On the westside of Los Angeles, wellness has long been more than a trend—it’s a way of life. Cold plunges have joined Pilates and green juice in the daily vernacular, recovery has become as important as the workout itself and increasingly, rituals once reserved for spas and wellness retreats are making their way into the home. So when Seattle-based Redwood Outdoors went looking for a Southern California home for its collection of beautifully designed indoor and outdoor saunas and cold plunges, Montana Avenue felt like a natural fit. “We opened our first showroom in Seattle last year and it’s been a big success, but it’s really important that our locations have the right feeling—and Montana just felt special,” says co-founder Killian Lannen. “We wanted to be in the Brentwood and Santa Monica area because this is our number one delivery region, and when I saw the space, I knew it was right because we would be with like-minded brands and people.” Designed by Santa Monica’s David Van Arsdell Architects and built by Palisades-based contractor O’Malley Builds, the striking 2,250-square-foot cedar-lined showroom is intended to be as experiential as it is retail: Visitors can step inside the saunas, feel and smell the wood, compare barrel and cabin configurations, explore cold plunges and accessories and receive one-on-one guidance about everything from measurements and foundations to electrical requirements and installation. Redwood Outdoors is also using the expansive space to host wellness seminars, yoga classes, local brand collaborations and community events, turning the showroom into a neighborhood destination centered around what the company calls the “sauna lifestyle.”
For Lannen, the path to that lifestyle was an unexpected one. He and co-founder Nicholas Jensen met in Dublin, Ireland, while working for Google a decade ago, and their experience around venture-backed companies gave them insight into which businesses were succeeding—and where opportunities remained. The pair eventually left Google and started a successful online flower service, which they sold in 2021, but the idea that would become Redwood Outdoors had already surfaced two years earlier. On a freezing January day in Ireland in 2019, Lannen and his wife came across a small business offering 20-minute sessions in a barrel sauna near the Atlantic. They heated up, plunged into the icy ocean and then did it all over again. “It was amazing, like the endorphins after a workout,” he recalls. Lannen had already incorporated sauna into his regular gym routine, but the experience got him thinking about how wellness rituals could become part of everyday life at home. “We realized there needed to be better sauna products on the market, and at the same time, sauna benefits were becoming more well known around the world.” Lannen and Jensen saw an opportunity to build a stand-alone brand around an ancient practice that was finding an entirely new audience.
Launching Redwood Outdoors also allowed Lannen and his American wife to settle in the Pacific Northwest, while Jensen returned to his homeland of Canada, where the company responsibly sources much of its wood. Customer feedback helped shape the early products, and today the company offers more than a dozen sauna designs, ranging from traditional outdoor barrels to sleek cabins and indoor models. More recently, Redwood Outdoors expanded into cold plunges, tapping into the growing interest in pairing heat and cold as part of a broader recovery ritual. “Cold plunges can be a stand-alone experience, but when they’re used with a sauna, it’s just an incredible feeling,” says Lannen, noting that the brand’s clientele includes actors and professional athletes. Yet for all of the current enthusiasm surrounding cold therapy and at-home recovery, the founders have been careful to ground Redwood Outdoors in the traditions that inspired it.
That education has taken them repeatedly to Finland, the spiritual home of sauna culture, where approximately 5.6 million residents share an estimated 3 million saunas. “It’s the home of saunas—all types of saunas,” says Lannen. The team has also attended Finland’s World Sauna Forum, billed as “the most relaxing business event in the world,” where meetings sometimes take place inside the saunas themselves. “When you’re away from technology, it sparks conversation!” says Lannen. The company also collaborates with a Finnish sauna designer, bringing that expertise to the performance and design of each product and ensuring it reflects authentic Nordic aesthetics and craftsmanship. It is that combination of centuries-old tradition and modern innovation that Lannen hopes comes across at the Montana Avenue showroom, particularly for customers who may be intrigued by the idea of a home sauna but don’t know where to begin. Buying one online can be relatively straightforward—prices generally range from about $6,000 to $20,000—but seeing one in person “lets people see and feel the quality,” he says. Customers can compare sizes, sit on different bench configurations and discuss practical considerations for their own spaces. “It’s a matter of style—would they like a barrel or cabin shape? And how do they like to sauna: Do they need a single, low bench or two benches? Do they prefer dry heat or steam heat? We educate customers on finding the perfect sauna for them,” he says.
Once the sauna itself is chosen, there is an entire world of ritual to explore, from thermometers, stones, outdoor showers, buckets and ladles to backrests, aromatherapy oils and even hydrating serums. Lannen’s favorite is Hehku Honey Sauna Essence in Tar, made by a family-run producer in Nilsiä, Finland, which blends pure honey sweetness with smoky notes. A traditional saunahattu, or sauna hat, is another favorite. “It’s a felted-wool cap that insulates your head and helps keep you from getting too hot,” he explains. But for Lannen, the most meaningful part of the sauna lifestyle has little to do with accessories—or even with the current wellness zeitgeist. “We live in a world of heightened anxiety and having a sauna at home is the opportunity to disconnect and create real wellness,” he says. “Sauna on your own for quiet and reflection, or with friends and family. I like to sauna with my wife—with no phones, there’s good conversation and connection, plus the health benefits.” In a city constantly searching for the next frontier in wellness, there is something compelling about a ritual that asks people to do almost nothing at all: close the door, put down the phone and spend 15 or 30 minutes simply being present.
That may be why this centuries-old Nordic tradition feels so at home in LA right now. As wellness moves beyond workouts and spa appointments and increasingly influences how Angelenos design and live in their homes, a sauna or cold plunge can become less an amenity than a daily place to recover and reconnect. With its new Montana Avenue showroom, Redwood Outdoors is giving westside residents a local place to discover what that might look like for themselves, while creating a space for the larger wellness community to gather along the way. “It’s amazing where this category has gone, globally,” says Lannen. “We’re not just opening a door. We want to have a real local impact.”
Redwood Outdoors
1030 Montana Ave., Unit F, Santa Monica
800-567-8036
redwoodoutdoors.com
“We live in a world of heightened anxiety and having a sauna at home is the opportunity to disconnect and create real wellness.”