There is an old Finnish proverb: first build the sauna, then the house.
In Finland the sauna was never an extra. It was planned first, because it was where the family washed, rested and spent time together. Today a country of 5.5 million people has around 3.3 million saunas.
I have been thinking about that proverb, because homes in other parts of the world are starting to be planned in a similar way. Wellness used to be something we left the house for. Now people are making room for it at home.
The spare room has a new job
During the pandemic, spare bedrooms were turned into places to work out. Many of them have stayed that way, and the idea has grown.
“Spaces for wellness, retreat and recharging are all really popular right now,” the Dallas designer Gonzalo Bueno told the Associated Press. His studio’s recent projects include small home gyms, music rooms, meditation rooms and Zen gardens.
What has changed is the intention. These rooms are no longer a treadmill in the corner of a guest room. They are being designed as rooms in their own right.
A gym that looks like part of the house
The home gym used to copy the commercial gym. Rubber floor, a wall of mirrors, black steel equipment and bright overhead lighting.
That is changing. Home gyms are now being designed with the same finishes as the rest of the house. Timber floors. Wall lights. Leather, brass and walnut.
The equipment has changed too. You can now buy a Pilates reformer finished in brass with wood panelling, leather medicine balls in three shades of brown, and dumbbells that sit on a walnut rack. The luxury fitness brand Pent makes a boxing collection entirely in leather.
“It’s becoming a design feature,” the personal trainer Henry Barratt told Country & Town House. He says his clients now want equipment that “matches their interior design”.
This matters for a simple reason. If a room looks and feels good, you are more likely to go into it.
Rooms for yoga and meditation
Not every wellness room is about exercise. Many people want a quiet room for yoga, stretching or meditation.
“Having a private space is essential,” the New York designer Jack Ovadia told the Associated Press.
These rooms need very little. Clear floor space, natural light, somewhere to store mats and blocks, and a door that closes. I often see them placed next to the main bedroom suite, so they become part of the morning or the evening.
If a room looks and feels good, you are more likely to go into it.
Where the sauna fits
The sauna is part of the same shift. Kohler, best known for bathrooms, launched a home sauna brand last year. Heat and cold are increasingly sold together, moving, as Alan Jalasjaa wrote in the trade magazine AQUA, “from professional athlete locker rooms to backyard patios”.
A sauna does not need a large house. A compact infrared cabin can fit into a spare room or a garage, and a barrel sauna can sit in the garden.
How I would approach it
Start with what you will really use. A yoga room you use every morning is worth more than a full gym you avoid.
Choose the same quality of finishes you would use anywhere else in the house. Natural materials, warm lighting and good joinery.
Think about light and air. A window that opens and a view of the garden make a big difference.
Plan the storage. Equipment that can be put away keeps the room calm.
And think about where it goes. Close to the bedroom and the bathroom is usually best, because that is where your day starts and ends.
The Finns planned the sauna first. Most of us will not go that far, but it is worth asking the same question at the start of any project: where in this home will we look after ourselves?
Five names to know
Zara Home Gym Collection. Oak dumbbells, oak and steel push-up bars, leather-wrapped medicine balls and an oak storage unit with a leather-lined shelf.
FOLD. A Pilates reformer designed in the UK, with a maple or red oak frame, that folds upright when you have finished.
Pent. Luxury fitness equipment, including a boxing collection made entirely in leather.
NOHRD. Dumbbells with solid wood discs on a walnut rack.
Wellness One. Saunas, indoors and out, from a showroom in Alderley Edge, Cheshire.
