Balineum

Balineum is a beautifully designed website offering a fantastic range of shower curtains, bath mats and a brand new range of luxury cotton towels.

SHOWER CURTAINS

Balineum was conceived by founder Sarah Watson, after a fruitless search for a stylish curtain for her own bathroom in London. After five years in New York working as a lifestyle and fashion photography producer, Sarah moved to London in 2006. When she arrived, she was astounded to discover the only shower curtains on offer were cheap, nasty polyester and plastic curtains. So she set about creating a range to bring real fabrics and elegant designs into the bathroom.

Made with a blend of fine cotton and linen, Balineum fabric shower curtains mix classic designs with the fresh, crisp feel and elegant fall of natural fabrics and can be combined with a waterproof liner for a unique and stylish alternative to run of the mill shower curtains. Like premium quality cotton sheets, these shower curtains are an investment; they're designed to look and feel fantastic for many years.

BATH TOWELS

Having brought high quality shower curtains to the market successfully, Sarah Watson turned her attention to luxury towels. She had bought a cream and white set of super absorbent, soft, heavy, good-sized towels in America, and was frustrated not to find the same quality available in Europe.

So dedicated was she to her cause, that she tracked down the same U.S manufacturer of the original set (bought eight years previously), and had it make towels for Balineum - even upping the quality slightly from 800gsm to 820gsm. She spent more than a year trialling different towel weights, weaves, borders and palettes and washes before launching 820 Anatolia towels. More recently, it has also launched, Syrie, a lighter weight towel, hand-woven in France and based on an ancient Syrian weaving technique.

DESIGN

The final border design chosen is very simple and elegant: no herringbones, no diamantes, no fuss. Sarah wanted a design that wouldn't date and when she tested different borders in friends' bathrooms this one looked the best. There are four understated colours to choose from: white, clay, sage and duck egg, all specifically developed with European light and homes in mind.

Fans of the towels needn't panic that the line will be discontinued either, once Balineum has launched a colour it makes a commitment to always stock it, so customers can come back at any time to add a single face cloth or buy a matching bath mat in the colour they love.

Don't forget the newly launched swatch service, which sends swatches free to your home to try out on your mood board.