We all know that toilets are an essential fixture of any bathroom. Beyond their obvious practical benefits, the larger variety of styles and types can easily make or break an interior design. From closed couples, back to walls and hanging toilets, picking out the right one can be a difficult task for the uninitiated.

This is precisely why we offer such an extensive range to choose from. Built to suit bathrooms of any shape and size, with additional features to help make installation and maintenance a breeze. This guide has been assembled to help you navigate these numerous options, to get you started off on the right foot whether you're replacing an older toilet, renovating your home or even building from scratch.

• Different Types of Toilets
• Additional Design Features
• Toilet Styles & Designs
• How to Pick Out a Cistern
• How to Pick Out a Toilet Seat
• Toilet Fitting Tips
• Shop by Brand
• Shop Toilets
• What's Next?

Corner Toilets

As their name suggests, corner toilets have been designed to fit snugly into the corner of your bathroom. Often closed-coupled in design, they find the perfect balance between traditional styling and modern, space-saving convenience.

Rimless

Most common designs of toilets tend to feature a rim that surrounds the inner circumference of the bowl. This is where water flows from when flushing to ensure that waste is disposed of. A rimless design, however, introduces a superior flushing mechanism that pushes water around the bowl, eliminating the need for a rim and, by extension, making them far more hygienic and easier to clean.

Comfort Height

Comfort height toilets typically range from 17 to 19 inches off the ground, making them a particularly ideal choice for the elderly or those with mobility issues. Being far more comfortable than standard sizes. You’ll find comfort height models covering most designs of toilets including class coupled and back-to-wall.

Once you’ve found the ideal type of toilet for your project, we can start to think about its design and, more specifically, how that design will affect your wider interior. For those looking to capture contemporary aesthetics toilets with clean and sharp lines should be your priority. These tend to blend in well with simple patterns of tiling, in more basic monotone or light brown colour pallets. 

Keep an eye out for full shrouded designs in particular which, in addition to the paired down styling, completely obscure any unsightly pipework. Contemporary designs of toilets also tend to feature more modern innovations including energy savings dual flushes and chrome push buttons. 

On the other hand, if you are attempting to recapture the sense of grandeur, that minimalist contemporary interiors so often lack, a traditional toilet may be for you. These designs take full advantage of their exposed pipework and cistern, incorporating them into a classical styling highlighted by ornate styled fixings and detailing as well as ceramic handles and bevelled edges. 

Often traditional toilets, by nature of their ‘busier’ design, take up a tad more space than their modern counterparts. That being said, there are two types to choose from to help curtail this particular problem.

The first, and most steeped in tradition, is the high-level toilet. As you would expect, these feature cisterns which are mounted high up on the wall above the bowl. Whilst they are a fantastic tone-setter, this does make installation and maintenance a slightly more difficult job. 

The other choice, a low-level design, is slightly more manageable with the cistern sitting slightly above the toilet instead. Not only does this make your life a little bit easier when it comes to cleaning, but it also reduces the lengths of your flush pipe – ideal for those looking to embrace traditional styling but who still want to keep their walls free and clear.

Matching Your Toilet to Your Bathroom

If you are fully renovating your bathroom, you have the perfect opportunity to match all of your fixtures with one another. Consider what material and finish your taps will be, as well as what colour pallet you will be choosing for your walls and take this into consideration when shopping for your toilet and accessories – especially if you are opting for a handle over a modern push button.

Do I Need to Buy a Cistern Separately?

This will largely depend on your chosen toilet. Whilst many close coupled WCs will come supplied with a cistern, back to wall and wall hung may not. In this case, a separate concealed cistern will need to be purchased alongside, if you have a wall-hung toilet, a wall mounting frame. So, what should you consider when picking out your cistern?

Size

It’s an obvious factor, but an important one as well. The size of your cistern will need to be adjusted depending on the partition, furniture unit or wall space that you will be installing them in. Take care to measure the height and depth of the area available to you and compare these with the cisterns available. 

Some Back to Wall and Wall Hung toilets may come complete with a unit and cistern to save you this hassle.

Access

Once installed your cistern will still need to be accessed for maintenance down the line. With this in mind, it is important to only install your cisterns in areas that you can access with relative ease – quickly as well, in the event of an emergency repair or if your water needs to be isolated. More often than not, this can be achieved with little hassle by making use of a removable panel built into your furniture unit.

Lever vs Push Flush

Whilst lever flushes may offer a bit more versatility when it comes to style and design, push buttons are, by far, the more convenient. Not only are they much easier to clean and maintain (lever flushes are known to be less reliable due to their cable and ball operation), but many also offer dual flush. This innovation helps you to save water with every flush, commonly letting you choose between a 3-litre and 6-litre flush.  

Like taps to a sink and hoses to a shower, seats are the finishing touch every toilet needs – offering one last chance to introduce a touch more style and grace to your interior. As with toilets, however, there are a few different options to choose from.

Types of Toilet Seats

Standard Close

Your bog-standard toilet seat, Standard Close seats come in a wide variety of modern and traditional designs with finishes to suit pretty much any bathroom. Being so simple, they are also incredibly easy to install, clean and replace should you want a change down the line.

Soft Close

Built to prevent damage to the seat and bowl, Soft close seats are supplied with a specialised mechanism that slows the lid as it drops. Preventing it from slamming. Minimising the risk of you trapping your fingers, you’ll find them particularly ideal for use in family bathrooms.

Shapes & Materials

As you might expect, toilet seats come in a wide variety of different shapes and sizes, built not just for style, but also for comfort. Pointed seats, for example, are often favoured for this precise reason thanks to their elongated design. With soft, curved lines they also offer a great balance between modern and traditional styling – suited to a wider variety of interiors than many other shapes.

This includes D-Shaped and Square Seats, which boast far more understated looks with sharp, angular designs that compliment chrome fixings and accessories – perfect for contemporary bathrooms. On the other end of the spectrum, we have rounded toilet seats built almost exclusively for classic interiors.

Do all Toilet Seats Fit all Toilets? 

Unfortunately, finding the right toilet seat is not quite this simple. As toilets and toilet seats are designed and manufactured in a range of shapes you will need to find a seat that matches your particular toilet. The easiest way to do this is to check what shape your current seat is and shop for something similar that suits your new design and personal taste.

Thermoplastic vs Duroplast vs Wood

Most common toilet seats tend to be manufactured from either wood or plastic or, more specifically, polymers that can be more easily moulded under heat and cool to a hardwearing surface – most often Thermoplastic or Duroplast. Both are incredibly popular, easy to clean and incredibly durable, though Duroplast also boasts superb resistance to scratches making it more suitable for harsh cleaning. 

Wooden seats on the other hand offer numerous different finishes to better suit your bathroom's interior. This can include natural oak colours as well as plain white for those looking for a simpler appearance. Wood, whilst at a higher risk of damage and more difficult to clean, is also a warmer and more comfortable material. Perfect for older and colder homes that tend to house traditional interiors.  

Can You Fit a Toilet Yourself?

Yes. Replacing a toilet yourself can be a relatively simple task. As long you take the proper steps to prepare, it is as straightforward as connecting the new toilet to a pre-existing branch of your soil pipe (the outlet that waste is flushed through). On the other hand, if you are looking to have a new toilet fitted then this would involve the complex job of connecting into your main soil pipe. A job best left to a plumber.

Consider Your Pipework

Different types of toilets have different types of connections. Whilst closed couple toilets can be connected both horizontally and vertically as well as left and right, back to walls can only be connected by the former. As mentioned above, each new toilet will need to be connected to the main soil pipe which, in turn, will need to be routed to your soil stack (the outlet for your waste). It’s important to take into consideration where your stack is as this may remove certain types of toilets as an option.

How Much Space Do You Have?

In addition to standard length and width measurements, it is important to take the height of your toilet into account – especially if you are looking at a comfortable height toilet. The average height is around 14 to 15 inches, so you’ll need at least this much vertical space for almost any toilet you’ll want to install. More so, in the case of low and high-level traditional designs.

Remember, if you are installing a back-to-wall or hanging toilet, you will also need to account for the space it will take to fit your concealed cistern.

Remember, if you are installing a back-to-wall or hanging toilet, you will also need to account for the space it will take to fit your concealed cistern.

How Much Does It Cost to Have a Toilet Installed?

The cost of having a toilet professionally installed will vary significantly depending on the type, whether you need your current removed and any additional work that may be involved in the fitting e.g. tiling the frame for a wall-hung toilet. A simple closed couple installation can cost anywhere between £150 - £200, with back-to-wall and wall-hung increases in cost north of £300.  

Additional removal costs for older fixtures can be over £75. If you need your waste adjusted and/or extra tiling work around the frame of your wall-hung toilet these, on average, can be upwards of £100 and £375 respectively.

Source: checkatrade.com

With a stunning range of toilets from Luxury brands Grohe, Synergy and Arley just a mouse click away it has never been easier to undertake a bathroom renovation. Replaced old or damaged fixtures, refresh a bleak room or build from scratch with numerous options of closed coupled, back-to-wall and hanging toilets.  

Whether you are looking to introduce some modern styling into a dated bathroom with a sleek concealed cistern, round off a new smart home with a Japanese toilet or simply make the morning routine a tad more comfortable with one of our comfort height models, we have the toilets and accessories for you. With expert advice on hand to help you find the perfect fit for your next project.

Looking for more inspiration? Take a look at our wide range of product and project guides - covering an array of subjects from garden renovations to painting and decorating, installing stunning lighting set-ups to building out a kitchen or bathroom from scratch and much, much more. Take the leap today and start your DIY journey right here. For direct help and advice, you can also contact our award-winning customer service team.