop potpourri scent that you use? Be sure to share your simmer pot recipes in the comments to inspire us all! 


Learn how to make 8 easy DIY Christmas gifts and print our FREE gift tags!


About the writer:

Lina has a Bachelor's Degree from Northern Arizona University with 11 years of blogging and photography experience having work featured in Today.com, Martha Stewart, Country Living, Fox News, Buzzfeed, and HGTV.


Join The Discussion

Comments 9

  1. Melanie

    I love these. The scents really permeate every nook and cranny of your house without being overwhelming. I freeze my kids’ clementine peels so I always have them on hand, and I use those with artificial vanilla extract and ground cinnamon. I simmer all day and add more water as needed.

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Oh yay! That’s an awesome tip about freezing the orange peels – Thanks Melanie!

  2. Ashley

    This is so cute! I love the idea of making them as a gift! I work at a school, this will be perfect for my coworkers! I’ll start looking for the ‘ingredients’ now!

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Oh yay! Yes, that sounds so fun. How thoughtful of you!

  3. Kim

    Are these stove top combinations strong enough to work? Years ago, I made an orange/clove/cranberry stove top combination and I couldn’t smell it in my home.

    • Lina D (Hip2Save Sidekick)

      Yep! You’d be surprised I think. Try the rosemary lemon one. Make sure you get it to boil then simmer and you’ll smell it for sure 👏❤️

  4. Gia Threlkeld

    Audio began playing anytime I opened this internet site, so irritating!

    • Emily (Hip Sidekick)

      Hi Gia! There shouldn’t be any auto-play videos loading within this post, including any advertisement videos. Is it possible something was clicked on accident? If not, could send a screenshot of the video/audio source to emily@hip2save.com so we can look into this further? Thank you!

  5. Pat

    I too have a rosemary bush in my backyard. My husband threatens to kill it 😂. I will definitely keep and try these recipes. Also, great idea for neighbors Christmas present.

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