If someone was to randomly ask the question to a group of strangers “What color is a toilet?” it is likely that there would be a consensus: white.
Personally, every toilet in every place that I’ve ever lived has been white, and I feel that I would be slightly taken aback to walk into a bathroom and see a toilet that was of different color.
But that begs the question: “Why are toilets white?”
Does a Toilet Need to Be White?
Even though most people that are reading this probably have the same experience of always having a white toilet in their home, that doesn’t always need to be the case. In fact, toilets are offered in a variety of colors. Choosing one of those can be a wow factor when you step into the bathroom. It will certainly have your guests asking about the reasons behind your choice. After all, take a moment to think about your thought process if you walked into a bathroom that had a non-white toilet.
You can also paint your toilet if you have a white one but don’t want to conform.
With all that in mind, it’s a wonder why the vast majority of toilets out there are white, to begin with.
4 Reasons Toilets Are White
Let’s take a look at a few main reasons why toilets are rarely non-white.
Options
This is one of the biggest reasons that toilets are white and that people continue to buy white toilets over and over again. Since it is the most common color of toilets, it’s the color that also has the most options available to anyone in the market.
This will allow you to choose from different bowl shapes, heights, designs, and more.
Ease of Manufacturing
As many people reading this may be aware, most of the toilets out there in the world are made of porcelain. And although people sometimes misconstrue porcelain to be synonymous with glass they are not the same thing.
Both are clear in the early stages of formation, and of course, glass, as you see in windows or lenses, is still clear when they are heated and hardened. Porcelain, on the other hand, hardens into the solid white color that we’re all familiar with.
This means that adding a different color to the mixture would only add time and material costs to the manufacturing process and make creating different color toilets more expensive.
Makes Dirt Stand Out
As anyone who has ever cleaned a toilet — and who didn’t have to clean the toilet when they were growing up? — could probably attest to, one of the benefits of a toilet being white is that the dirt and stains easily stand out against the white backdrop of the toilet.
This is especially beneficial as it allows the person cleaning to spend less time looking for hard to find areas that need addressing and helps to get the job done quicker.
Just imagine the difficulty of seeing some of the problem areas on a dark-colored toilet like a dark grey or a black. These areas of dirt and grime that stand out so prominently on a white toilet will be much harder to see and, therefore, keep clean.
Looks and Perception
This is one of the big ones. Toilets are usually white because toilets are usually white.
Now we all learned in elementary school to not try to define a word using the word itself, but sometimes it’s the best way to describe something. One of the reasons that toilets are usually white is because that’s what society has deemed normal and acceptable.
If you were told to close your eyes and quickly picture a bathroom, the most common things you’d picture would include a white toilet, a white tub or shower, and a white sink. This is because it’s what has always been the norm and it is what most people have become more accustomed to over the years.
Home Resale Value
The resale value I’m referring to does not mean the retail value of the toilet of course! Rather, the way in which a different-colored toilet may harm the resale value of your home. This is due in large part to the previous reason, where the white toilet has become the norm that we’re all accustomed to.
Just trying to think about the potentially negative effects that having a non-white toilet could have when making a first impression with a potential buyer. In some cases, a non-white toilet could fit in perfectly and it may not even be a second thought.
But when people are expecting to see a white toilet and they see something different, it may be a tough sell.
Should You Get a Non-White Toilet?
With all of the above reasons in mind, it may seem like sticking with a white toilet is the best option if you’re in the market for a new one. And in many cases, that often is the best choice.
You’ll have the most options to choose from, they’ll be the most affordable and easiest to clean, and they typically won’t detract from the value of your home if you go to sell it.
That’s not to say, however, that you should never consider a toilet that isn’t white, and there are a few reasons to go with something different.
First and foremost, if you’re swapping out the toilet in your home, it’s your home — so do what you want! Secondly, in some cases depending on the design and decor of the bathroom, a different color toilet may be exactly what’s needed to finish the room off and be the final piece to the puzzle.
Summary
Try to make it a point to pay a bit more attention to the color of toilets that you see in your everyday life. You may be surprised at just how often you see a white toilet, and how rare it is to see a toilet of any other color.
Toilets are typically white for several reasons including more options, ease of manufacturing, ease of cleaning, societal norms, and their effect on the price of your home. For these reasons and more, people tend to stick with white toilets.
But at the end of the day, feel free to try something different and go against the norm!