SOSA · The Founder Diaries · Hyderabad Homes
The first six steps
inside your door
A guest decides how a house feels before they reach the sofa. The entrance is the smallest room you can scent, and the one that does the most.
An entrance that smells expensive is one that smells of very little, on purpose. One quiet scent, timed for arrivals, fading before the dining table.
One of the SOSA guides for Hyderabad homes. For the rest of the house, read home fragrance for a Hyderabad villa.
The answer in 30 seconds
An entrance, done properly
- One device, in the entrance itself. On an indoor socket, in the open.पवन Pawan
- Timed for arrivals. On before guests are due. Not all day.
- Lighter towards dining. Something at the door, less in the living room, nothing at the table.
- If the entrance is open to the living room, treat them as one space. And size for that.वायु Vaayu
What expensive smells like
People use the word expensive when they ask me about entrances, and I know what they mean. They mean the opposite of an air freshener. They mean a scent you notice for a second as the door opens and could not point to. That is achieved by restraint: a refined fragrance, at a low level, in a small space, for a short time.
In a villa the entrance is usually a foyer of its own or the near end of the living room. If it is enclosed, even partly, it behaves like a small room and a room device suits it. If it opens straight into a large living and dining space, the foyer cannot be scented separately, and the question becomes how to scent that whole connected volume, with the source standing nearer the door than the table.
Timing does most of the work, and with Pawan it is the only control: how long it runs is how strong the foyer becomes. Set the device to begin about half an hour before guests are due, and let it stop once everyone has arrived. A foyer that has been scented since morning smells stronger to a visitor than it does to you, because you stopped noticing it hours ago.
Then let it fade as people move in. The dining room should carry no fragrance at all, so there is a natural gradient: something at the door, less in the living room, nothing at the table. You get that gradient for nothing, simply by placing the source at the door end and nowhere else.
| Before guests, a checklist | |
|---|---|
| That morning | Air the entrance. Shoes put away, the mat shaken out. |
| An hour before | Check the oil level and that the socket is switched on. |
| Half an hour before | The timed run begins, as short as you usually keep it. |
| As guests arrive | Let it finish. Do not add a spray on top. |
| At dinner | No fragrance near the table. |
“An entrance that smells expensive smells of very little, on purpose.”
For your interior designer: discreet, but not boxed in
Designers are often asked to make a diffuser disappear. It can be made quiet. It cannot be shut away.
- Decide whether it is to be seen. Pawan sits at the socket, in view. Choose a socket that suits the composition of the wall.
- Never inside closed joinery. Not a shoe cabinet, and not a shuttered niche.
- Use an open niche or the side of a console. With clear air in front of the device.
- Respect the manufacturer's clearances. They are in the manual, and they are not optional.
- Keep the socket reachable. Someone has to change the bottle.
पवन and वायु · for the arrival
A second of scent, as the door opens
पवन Pawan: one room up to about 500 sq ft · waterless · plugs straight into the socket with no cable · silent · app and timer · 200 ml of oil included · 1-year warranty.
वायु Vaayu, where the entrance and living room are one space: published for up to 1,000 m³ of a suitable connected zone · waterless cold-air mist · 400 ml tank · app and timer · key-lock · under 38 dB.
Current prices and oil sets are on each product page.
See पवन PawanSee वायु VaayuAbout Ashoka A La Maison
Ashoka A La Maison at Kompally is listed by its developer as a community of three and four-bedroom villas. The shape of the entrance, enclosed foyer or open to the living room, differs from home to home, and it decides which of the two machines above is yours.
Named as an example, not as an installation. SOSA has no affiliation with the project or its developer.
Questions, answered
How can my entrance smell expensive when guests arrive?
When should I switch it on before a party?
Where exactly should the diffuser go in a foyer?
Which scent suits an entrance?
Continue in the SOSA guides
If you would rather ask a person
Send us a photograph from the front door
Looking in, with the sockets visible. We will tell you which one we would use and when to run it.
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