When you think of incense burners, you probably think of the most common ash catcher style, a flat piece of wood with simple drilled holes to hold the incense. These simple incense burners are classic, and a great way to hold your incense, but there's a whole world of beautiful and unusual incense burners to choose from.

Incense burners come in every shape, style, and color imaginable. There are incense burners for stick incense, coil incense, and resin incense. You needn't store incense burners away or hide them in a corner. The burners themselves can be great focal points in your decor. There are incense burner boxes, bowls, statues, bottles, carvings, and hangings. From intricately detailed, to sleek and simple, there's an incense burner to match your decor and set the perfect mood.

Of course, the most beautiful incense burner is one you can make yourself. Simply choose a heat-resistant bowl in whatever material and design appeals to you most. It can be a simple terra cotta bowl or a detailed carved bowl. Fill the bowl with enough sand to hold up an incense stick. Then decorate by placing any non-flammable material on top of the sand. Seashells, river rocks, and sea glass are all great choices for decorating your incense bowl.

Use the incense burner and the incense together to set the mood. Want a calm, soothing effect to relieve stress? Choose sandalwood incense in a lotus flower-shaped burner. Need a pick-me-up for your mind? Use a lavender or rosemary scented incense in a burner box which releases the smoke in unique patterns through the top. Feeling irritable? Try ocean or spring scented incense in a burner shaped like your favorite animal.

So when you want to set a mood with incense, don't forget the visual delight added by a great incense burner.