Outbuildings
Room of the Day: Finnish-Inspired Sauna in the Woods
A rustic sauna cabin in the Catskills has room for 12 to sit and soak up the heat
Perched among the trees in New York’s Catskill Mountains, this sauna is just far enough away from the main house to have users craving some heat after a chilly walk down the hill, and close enough to a stream for a brave cold plunge. The sauna’s seating requirements, the setting and the building’s size restrictions shaped the architecture of the structure, which is elegantly simple, minimalist and inspired by Finnish design.
The area to the left is for changing; visitors can kick off their snowy boots there in the winter. This keeps the sauna area cleaner. Fabricator Rob Licht made the sauna stove. The metal box you see holds the water, which gets ladled over the stones on the stovetop to create steam. There are fiber cement boards behind it and a concrete pad on the floor underneath it.
“Going for the vaulted ceiling was an aesthetics-over-function choice that makes the room take a little longer to heat up,” Zomorodi says. (It takes about 25 minutes to get the sauna warm enough once wood is thrown in the stove.)
You can spy the stream through the 6-by-6-foot picture window. When brave sauna users get a little too hot, they make a run there for a cold plunge.
“Going for the vaulted ceiling was an aesthetics-over-function choice that makes the room take a little longer to heat up,” Zomorodi says. (It takes about 25 minutes to get the sauna warm enough once wood is thrown in the stove.)
You can spy the stream through the 6-by-6-foot picture window. When brave sauna users get a little too hot, they make a run there for a cold plunge.
The sauna room can fit 12 people comfortably. The interior wood is cedar; while it’s not the aromatic kind, Zomorodi reports that it has a pleasing scent. The lower benches and floor panels can be removed for easy cleaning.
At night the sauna is even more inviting, and glows in the woods.
More: Take a tour of the main house
More: Take a tour of the main house
Sauna at a Glance
What happens here: Relaxing
Location: Sullivan County, New York
Size: About 144 square feet (13.3 square meters)
Designer: Armin Zomorodi of Material Design Build
The simple structure measures about 12 by 12 feet, just under the size that would have required a permit. “We kept everything pretty simple and minimalist,” design-build pro Armin Zomorodi says. “And there’s one great window that looks out on the stream, as well as a few smaller ones.”
The exterior of the building is shiplap pine. Its stain is a blend of pine tar and linseed oil, which lends a traditional Finnish look. Copper channels are subtly exposed on the corners. The entry deck is yellow pine, and the roof is Cor-Ten steel.
The structure on the right houses the wood for the sauna stove. Up the hill in the distance, you can see the main house.
Double-glazed picture window: custom; smaller windows: Pella