The next World of Warcraft expansion, Midnight, will be released at the beginning of March, but one of the new features—Player Housing—was made available already at the beginning of December 2025.
This early access has been hyped quite a bit in some circles—we were certainly excited about it, and followed various news items. A lovely feature I stumbled upon is the Midnight beta gallery of user-submitted builds at Wowhead.
There are so many inspiring houses and rooms at the gallery, with inventive uses of items and decorative elements—not surprising from gamers, right? 🙂 However, I want to especially highlight one: a Winter Sauna Cottage by CottageWizard.
In real life, little cottages like this are quite popular here in Finland, and typically contain a multipurpose room (or two) plus a sauna room with washing facilities in a corner.
CottageWizard describes the idea like this: “Winter sauna cottage built on the Midnight Beta. Tried to create the illusion of a snowy environment without snowy housing items! This was created at house level 3.”
The whole is really, really impressive. I absolutely love it! And, having messed about in the housing editor, I can see how much effort went into the build. The facade. The snow. (Snow!) The covered firewood storage. Towels on their pegs in the hallway. Creating the wood panels and benches in the sauna. The added platforms and beams in the room (e.g. as molding in the kitchen area). The kitchen backsplash.
What I don’t get is how the snow outside is achieved. I wish CottageWizard had included a little more detail; I’ll have to ponder that a bit.
But the sauna is absolutely perfect! The heater (kiuas) is protected with railings, as it should. Wood paneling throuhgout, ditto. Buckets (barrels) of water and ladles. A couple of levels of seating to adjust your bathing experience when it gets too hot or cool. A window is a bonus. (But HOW does it look snowy outside?!?! HOW?!?) There even is a sauna whisk (vihta or vasta, depending where you’re from) and a thermometer on the wall!
LOVE. IT!!! 😀
Images: screencaps from World of Warcraft: Midnight beta release by CottageWizard via Wowhead, mashup by Eppu Jensen
Of Dice and Dragons talks about games and gaming.
Co-Geeking 