From pencil sketch to CAD, there are a few ways to get your sauna design down on paper (literal or digital). For that let’s review the well used options for sauna blueprints and beyond.
Pencil Drawing
There’s nothing like a pencil and piece of paper. The tactile nature, analog thinking at it’s best, can bring us immediate ownership to our project. And for many, the transition from a pencil drawing to pounding nails is enough. Many don’t need to have the location of every stud in order to proceed with the building stage. A pencil drawing is perhaps the best way to keep things analog, yet have a plan for procuring materials and moving on. Exact window location? Feel it as you go. Frame a wall and tack up a pizza box. Then put in your headers and off you go.
The value of a pencil drawing is detailed in this article here.
Excel/Powerpoint
Enter Bryan:
As an office worker, I’m all too familiar with PowerPoint and Excel. Instead of a pencil sketch, I tend to use PointPoint for brainstorming layouts. To start, I create a custom-sized slide and typically use a scale of 0.1” = 1” for things like garages, gardens, and now saunas. I can use a box to represent the space available, then add shapes for the objects that need to fit inside – they’re easy to move, rotate, resize, etc. until I’ve got a rough layout that looks like it’ll work.
From there, I’ll recreate that rough layout in Excel. If I modify the column width to match the row height so I have a grid of squares on the screen, I can use 1 square as 1 square inch. It’s a little harder to modify shapes, but I find this better for fine tuning dimensions, clearances, etc. In my sauna layout in Excel, once I started trying to account for the thickness of the furring strips and cedar planks, I realize that I wasn’t going to have the full 6’ bench with that I wanted for lying down. It was also helpful to picture the step and bench heights in the profile view relative to heater height and ceiling height.
They’re definitely not construction drawings and it’s going to take another effort to develop a materials list (that a CAD program like SketchUp might be able to generate automatically), but I’ve had good luck using my PowerPoint and Excel sketches to visualize gaps / clashes in my design (without having the time or skill to learn to produce those cool 3D models), or to communicate with contractors / builders to align on expectations for their work.
Sketch Up
Google SketchUp is a free program and is thought to be pretty intuitive in its function. For anyone with grey hair who tends to get lost with a TV remote, this drawing program may present a steep learning curve. That said, several DIY sauna builders have benefited from sharing SketchUp drawings of their plans. The 3D adaptability can give one a dimensional feel for their hot rooms
And back to Bryan, our dialogue has taken him down the free SketchUp software tool rabbit hole, where he advanced himself “further on the continuum of details.” He shared his latest work with me via this phone screen shot:
Auto CAD
Auto CAD is industry standard for precise technical drawings, good if you’re working with contractors. Using CAD (Computer-Aided Design) for sauna building streamlines planning and precision. It lets you create detailed floor plans, 3D models, and exact measurements for walls, benches, stoves, and ventilation.
You can test layouts, optimize dimensions (like ceiling height and bench spacing), and avoid costly mistakes before cutting wood. CAD also helps generate material lists and visualize the finished sauna, making it easier to communicate designs with clients or contractors. There is Fusion 360, Cedreo, Free CAD.
Personal preference
When it comes to sauna design, I’ll admit I’m old-school. Give me a pencil and a piece of graph paper, and I’m in my element. There’s something about the iterative process of sketching, erasing, and sketching again that feels more alive than clicking a mouse.
I often tell my sauna consult clients to think of building a sauna like how Michelangelo approached sculpture. He studied the stone, analyzed it from every angle, then started chipping away. Bit by bit, the excess disappeared, and what remained was the figure he always knew was there.
Sauna design works the same way. Start with the big block — the footprint, the roofline, the stove placement. Then keep chipping. Move a bench line here, adjust a ceiling height there. Eventually, what’s left isn’t just a drawing on paper, it’s the sauna that was hiding inside your imagination all along.
