Connor McDavid has a spa at each of his three Canadian homes: The rise of backyard bliss

When Anu Asikainen planted a birch tree in the backyard of her postwar Montreal home several years ago, an uninformed passerby might have assumed it was for aesthetics. But Asikainen had an entirely different purpose in mind. She intended to harvest its pliable branches to make a Finnish vasta — a bundle of leaves and twigs used to gently beat one’s skin during a sauna session.

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Over the pandemic, Asikainen installed a personal sauna in her backyard, purchasing a used one online and organizing its transport across Montreal. About three times a week, no matter the season, she can be found engaging in an hour-long heating and cooling ritual, a process she said has had a profoundly positive impact on her mental health.

This summer, her birch was finally mature enough to use.

“It was so, so nice. I can’t describe the smell. It has a certain smell. The feeling intensifies the whole experience of being in the heat,” she said.

Asikainen is hardly alone when it comes to creating a backyard wellness space. Homeowners nationwide are reshaping their outdoor living spaces not for aesthetics, but for health and wellness, with a suite of amenities such as saunas, cold plunges and relaxation rooms.

Calgary-based backyard outfitter Backyard Canada said sauna sales have increased by an average of 28 per cent year over year through the past three years. Meanwhile, luxury home designer Lauren Kyle McDavid said virtually all of her clients are requesting saunas in new homes.

“The majority of the new homes we are doing have saunas,” said Kyle McDavid, who runs the design firm Kyle and Co. “Most people are doing a sauna versus a hot tub.”

For the DIY-crowd, a Facebook group devoted to homemade saunas in Canada — which can cost between $10,000 to $20,000 — has more than 18,000 members.

Move over theatre rooms and home offices. Backyard spas are reshaping residential design around how people want to live.

“Sauna is such an integral part of wellbeing,” said Asikainen. “I feel better having my own because that was a piece that was lacking in my life.”

There are two ways to heat a sauna: with electricity or by fire. When it comes to building the fire, there’s an art to it. The wood — typically birch or maple — should be dry and stacked to maximize airflow. Once lit, the fire needs to be maintained to heat the structure between 70°C to 90°C.

“Connor and I love the routine of making a fire, it feels meditative,” said Kyle McDavid, who has a wood-burning sauna in the Edmonton home she shares with her famous hockey-player husband, who plays for the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.

The couple have a sauna in each of their three Canadian residences — they also have a cottage and home in Ontario. Their typical routine consists of two 15-minute sessions in the heat, followed by a two- to three-minute dip in the cold plunge or in the lake if they’re at their cottage.

The couple use it as a way to spend time together. “I find it very relaxing, meditative. It’s also a place to connect. It’s definitely a space where you don’t have your phone on you. Connor and I put away our phones and we actually talk and connect,” she said.

But backyards spas aren’t limited to the jet set. There are sauna designs that fit all budgets and styles. In Whitehorse, homeowner Jonathan Driscoll built his backyard sauna with felled aspens from his property, which he had a friend mill before turning into shiplap at a local creative workspace.

“It gets a lot of use,” he said.

And like the McDavids, many people who have created wellness spaces enjoy the dual purposes of personal meditation and connection.

“We’ll invite another couple or sometimes have a big party in our yard,” said Vincent Huard, who built a sauna in his Montreal backyard last September. An adjoining relaxation room, nearby covered patio and cold plunge complete his wellness set up, with a backyard firepit also adding to the atmosphere.

On quieter evenings, the space serves a different purpose. “It’s a place where we can go in there and meditate a little bit, and manage our stress,” he said.

Unlike many backyard amenities that sit idle for months during Canadian winters, wellness spaces are increasingly designed for use in every season. Sometimes that means taking a flexible approach.

Michael Huck, of Smithers, B.C., converted a horse trailer into a sauna. In the winter, it sits in his backyard. In the summer, it’s mobile. “During the summer I take it to lakes and rivers and set up my own utopian version of a red neck spa,” he said.

I find it very relaxing, meditative. It’s also a place to connect ... Connor and I put away our phones and we actually talk and connect

In Yellowknife, N.W.T., where Joanne McKenzie recently completed her wood-burning backyard sauna in a traditional Finnish style, she can count four saunas in her cul-de-sac, and winter is when they prove their worth.

“The winters here can obviously be very difficult and long. A couple years ago, I really started engaging in learning how other Nordic countries around the world treat winter. I was looking at Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Norway. The big thing is they take winter as a celebration,” she said. “This idea of sauna kept coming up.”

She found adding a cold plunge was unnecessary. “It gets down to -50°C,” she said. “You step outside and it’s a cold plunge.”

Her sauna has made all the difference when it comes to thriving in the North. “It’s a really down-to-your-bones warmth. As soon as I start to feel that coldness come on, I make sure I’m in the sauna and the difference of how I feel in winter has just been massive,” she said.

Jordan Kruhlak, who built an electric sauna in his Edmonton backyard, said the experience has permanently changed his lifestyle. “My wife and I talked about this. Any house that we live in in Canada, we will have a sauna,” he said.

“We’ve never seen anything take off as much as wellness,” said Claudine Montano, real estate broker at Corcoran Horizon Realty in Ontario. “In 20 years of real estate, I’ve never had more requests for this kind of stuff. You’re seeing more people integrate cold plunges, saunas — some people where budget’s not an issue are going beyond to incorporate wellness rooms where massage people come in or you’d have an IV therapy room. Things you would go out to do, they’re doing them right there so it’s in the privacy of their own home.”

She forecasts this is merely the beginning of the push toward wellness in residential spaces.

“The younger generation in the workforce, in their 30s and 40s, they don’t drink a lot. These people are all about longevity and health. It’s not just a trend, it’s a lifestyle,” she said.

That said, she admits wellness features won’t fit every buyer.

“I know of a buyer who turned the sauna into a cedar closet,” she said. She views backyard wellness elements much like pools — either they’ll be sought after or completely unwanted by future buyers.

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