The waterlands

Gems for the bathroom

About Us

Like most businesses, The Waterlands was formed to showcase what we feel are some of the most beautiful bathtubs we had ever seen. When we say ‘most beautiful’, we are not only referring to our finishing of them, but mainly the original shapes and designs which we adapted slightly for modern bathing conditions.

As founder of the company, I decided to name the company after the place where most of my personal inspiration for such beautiful things originated. I grew up on a farm in Scotland. That farm was named ‘The Waterlands’. Like most old farms, it had a couple of clawfoot tubs in operation and a few more lying around made into water troughs, herb gardens etc., all with pretty worn and often rusted finishes. There was also an abundance of old metal items and pieces lying around in barns that had many of the same finishes we try to emulate and recreate.

My first job, while at school, was a paper round. Each morning, I would deliver papers to the local pig farm which stood at the edge of the village and, right across the road, there was a foundry. Apart from many other items, this foundry produced the occasional clawfoot bathtub. Only one shape, the simple Classic style tub that is still so popular today. This was the early 1960’s, there are very few foundries around these days. 

While I didn’t deliver papers to the foundry, I would always pop in to talk with the old blacksmith and, on many cold and snowy Scottish mornings, enjoy some comfort from the heat of the furnace. Some of the colors, shapes and patterns that we have on our tubs are still fresh in my memory from all those years ago.

It is these early influences and a subsequent road well traveled that offers you the tubs and finishes we showcase today. Thank you for looking.