The church's founding is tied to the iron industry that transformed eastern Värmland in the early 1600s. Ironworks and forges sprang up around the region's mining fields, and in 1640 Johan Börjesson, mayor of Karlstad, established a blast furnace at Sunnemo. The growing workforce settling around it created the need for a local church, leading to the parish's establishment a decade later.
Built of horizontal log timber, the church originally comprised a rectangular nave with a three-sided chancel. A west tower was added in 1676, topped with an octagonal spire clad in wooden shingles and crowned with a gilded weathercock. A more radical rebuilding in 1776 added a north transept and moved the sacristy to the east side of the chancel, and the church was further lengthened to the west in the 1850s, when the present porch was also built.
A 1934 restoration, intended to recover the building's earliest architectural character, saw the removal of the north transept added in the 18th century. The result is a plain, unadorned interior that reflects the modest character of the ironworking community it served.
The most notable furnishing is the altarpiece, dated to 1680, whose central feature is a carved crucifixion group attributed largely to the sculptor Ander Larsson of Filipstad. It was originally made for the mother parish church at Norra Råda and only moved to Sunnemo in the mid-18th century. The pulpit has a similar history: made in the 1600s for Norra Råda church, it came to Sunnemo in the 1750s. The wooden font was designed by the architect Tor Engloo and made in 1935, and the church's pneumatic organ, built by Setterquist & Son, also dates from that year.