So you think toilet seats are boring? I guess you haven’t been shopping for a replacement toilet seat lately. It used to be a bit like that old quote attributed to Henry Ford, "you can have any color so long as it’s black" I don’t think it was true in Fords case and it wasn’t quite true in the case of toilet seats.

For many years you had a choice of black, white or wood. Prior to the use of plastic for household goods it was wood or nothing, though you most likely had a choice of wood but of course the more attractive woods like mahogany were expensive.

With the advent of plastic seats there came a new generation of smooth and shiny seats, usually black in color. They were regarded by many as more hygienic than wood, certainly they were easier to clean, and the eliminated the danger of splinters where you least expected them.

It wasn’t long before you had the choice of a white toilet seat which a lot of people obviously preferred, believing that it looked more aesthetically pleasing and possibly "cleaner" if you like. Of course wooden seats were still available for those who preferred

the look of wood, not to mention the warmth of a wooden toilet seat when compared to the cold plastic ones. Also there were developments in the wood finishes available which made wooden seats easier to clean without the need for scrubbing bare wood.

We haven’t yet considered the hardware used to attach the seat to the toilet itself, usually some sort of hinge arrangement with bolts to fix the seat to the porcelain pan. These fittings would usually be of brass for the more expensive seats or iron or steel for the cheaper market. Steel of course rusts very easily, chrome plating can help delay this but unfortunately not forever, and to chrome plate steel means a complicated process of first coating the steel with other metals such as zinc and brass. This also means the fittings cost more. The invention of stainless steel meant you didn’t need the complicated plating progress to make rust roof toilet seat hardware.

Now of course we have an amazing range of plastic toilet seats which often have plastic fitting hardware too. Of course plastic is a pretty basic description for a whole range of synthetic materials from polypropylene to acrylic resin. There are also many wooden seats which have a vinyl coating which makes them durable and easy to clean. When I say wood it can mean some type of wood and resin compound like medium density fibreboard.

Acrylic resins have the added attraction of being available in clear or translucent colors; this means you can embed objects in the resin such as sea shells, dried flowers, pictures even pieces of barbed wire! So now there’s a huge range of novelty toilet seats available to match the décor of your bathroom whatever the style you choose and no matter how wild or outrageous. Toilet seats boring, not any more.