Have you ever seen the Instagram account I Have This Thing With Floors? Well, we relate, because Inigo has this thing with tiles. We love hand-painted ones and interestingly shaped ones, gleaming metro ones and gorgeous matte encaustic ones. And the ones we love the most might just be by Balineum.
The company – named after the Latin word for bathhouse – was set up by Sarah Watson in 2007 after she couldn’t find a nice enough shower curtain. Now, however, its scope is somewhat broader, the brand becoming synonymous with the most beautiful bathrooms in the biz (it still sells shower curtains, BTW). If you’ve ever flicked through a glossy magazine and admired, say, a scallop-edged mirror, a lustrous brass washstand or some tortoiseshell tiles, chances are you’ve been bitten by the Balineum bug.
It’s clear, then, that Sarah – who has collaborated with the likes of Fee Greening, Wayne Pate and Common Room on Balineum ranges – knows a good thing when she sees one. Life at home – an apartment in a Victorian building in Hampstead, north London, which she shares with “a cricket-loving Australian who makes a very good spaghetti bolognese (also known as my husband, Dave)” – is therefore just as cleverly considered. Quality over quantity, she tells us, as we quiz her on her on her creature comforts. It’s a rule we can all get behind. As for Balineum? We need no convincing.
