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Kirsi Alm-Siira and her partner purchased a sauna cabin in autumn 2024. The building has brought them so much joy that Kirsi absolutely wanted to share her experience and the tips she's gathered along the way with others.
Successful sauna cabin design and procurement requires identifying your own needs, but also gaining insight from those with experience in the matter.
Hopefully, Kirsi's tips will be useful to you, whether your own dream is just taking shape or you’re wondering where to start.
Article content:
Kirsi's sauna cabin design started with
The planning for the sauna cottage truly began after being inspired by the Helsinki Spring Fair. Kirsi originally ended up going on cottage trips through her husband Antti, but now she describes herself as a ‘proper Finn and a proper sauna-goer’.
My husband has had a cottage for a long time, a rather small one, and even before I came on the scene, he had been thinking about whether to remove the sauna from the main cottage and expand the living space a bit, and then have a completely separate sauna built there.
Impulse buy or planned purchase?
In a way, we made an impulse purchase, and in another way, we didn't – we discussed it together, what would be a smart solution and how we'd go about it – but then, when we came to this exhibition, we didn't manage to visit many stands before we found the one that suited us right.
A suitable cabin from the department and good service
The department was quite crowded and we had to wait a bit for our turn. – We pretty much knew what we were looking for, and when we saw our favourite in person, it was a pretty clear decision.
– and we received really excellent service. Hanna was serving us and answering the questions we had. And indeed, I've never bought any kind of sauna or sauna cabin before, so I had quite a lot of questions.
Tips for designing a sauna cabin
- Let's discuss, amongst all parties, what the sauna cottage means to you and how the new building should serve you.
It went surprisingly well on my own, so much so that sometimes at home it feels like there's arguing about the decor and things like that... but we pretty much wanted similar things, as we knew broadly that we wanted the sauna out of our main cabin to get more space there. - Consider any surrounding buildings and their connection to them
We had a rough idea of the tones it could have in the sauna, what it could look like from the outside. The main cabin is black, so we also wanted the sauna cabin to be the same colour, so that it would match the log cabin built in the eighties, in my opinion, really well. Even though they are from completely different eras, they have the same tones and somehow the same spirit. Even though this is modern, this new sauna cabin that we have now.
In the final stages, my husband came up with the idea of combining the sauna cabin's terrace and the main cabin's terrace. This increased usability in the sense that there is now much more terrace space and they complement each other well. And then it somehow tied the two cabins on the same plot together even better. - Find an operator who can realise the building of your dreams.
The best solution in terms of price-quality ratio is usually a ready-built house, the details of which are modified to meet your own needs. Kirsi and Antti also ended up with a modular pre-fabricated cabin:
Basically, it [Ehta: sauna cabin 20] was quite perfect, but we made such changes that we both wanted to move the fireplace. It was in the corner in front of the window, which I think is the case in quite a lot of solutions. I think it looks really nice, but somehow we thought that maybe we wanted more space for the bed, so we moved its location.
The window in the sauna was made a bit bigger, and as the option was either to have it go all the way to the floor or a bit smaller, we wanted it to be in the middle section. We wanted a small ventilation window on the back wall. But those changes were quite easy to implement, and we also got ideas [from Ehta's designer] for that. - Utilise professionals already in the design phase (e.g., Ehtalla's design service is free)
I remember thinking that it would be really great to have a bigger window on the back wall, so when I listened to the professionals, it wasn't quite sensible. They probably knew how to take things into account that I didn't.
We thought – we were of the opinion, and my husband, who understands things better than I do, completely agreed – that the sauna cabin absolutely could not be brought there in one piece. So we were getting it so that it would be assembled on-site. But then, fortunately, we also got professional help with that.
We sent him videos from the cabin, so the professional could see that our smaller car would fit through there just fine and could be lifted into place, and that was a realisation that was truly groundbreaking! The sauna was ready for use much faster than if it had arrived for self-assembly. - Give us a bit of time: google, go and look at your friends' saunas and maybe visit the spring fair!
Before you start looking for good ideas, in my opinion, it's worth thinking about the intended use of the sauna and potential outbuilding and changing room, and what you want. Once you know that, then perhaps it's worth looking a bit online and if you have friends or acquaintances, seeing a bit what theirs look like.
And then we had at least that it was quite good that we were here [at the spring fairs] and went into the saunas inside and got that sort of final confirmation that we ourselves knew what we wanted.
What I had was infinitely good, because when it [the sauna cottage] was decorated like this, I immediately got the idea that it would be suitable for a sofa bed. And even though we didn't get all the items for it one-to-one, you could still see somehow that it works like this. And attention was also paid to such small details here. We also looked at, okay, that kind of sauna stove and benches of that colour and so on…
Choosing finishes for the dream sauna cabin
Landscape window
We don't quite have floor-to-ceiling windows, but they're quite large. Now we can see through them directly into a [picture] window, so the view has also improved.
Wide bench
When thinking about a new sauna, we invested in the width of the benches, and especially the upper bench. It adds a lot of comfort.
Naturalness works
Inside, it looks like untreated wood. Of course, it's not entirely untreated, but very natural. – we find the sauna room so nice and it smells of lovely, fresh wood, so it’s nice to spend time there in general, –
A sauna cabin or a sauna with a changing room? Kirsi's tips for making a choice.
Regarding the size of the building, Kirsi recommends listening to your own needs. However, she does not advocate excessive penny-pinching:
When you're considering buying your own sauna or sauna cabin, the most important thing is to know what your needs are. Sometimes, just a sauna and a changing room might be enough. It really depends on the purpose of the cabin: Will anyone else use it besides your own family? What age are the children? Do the children want their own space? If so, I would definitely recommend considering a living area, as I think it depends a lot on that.
I'd do it so that rather a bit more than a bit less. I don't think it makes that much difference to the final cost, so we also considered at some point whether there would be no common room at all – just changing rooms – and now it feels like that would have been a foolish place to save, because the common room is very useful, even if it's not big.
The sauna cottage can also serve as a guest house and a workspace.
This cottage is now, largely with the addition of the sauna cabin, in a state where it's really nice to be there and there's a bit more space. Even though the sauna cabin is quite small, it provides sleeping space for two or three others. So, it means that you can invite more people over if you want.
Or you could make space for guests in the main cabin yourself and go and sleep in the sauna cabin. But it does get a lot of use. Last winter when we were at the cabin, we also used it as a workspace: when one of us was working, they'd go to the sauna cabin to do it.
Kirsi recommends a separate changing room for the sauna cabin
Kirs's and Antti's sauna cabin has a small changing room between the sauna and the living area, from which one can go directly outside to cool down. This way, the sauna steam doesn't travel to the living area, and there's a dedicated space for clothes and sauna equipment.
So, our setup is, we come from the sauna, open the glass door into the changing room, and then open the door to the terrace, and then there's a separate path to the main house.
On the right is the sauna, then the changing room, and on the left is the sauna cottage. There isn't much in there [the changing room]: there's a chest of drawers for towels and sauna accessories, a mirror and a lamp, a bench, and coat hooks. And in my opinion, it doesn't need anything else. But the fact that you have a surface for clothes or can store essential sauna-related items, detergents or others, makes the changing room more important than its size.
Benefits of ready-made delivery: convenient, but also a memorable experience
A prefabricated building, installed directly on the foundations, is an almost magical experience. When the building is completed at the factory, right down to the benches and the stove, you can be in the sauna the very same evening:
I think this is a truly wonderful thing. Of course, the base was made a little earlier, but when the cabin arrived in the morning, around nine o'clock, we were in the sauna before nine in the evening.
Yes, I'm still amazed somehow at how well we in Finland know how to plan and execute things. – This really went exactly as we were promised…
Kirsi Alm-Siira's experience of acquiring an Ehta sauna cabin was excellent.
