Unique choices make the home distinctive

The home's interior shows that design choices were made from the heart, rather than being dictated solely by trends. The combination of natural materials and striking details make an impression the moment you step inside. In the Pietiläinen household, authenticity is clearly the most important thing: the house is allowed to look like its owners.

The most striking spaces are the bathroom and sauna that bring to mind a luxurious bathhouse. Dark wood surfaces, impressive stone tile walls, and carefully implemented indirect lighting make a glorious bathing area. The overall effect is at once striking and comfortably relaxed.

The sauna is a particularly important part of everyday life for the Pietiläinen family, which is why special attention was paid to choosing the right heater. As the family values soft, gentle steam more than intense heat and wanted a heater that would complement the sauna’s design, they chose the black Mondex Tahko E2 WiFi heater.

FUNCTIONALITY AND IMPRESSIVE CHOICE OF MATERIALS

The renovation of the wet room started out of necessity. The washroom and sauna had reached the end of their service life, so ultimately the renovation was inevitable.

The planning began with the idea to expand the space. The wall between the washroom and the sauna was torn down and replaced with a glass wall that brought more light and space into the room. The sauna was also renovated from the inner structures to the surface materials. One of the walls was tiled with Italian marble, which became the basis for the color choices of the rest of the room.

The family goes to sauna every day, and there are actually two saunas on the property. In addition to the luxurious indoor one, they can enjoy the heat of a wood-burning heater in the outdoor sauna, but during the everyday life the easiness of the indoor sauna can be essential.

“It is important to us that it is easy to go to the sauna, and heating up the outdoor sauna’s wood-burning heater is not always the easiest option mid-week,” Ilona says.

Choosing the sauna heater is part of the big picture

For the Pietiläinen family, Finnish origin, user experience, and appearance were particularly important factors when choosing the sauna heater. Ilona is familiar with different sauna solutions thanks to her job as a photographer and interior journalist, and the Mondex heater convinced her with its practicality and modern design.

Thanks to the remote control, the heater could be embedded into the sauna benches. The supplier made an opening for the embedding flange during the construction phase, resulting in a finished and cohesive overall look.

The WiFi control has been especially useful. The heater can easily be turned on from an evening walk with Myrsky the dog, and the sauna is ready at exactly the right time. The clear screen of the electronic controller installed in the hallway tells what the temperature inside the sauna with a single glance.

”The controller is easy to use, and we don’t have to do a separate trip to the sauna to check the temperature.”

The sauna has several glass and stone surfaces, which put its own requirements on the heater. Expert sizing advice from Mondex made the selection process easier, and ultimately the larger, 10.5 kW heater model proved to be the right choice.

The family is especially pleased with how seamlessly the heater was integrated into the bench structure.

”We are very happy with the tones of the sauna. We were also able to find a place for the heater that means the water doesn’t splash on the glass wall,” Ilona tells proudly.

These small, thought-out details are exactly what make the family’s sauna both functional and beautiful whole. When the materials have been chosen with care, the spatial solutions are planned precisely, and the heater has been sized correctly, the result can’t be anything but the perfect steam.

You can follow the renovation process of Ilona's house on her social media channels, IG: valkoinen_puutalokoti and FB: IlonaPietilainen