When fall rolls around, it's fun to make your house feel cozy and warm. As the heat dissipates, you don't mind turning on the oven again to bake a yummy pie. The sun goes down earlier, and you can light a toasty fire in the evening.
No fireplace? A few scented candles are the next best thing. We added coffee and vanilla beans to these candles, and the scent is so good you kind of want to eat it.
Candle making is one of those deceptively easy crafts. All you do is melt and pour! So it's fun to mix things up by adding texture (like with ice) or using a fun container (like a paint can).
I find the smell of most candles overwhelming—does anyone else get a headache just walking into a Yankee Candle store? I loved the smell of these, very warm and homey but not cloying.
DIY Candles with Coffee and Vanilla Beans
Raid your kitchen to find pretty bowls or cups. We filled up several of the tinted glass cups that were hanging around. Wouldn't they be so pretty as table decorations?
I love chopping up an old unscented candle and reusing the wax, but that's challenging here because you don't want to mix a bunch of different scents. Soy wax chips are probably the easiest to use because they have no smell, but beeswax would also work.
The easiest way to melt the wax is to fill up a clean tin can and set it into a saucepan with an inch or so of water over medium heat. As the wax melts, add more chips if they didn't all fit initially.
We added a few whole coffee beans for some natural coffee smell. You can also chop up and add 1–2 vanilla beans. Pour in a small layer of wax and add a layer of coffee beans and vanilla beans. Then fill the rest of the cup with wax.
You can stir the wax with a chopstick to distribute the bean pieces if desired. Add a few coffee beans on top, then let the wax harden and trim the wick.
For a stronger scent, you can add a few drops of French vanilla fragrance oil or use a combination of coffee (my new favorite scent!) and vanilla essential oils. For essential oil candles, use 200 drops of EO for every 4 ounces of candle wax to get a noticeable scent.
Photos by Ana Stanciu
French Vanilla Coffee Candles
Equipment
- Double boiler or microwave-safe bowl
- Small bowl or tin
Materials
Instructions
- Using a double boiler or a microwave-safe bowl, melt the wax. Glue the wick in place at the bottom of the cup or just hold it in place with your hand (at the top, of course).
- Pour in a small layer of wax and add a layer of coffee beans and vanilla beans. Then fill the rest of the cup with wax. You can stir the wax with a chopstick to distribute the bean pieces if desired.
- Drop a few coffee beans on top and let the wax fully harden, then trim the wick.
