Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Scent To Refresh Your Rooms (Now That You’re Home All The Time)

It’s been a year since the quarantine began and perhaps your children are distance learning at home and it’s winter and the windows are closed and there are no fresh fragrant flowers from the garden, no pine-scented holiday decorations.

Perhaps your home is beginning to smell a little too much like teen spirit for your tastes. Perhaps it’s time to bring some new fragrances into your home.

Scent is tricky, though. It’s hard to find products that smell as nice as they look. And you don’t want a scent that overwhelms you and gives you a headache, cautions Carolyn Piccirelli, owner of Honeychurch Home. She understands.

The design shop is in downtown Salisbury, Conn., in a space on Academy Street just off Main that was for many years a variety of small café and bistro restaurants. 

“People still come in and tell me about their favorite meals here when it was a restaurant,” Piccirelli says. “They show me where they used to sit.”

The tables and counter and kitchen are gone now, and it requires a little effort to recall that this was once an eatery. The scent of Honeychurch Home, of course, is also very different from the scent of the Country Bistro restaurant. The air no longer smells of bacon and coffee; the Honeychurch ambience leans more toward the floral.

That’s in part because Piccirelli is also a floral designer and not only designs voluptuous arrangements for the shop, she also does custom “bouquets” for clients, most of whom, she said, come in every week.

But it’s really the scented products that capture your attention as you walk in. This store smells the way you’d like your home to smell. Subtle. Delicate. Not like gym clothes.

Honeychurch is a home design store, but has more than just things to put on tables. 

“I try to carry products for all five senses,” Piccirelli says. The eyes are important. Touch is important. The nose is very important.

The scented products at Honeychurch Home are in a perfect Three Bears quantity: There are just enough so you have a wide array of choices, in a reasonable range of price points; but there aren’t so many to choose from that you throw up your hands in despair.

Piccirelli is happy to help sort things out for you, but she feels confident that most people can figure out which scents will work best for them. 

It’s not like art, where you can’t trust your instincts. If you like the way it smells in the shop, you’ll probably like the way it smells at home. 

And, she promises, unlike a department-style store, the products here have already been curated. She only sells things she likes.

She will also patiently explain how diffusers (which became ubiquitous about five years ago) actually work. There are reeds and there is oil, and Piccirelli will have to explain the rest to you, but she has them in prices that range from mid $40 to high $70. Some are from France; the most popular ones are from California; one comes in an attractive blue-patterned ceramic diffuser that you can use as a bud vase when the scented oil gives out.

She has lots of candles, and warns/promises that candles can scent a room even when they’re not lit. 

If you don’t mind burning a scented product, she also has small incense sticks from Japan that smell wonderful, not like the acrid incenses used in religious ceremonies. Made by a company in Japan called Hibi, they burn for about 10 minutes and have straightforward tags such as lavender, lemongrass and geranium (as opposed to some of the diffusers and candles, which are more conceptual and have names such as  “Cashmere” and “The Roofs of Paris”).

The Hibi incense sticks are $12 for a box of eight or $36 for a box of 30. They are so popular that they are right at the entrance to the store. 

But don’t stop there; take a look around. Breathe deep. Relax. Enjoy.  

 

Honeychurch Home is at 10 Academy St. in Salisbury, Conn., near LaBonne’s market. It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Call 860-596-4381 for more information.

In the dead of winter, houses can become musty and stale — especially when parents and children are all at home doing distance learning and remote work. Give your nose a gift of scented products from Honeychurch Home, such as these affordable Japanese incense sticks. Photo by Cynthia Hochswender

Honeychurch Home, named for Lucy Honeychurch from E.M. Forster’s “A Room With a View,” has settled comfortably into a space in Salisbury, Conn., that was for many, many years a café or bistro. Photo by Cynthia Hochswender

In the dead of winter, houses can become musty and stale — especially when parents and children are all at home doing distance learning and remote work. Give your nose a gift of scented products from Honeychurch Home, such as these affordable Japanese incense sticks. Photo by Cynthia Hochswender

Latest News

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notice

BOND RESOLUTION DATED JUNE 15, 2026 OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE WEBUTUCK CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT AUTHORIZING NOT TO EXCEED $429,327 AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS AND/OR INSTALLMENT PURCHASE CONTRACTS TO FINANCE THE ACQUISITION OF A SCHOOL BUSES AND VEHICLES AT AN AGGREGATE ESTIMATED MAXIMUM COST OF$429,327, LEVY OF TAX IN ANNUAL INSTALLMENTS IN PAYMENT THEREOF TAKING INTO ACCOUNT STATE-AID, THE EXPENDITURE OF SUCH SUM FOR SUCH PURPOSE, AND DETERMINING OTHER MATTERS IN CONNECTION THERE-WITH.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tenmile Distillery is making history the old-fashioned way

Cheers! The Revolutionary Whisky Series at Ten Mile Distillery, each named for a significant battle of the American Revolution, celebrates America at 250.

D.H. Callahan

In December 2024, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau officially established the Standard of Identity for American Single Malt Whisky. It was the first new classification in more than half a century, creating new possibilities for American distillers. One of the distilleries taking advantage of this new landscape is Wassaic’s Tenmile Distillery. It is well positioned to make history because Tenmile has always honored traditional whiskey-making practices.

Single malts are often associated with Scotch whisky. Perhaps that’s why, years before the new standard was adopted, Tenmile hired Shane Fraser, a Scottish master distiller with 30 years of experience at some of Scotland’s most prestigious distilleries. Fraser began designing the distillery from the ground up. Alongside owner and general manager Joel LeVangia, he emphasized time-honored traditions, favoring hands-on craftsmanship over the increasingly automated methods used by larger producers. When it comes to making the best whisky possible, Tenmile believes in learning from the past. That philosophy extends beyond the distilling process.

Keep ReadingShow less

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

Belinda Sinclair

Dean Chamberlain
Sinclair’s show explores the ways women have been practicing forms of magic for centuries, and there is plenty of history to tell.

Belinda Sinclair is the kind of magician who impresses people who don’t like magic. Her tricks are mind-boggling. Her stories are captivating. And if she picks you to write your name on a card, get ready to be wowed. Repeat attendees of her shows, of which there are many, take almost as much delight in watching new jaws drop as they do in seeing an illusion reach its astonishing conclusion.

Since the summer of 2025, Sinclair has been baffling local audiences at the Hughes Memorial Library in West Cornwall, but her magical run comes to a close at the end of August.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

Renée Fleming, Andris Nelsons and Thomas Hampson.

Hilary Scott

On Friday, July 17 at 8 p.m. in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, two of the greatest American voices of their generation, soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson, join Music Director Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance of excerpts from John Adams’ groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China.” The piece, performed earlier this year in Boston and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, is a highlight of a program that also includes “Meditations on Grace” (2024) by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon, and the melodic and technically demanding Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber.

Fleming is internationally celebrated for her vocal and dramatic artistry, as well as for her advocacy for the powerful impact of the creative arts in health. Hampson has long been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians of our time and has received countless international honors for his singular artistry and cultural leadership. Both performed in “Nixon in China” earlier this year at the Paris Opera under the baton of Kent Nagano.

Keep ReadingShow less
Local playwright revisits Revolutionary moment in “Rebel Town”

The cast and crew of “Rebeltown: The Musical.”

Jack Sheedy

John Alan Segalla was working in Boston a few years ago, giving historic tours at the site of the Boston Tea Party. Now, as America celebrates 250 years as a nation, the Canaan native is about to debut a new version of his original musical, “Rebel Town,” inspired largely by the Boston Tea Party, the protest that helped launch the American Revolution.

“It wasn’t until I got to Boston and learned the Tea Party story that I fell in love with this moment in history, and I saw the story as wildly compelling and very important, and really a story that was very misunderstood, mistaught in schools,” Segalla said at a recent rehearsal in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, ahead of the show’s July 10 opening.

Keep ReadingShow less
An invitation to paint a community mural in Torrington

Community mural design by Macayla Muzzulin will be painted by volunteers on July 11 in Franklin Plaza in Torrington.

Provided

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, Five Points Arts in Torrington will host a community mural project celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Volunteers of every age and artistic ability are invited to help paint a 20-by-6-foot mural designed by artist Macayla Muzzulin. The mural will be completed in one day, transformed from a numbered outline into a permanent public artwork along the river in downtown Torrington.

“We firmly believe art is for everyone,” said Five Points founder and executive director, Judith McElhone. “It’s so great to be able to do this with such talent, and with Launchpad artists, volunteers and staff there to help.”

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.