The collection of the Sheltozero Veps Ethnographic Museum named after Rurik Petrovich Lonin features a barn lock adorned with decorative inserts. The lock was apparently made by a local blacksmith: a locking mechanism is attached to the figured plate with eight rivets; there are three triangular protrusions on the lever tumbler for engaging the key, and five holes in the plate for attaching the lock to the door.

The barn lock was an important thing in the Veps household. The barn was one of the most important places where not only food supplies were stored, but also conversations were held, family and sometimes social issues were resolved. Of course, the image of the barn is reflected in folk sayings: Verhas aitas om enamb leibad (“There is more bread in someone else’s barn”), Leibad sö, a kromaine jäta (“Eat bread, but leave the crust”).

The Veps put their houses “in the sun” so that the facade of the hut was turned to the sunny side, lake or river. The houses were built of pine logs, the number of which in the log construction had to be odd. Among the northern Veps, the house was an indicator of the wealth of the family and about a quarter of the houses were two-storied. The southern Veps built houses on a low basement, and sometimes without it at all, and two-story houses were not built in their settlements.

The Veps hut usually had a gable roof covered with shingles or straw. Under the same roof as the building behind the hut there was a farmyard where cattle were kept, and hay, sledges, sleds for transporting hay and a tarantass, as well as a plow, a wooden ard, and a wooden harrow were stored. The barn was located close to the house. The house, yard and other buildings (barns, drying barns, threshing floors and mills owned by several families at once) were surrounded by an oblique fence or rail-fence.

The Veps had well-developed blacksmithing, foundry, armory, bone cutting, weaving, jewelry and pottery. This is evidenced by numerous archaeological finds: for example, in the Ladoga burial mounds (burial sites of the 9th–13th centuries), experts found weapons, coins, jewelry, rich clothes and utensils. The Veps believed that they were sending the deceased to a new place of living, and tried to provide them with everything they might need.