Homemade Reed Diffuser
This easy 5-minute DIY reed diffuser is the perfect budget-friendly way to keep your house smelling naturally fresh! Even better, it’s made from simple household items for a quick weekend DIY project!
Aromatherapy is all the rage these days! And it just so happens that there’s a double bonus of making your house smell great and feel cozy along with it.
We’ve been known to go a little overboard when it comes to filling our home with smelly good things. We realized it was a problem when a friend politely mentioned that our cat smelled like perfume. After that, we jumped on the essential oil bandwagon very quickly for a more natural alternative.
What is a Reed Diffuser and How Does It Work?
A reed diffuser is typically a decorative container filled with fragrant oil. It includes long, slender reeds made of natural materials like rattan or synthetic materials like polyamide.
Reed diffusers can provide a continuous, subtle fragrance for weeks or even months, depending on the size of the diffuser and the refill frequency. The number of reeds you use can affect the strength of the fragrance. You can start with a few reeds and add more for a stronger scent.
While there are a ton of aromatherapy diffuser options floating around, it’s just as easy to make yourself a DIY Reed Diffuser for a super budget-friendly version.
Essential Oil Diffuser Ideas & Options
One of the most popular aromatherapy diffuser options is the electronic version. They usually have cool mist settings, a water capacity, led lights, a night light, automatic shut off and run time. They also make versions with a large water tank to help fill large rooms, too.
We love our electronic diffusers (shout out to Amazon reviews)! A nebulizer diffuser (or ultrasonic diffuser) is another electronic option that’s ideal if you can afford one! They’re very similar to traditional aroma diffusers except that the nebulizer requires no water tank. It simply diffuses pure essential oils into the air without needing water to create a mist.
BUT it’s also convenient having a simple reed diffuser for small spaces. They’re perfect for places like the bathroom, entryway or home office where you don’t want to have one plugged in at all times.
This DIY Reed Diffuser uses no electricity like the nebulizer. And it lasts a lot longer than the time in between needing to refill the water tank of a traditional electronic version. What it lacks in lighting options, it makes up for in being easy to use! Reed diffusers require minimal maintenance. Simply flip the reeds occasionally to refresh the scent and refill the oil as needed.
No matter which option you choose to go with, the essential oils will only spread over so many square feet. So keep that in mind!
Materials to Make Your Own DIY Essential Oil Diffuser
- Diffuser bottle or vase — When it comes to making your own reed diffuser, you only need a vase or vessel to use as a diffuser bottle, a carrier oil, your choice of essential oils, and reed sticks. You can make your diffuser bottle as fancy or as simple as you’d like. We opted to use a clear and gold diffuser bottle, but you could use wood grain, matte black, clear, or any other small vase.
- Pure liquid coconut carrier oil — For diluting stronger oils. Use fractionated coconut oil if you don’t want the coconut scent. You may also opt for sweet almond oil, safflower oil, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil or even baby oil.
- Your favorite essential oils combinations of your choice
- Rattan reeds for reed diffuser sticks — They resemble bamboo skewers. However, reed sticks are porous and absorb the essential oil, allowing it to evaporate and release the fragrance into the air. The number of sticks will also influence the scent strength. More sticks will release more scent.
- Funnel — Optional if your vessel has a narrow opening
How to Make a DIY Reed Diffuser
Once you have all of your reed diffuser materials, you can make them into an essential oil diffuser super quickly!
1 — All you have to do is fill your diffuser vase with 3 1/2 ounces of liquid carrier oil.
2 — Next, you’ll add 3 to 5 drops of your favorite essential oil blend to the vase.
3 — Now you’ll insert 5 to 7 of the rattan reeds into the vase, and you’re all set!
Since there is no timer on a reed diffuser like the electronic aromatherapy diffusers have, you don’t want to add too much of the essential oil.
Essential oils have a chemical base and you want to be sure to not risk overexposing yourself, pets, children, or anyone else to too many oils. Before making your own essential oil diffuser at home, be sure to read up on potential toxic essential oils and proper usage.
What are the Benefits of an Essential Oil Diffuser?
Whether you’re making an oil reed diffuser or using another alternative, there are several benefits to using essential oils.
Essential oils provide a boost to the limbic system to enhance relaxation and anti-anxiety benefits, along with respiratory disinfection, clearing toxins in the air, and more.
There is still some controversy over just how much essential oils have an effect on your body and mind. But they’re undoubtedly great for making your living room smell good!
Regardless of how you find some of the health benefits to be, there’s no denying that having an essential oil diffuser in the room gives a relaxing aroma that you can customize with any number of essential oil combinations.
What Combination of Essential Oils Should I Use
The sky is the limit when it comes to choosing what essential oil diffuser combinations to use. There are also a lot of essential oils that you can buy already mixed for certain purposes. For instance, you can purchase essential oil blends for relaxation, immune support, better sleep, energy, or mood-boosting.
Our favorite essential oil diffuser blends —
- Soothing citrus oil blend: Combine 1 drop of lavender, 1 drop of ylang-ylang, and one drop of wild orange
- Sleep oil blend: Combine 2 drops of bergamot and one drop of patchouli
- Immunity oil blend: Combine 1 drop of tea tree, 1 drop of eucalyptus, 1 drop of sweet orange, and one drop of frankincense
- Good mood oil blend: Combine 2 drops of lavender and 2 drops of lemongrass
You can use these same combinations when making your own homemade candles or homemade sugar scrubs.
Tutorial Tips
- Flip the sticks regularly: To ensure even scent diffusion, flip the oil reed sticks every few days.
- Add more oil: If the scent starts to fade, you can add more essential oil to the container.
- Consider the room: The size of the room will also affect the scent diffusion. A larger room may require more oil.
- Avoid direct sunlight: Direct sunlight can cause the oil to evaporate more quickly, reducing the scent’s longevity.
More Candle and Aromatherapy DIY ideas
Needless to say, you’ll likely get hooked when you realize just how easy it is to make your own essential oil diffuser. Especially when it costs less than $25 to make them for multiple rooms in the house! In case you’re looking for a few other candle and aromatherapy DIY ideas, here are some of my favorites from the archives —
- How to make wax candles with rosemary and grapefruit
- DIY faux wood candle holder
- DIY copper candle holder
- Rainbow DIY taper candle holder
- Wooden taper candle holder
- DIY citronella candles
Below is a full printable tutorial for how to make a DIY reed diffuser for every room in your house.
DIY Reed Diffuser
Equipment
- Spoon for blending oils optional
Materials
- 1 diffuser bottle or vase
- 3 1/2 oz pure liquid coconut carrier oil
- Rattan reeds for reed diffusing sticks
- Essential oil combinations of your choice
Notes
- Since there is no timer on a reed diffuser like the traditional aromatherapy diffusers have, you don’t want to add too much of an essential oil and accidentally overpower the room.
- Essential oils have a chemical base and you want to be sure to not risk overexposing yourself, pets, children, or anyone else to too many oils.
- Be sure to read up on potential toxic essential oils and proper usage before making your own essential oil diffuser at home.
Instructions
- Fill your diffuser vase with 3 1/2 ounces of liquid carrier oil like coconut oil.
- Add 3 drops of your favorite essential oil blend to the vase.
- Insert 5-7 of the rattan reeds into the vase.
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