Sauna - Place for Relaxing

Here in Finland sauna is something that nearly everyone has and visits regularly. It has been estimated that we have approximately 1.5 million saunas. That might not sound much but when that number is matched to the people living in Finland, which is 5.1 million, we get about 1 sauna for every 5 people. Nowadays saunas are included even in the smallish city apartments. Sauna is part of our culture that most people living elsewhere might have difficulties understanding - same way as we have difficulties understanding how foreign people can live without having one :).

Saunas can be of different sizes, starting from just few square meters to tens of square meters. Same way as size changes, the outlook can vary quite a bit too. Traditionally saunas have usually been pretty simplistic. Wall material has usually been wood and there hasn't been any special lightning solutions or other design gimmicks. You can probably get the picture from the picture below:

Traditional Finnish sauna

Nowadays there are, however, more and more different kind of designs that try to make saunas even more inviting and stylish places to spend quality time. Saunas can for example have a bit different color scheme:

Picture from sisustusblogi.fi

Lightning solutions have also advanced quite a bit. Indirect lightning is very popular and there are also more advanced solutions such as the illuminated glass wall in the picture below. Glass doors and glass walls are also popular as they are easy way to bring more space into the sauna.

Sauna design from Lumilaude.fi

Illuminated water bucket from Lumilaude.fi

Wall materials and stoves have also evolved. One can add for example little bit of rock into the walls to make things more interesting. Stoves, especially the electric models, come nowadays in many interesting designs. I'm myself fan of the design shown below.

Regardless of the design, sauna should always be warm and welcoming. It is, after all, the place where you relax and have good time. Hot sauna is a great place to visit after work, after jogging or maybe just on the Saturday evening as most Finns do. And regardless of what some crazy people think sauna won't get you killed in normal conditions :).

-K-