“Sauna Is in My DNA”: Salo Sauna Brings Finnish Tradition to the Parry Sound Waterfront

PARRY SOUND, ON — At the Harbour Walk Shops along the Parry Sound waterfront, a new showroom is introducing visitors to a tradition that has shaped the life of Salo Sauna founder Henry Salonen for as long as he can remember.

The Salo Sauna Shop at the Harbour Walk Shops in Parry Sound

Located at 11 Bay Street, Unit 7, the Salo Sauna showroom brings together Finnish sauna culture, thoughtful Canadian design and the natural character of cottage country. Visitors can step inside a Salo sauna, experience its materials and proportions, and learn what distinguishes an authentically designed Finnish sauna from the many simplified versions found throughout North America.

For Salonen, sauna is more than a product or a business. It is part of his DNA. Both of Salonen’s parents, Timo and Tuula Salonen, are originally from Lahti, Finland, a city surrounded by lakes and deeply connected to Finnish outdoor culture. Henry grew up in a household where sauna was not viewed as a luxury or occasional activity. It was simply part of life.

Finns once commonly gave birth in saunas because they were among the cleanest, warmest and most private spaces available. In that sense, Salonen jokes that he was “basically born in a sauna.” Although his own birth did not take place inside one, the culture and traditions surrounding sauna were present from the beginning.

His parents regularly sent him to summer camps in Finland, where sauna, swimming and time outdoors became inseparable parts of his childhood.

“It was at those camps that I really grew into Finnish sauna culture,” Salonen says. “It became something I couldn’t shake—and I never wanted to.”

Henry Salonen as a child in the sauna

He also inherited his love of lakes and cold-water swimming from his mother, Tuula, whom he describes as nearly impossible to keep out of the water.

“My mom will swim whenever she gets the chance,” he says. “It doesn’t seem to matter how cold the lake is. That connection between sauna, cold water and the lake is something I learned from her.”

Some of Salonen’s most formative sauna memories were created at his aunt and uncle’s cottage on Otter Lake near Parry Sound. Over many years, he experienced the lake and its surrounding landscape through every season. Sauna was part of the rhythm of those visits: heat, steam, conversation, a plunge into the lake and the deep calm that followed.

His parents have also owned a family cottage on Rankin Lake for more than two decades. Today, Salonen continues the tradition there, enjoying the family sauna beside the lake and sharing the experience with a new generation.

These places helped shape the design philosophy behind Salo Sauna.

The company’s saunas are created to feel connected to their surroundings rather than imposed upon them. Salonen is particularly drawn to birch trees, quiet lakes, rocky shorelines and the understated beauty of the Canadian Shield. The goal is not to create an extravagant escape from nature, but a calm space that helps people experience it more fully.

“Sauna gives you a reason to slow down,” Salonen says. “You notice the trees, the air, the lake and the people you’re with. It turns an ordinary evening into something meaningful.”

An interior view of the cedar benches in the Salo Two sauna

Salonen’s connection to sauna is also rooted in building. He has constructed custom saunas alongside his father, Timo, drawing upon his father’s decades of construction knowledge and their shared understanding of how a sauna should feel and perform.

That experience is complemented by Salonen’s career as a set designer in the film and television industry. A recent project he worked on being Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, which won an Oscar for Best Production Design. His professional work has trained him to consider proportion, material, atmosphere and the way people move through a space. At Salo Sauna, those skills are applied to structures designed not for a camera, but for everyday rituals that may continue for decades.

“I always try to design in a cinematic way,” Salonen says. “I like to think about how beautiful memories are formed.”

This philosophy influences everything from the placement of a window and the framing of a lake view to the atmosphere created by warm cedar, gentle light and rising steam.

Water being poured onto sauna heater rocks creating löyly (sauna steam)

The showroom at Harbour Walk Shops allows visitors to experience those details firsthand. They can see the warmth of the cedar, examine the finely finished benches and understand why bench height, heater placement, ventilation and room proportions are essential to creating good löyly—the Finnish word used to describe the steam and atmosphere produced when water meets hot sauna stones.

Salo benches are designed according to Finnish principles, placing bathers high enough in the room to experience balanced heat above the sauna stones. The company’s designs also emphasize proper airflow, durable construction and natural materials chosen to age gracefully.

Rather than treating sauna as a generic hot room, Salo approaches it as a complete environment.

The company creates saunas for homes, cottages, resorts, and wellness spaces, adapting each project to its landscape, architecture and intended use. Salo’s modular construction methods also help bring the quality and atmosphere of a custom-built sauna to projects that require greater predictability and efficiency.

The Parry Sound showroom represents a natural meeting point between Salonen’s Finnish heritage and his connection to Ontario cottage country. The region’s forests, lakes, skilled tradespeople and longstanding cottage culture make it more than simply a place to display the company’s products. It is part of the Salo story.

“Parry Sound feels like the right place for us,” Salonen says. “It has the lakes, the landscape, the craftsmanship and the pace of life that sauna belongs to.”

Through Salo Sauna, Salonen hopes to help restore a more authentic understanding of Finnish sauna culture—one rooted not only in heat, but in water, nature, family and time spent together.

For him, the ritual remains as meaningful today as it was during summers at Finnish camp, evenings on Otter Lake and family gatherings on Rankin Lake.

“You heat the sauna, you go into the lake, and everything else becomes quiet,” he says. “That feeling is what I want people to experience. It’s what Salo is really about.”

About Salo Sauna

Salo Sauna is a Canadian sauna company inspired by authentic Finnish sauna culture and the landscapes of Ontario cottage country. The company was founded by designer Henry Salonen, and designs and builds carefully considered saunas for homes, cottages, resorts, and wellness spaces, combining Finnish design principles, natural materials and Canadian craftsmanship.

Photography by Cash Kelar.