Most people shopping for a sauna never think about where it actually comes from. Who built it, in what kind of workshop, and in what kind of country. We did not think that was good enough for something we were going to put our name to, so at the end of May we went to Estonia to find out.
We were there for two weeks. We came back with a far clearer idea of what we are selling, and rather more affection for the place than we had bargained for.
Inside the Factories
The saunas are built near Tartu, in the south of the country, and we were collected from the old town and driven out to see the work. What you notice first is that nothing is rushed. These saunas are made to order, to the customer's own specification, and built up by hand from the frame outwards by people who do this every day and have done for years.
We watched the timber being selected and worked, the walls going together, the benches being fitted, the glass going in. We asked every awkward question we could think of about insulation, ventilation, heaters and how a finished cabin is packed for a thousand-mile journey. Seeing how something is put together tells you a great deal about how it will hold up, and it means that when you ask us a question about your sauna, the answer comes from having stood next to one half-built.
A Country That Lives Outdoors
Then Estonia simply kept going. Forests that seem to have no far side. Bogs stretching further than you can see. Castle ruins standing in open country with nothing to prove. Quiet lakeshore villages at the end of dirt roads, and Tartu itself, which managed to put on a bike race and a music festival in the same week.
We stayed for part of the trip in forest cabins with their own saunas, and that is where the point of all this landed. In Estonia the sauna is not a lifestyle product. It is just part of life, and has been for a very long time. You come in from the cold or the lake, you sit in the heat, you say very little, and you sleep extremely well.
Why It Matters for Your Garden
It would have been far easier to order from a catalogue. But a sauna is not a small purchase, and we wanted to be able to tell you honestly who made yours and how. The saunas we now offer are the ones we watched being built, and each is still made to order, so the size, the layout, the glazing and the heater are yours to decide.
It also changed how we think about the rest of the garden. A sauna works best as part of a routine: heat, then cold air or a wood-fired hot tub, then somewhere sheltered to sit afterwards. For two people, a deep soaking tub such as the Ofuro takes up very little room and needs no electricity at all. That last part is where a covered space earns its keep, and a louvred pergola a few steps from the sauna door turns three separate things into one evening. Add a pergola-mounted heater and the sitting-out part still appeals in January.
What Came Home With Us
A good deal of film and photography, much of which is already on our social channels, and a much shorter list of unanswered questions. If you are considering a sauna and want to know what is involved, from the base it sits on to how it arrives, ask us. We have seen every stage of it.
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