Hemlock Backrest

A sauna bench is a flat plank, and after twenty minutes your back has an opinion about that.

This is a ladder of rounded hemlock dowels held between two shaped rails. The rails are cut in a shallow S, so the frame stands off the wall at the top and the bottom and hollows out through the middle, which is where your lower back actually wants something to press against.

Because it is an open frame rather than a solid panel, air moves through it. Your back is against wood and space rather than against a sheet, and nothing traps heat between you and the bench.

Hemlock is the usual choice for the parts of a sauna you touch. It stays cooler to the hand than a dense hardwood, it does not weep resin, and it wears smooth instead of splintering.

Set it on the bench, lean back, and stop hunting for an angle.

• Eleven rounded dowels between two shaped rails
• Hemlock
• Shallow S curve, open frame
• One person