The church was built to replace the medieval stone church at Åre, some nine kilometres to the east, which had become too small and was falling into disrepair. Reaching this point took decades: a committee was first formed in 1865, but a long and often heated debate over the new church's location delayed building for roughly 25 years, with rival factions favouring sites nearer the old church or further west towards Duved. It was only in 1881 that the parish meeting settled on the present site at Hamre.
Construction itself was similarly protracted, beginning in earnest only in 1891 after earlier false starts, and the church was finally consecrated in June 1894. The design, by the architect Gustaf Petterson of Stockholm, was reviewed and approved by the national Superintendent of Buildings, Helgo Zettervall, though an earlier architect had also been engaged on drawings before apparently being sidelined from the project.
The building is a three-aisled timber church with a polygonal chancel to the east and a bell tower with the main entrance to the west, its exterior clad in thick wooden shingles. A 1926 restoration changed the exterior colour from a light red to white and altered the interior colour scheme, and further changes followed over the twentieth century, including electrification in 1952 and further redecoration for the church's centenary in 1994, when its older altarpiece arrangement was reinstated. The exterior was restored again in the 2000s.
Several fittings from the old Åre church were initially moved here when the new building opened, though most were later returned once both churches had been restored; a set of bells cast from copper mined locally at Huså remained in Duved. The current pulpit and organ date from the time the church was built, the altarpiece is a triptych made in 1926 by Gabriel Strandberg, and the font, added in 1912, was designed by Count Sigge Cronstedt, who was also involved in the wider tourism development of Åre in the same period, including the funicular railway.
A separate small chapel of rest known as "Duveds lillkyrka", built in a style matching the main church, was consecrated in 1984 and stands nearby. Beyond its religious use, Duveds kyrka has also become one of the region's most popular venues for concerts and other cultural events.