We started looking at sanitary ware, and their toilet seats, older than Ideal Standard in the post: ”The definitive guide to Ideal Standard sanitary ware. An incredible story told with the Sintesibagno toilet cover catalogue.(part 1)” where we began to discover some workhorses such as: PONTI Z, ONDINE, MONVAS, ELLISSE, CONCA and LINDA. Then in the post: ”The definitive guide to Ideal Standard’s ceramic production found with Sintesibagno’s toilet cover catalogue (part 2)” we discovered VELARA, LIUTO, AQUATONDA, RIALTO and DIAGONAL. Then in the post: ”The ultimate guide to Ideal Standard’s ceramic production with Sintesibagno’s catalogue we find toilet seats (part 3)” we have found: TESI, CALLA, AERO and IRIL.
ALA series Ideal Standard
We discovered it in the post “Suspended sanitary ware and their covers” and we saw that Ideal Standard had its say in this category too. This Ala sanitary ware is the benchmark for all the suspended series, the spread of suspended sanitary ware in bathrooms began here: Ala suspended by Ideal Standard. A few previous attempts had been made by the same company with Monvas, but perhaps the technical prerequisites were lacking (the installation structures – called combifix – for the wall-hung WCs that we have today had not yet been made by the various companies: Geberit, Valsir, Kariba, …) and the plumbers’ work was cumbersome and difficult, so we had to wait for this combination of factors to make this type of sanitary ware an element that we now consider normal in bathrooms.
Ala was introduced in the 80s and remained in the Ideal Standard catalogue until the early 2000s. At that time it was synonymous with modernity in the bathroom. It was presented with a very particular and unique toilet seat cover, the upper part (the lid) was narrower on the sides than the lower part (the donut) and in our opinion it served to lighten the profile of the toilet and to have a lightness and an even more “suspended” effect. We are still able to offer you the old original Ala toilet seat cover and you can find it in the store at the following link [ clik here ]
SMALL series Ideal Standard
In the small sanitary ware category, an Ideal Standard series could hardly be missing. It was called Small. Presented in the late 90s, it was certainly the first of its kind. Thanks to its sanitary ware and washbasins, it really did make it possible to create a small bathroom in a very small space. The success of the series led Ideal Standard to make another edition that maintained the measurements of the previous one but the shapes were slightly more tapered, it was called the Small+ series, where it also introduced wall-hung sanitary ware. For both WCs the replacement toilet seat is available in the store. For the Small series first version you can find it at link [ clik here ], for the version Small+ at the following link [ clik here ]. In the post: “WC covers sizes/small sizes” we have seen how the Small series has influenced the bathroom furnishing market and “forced” competing ceramic companies to also offer sanitary ware with those small dimensions: BONSAI by Globo, COMPACT by Eos Ceramica, YOU&ME by Hatria, STONE 45 by Globo.
XL / X-ELLE series by Ideal Standard
We enter the 90s and the company surprises everyone with this revolutionary design. Formally a simple, clean and slender shape, and we can say beautiful, dimensionally outside the classic sanitary ware canons. We are talking about a pair of sanitary wares 5 cm taller than the standard, but above all it is the width that is surprising: just 27 cm! All the narrow sanitary ware we saw in the post: “Narrow WCs and bidets. Measures less than 35 cm, it is difficult to fit a universal toilet seat cover” look huge apart from XL (X-ELLE). As mentioned, the designers went so far as to reduce the width to 27 cm! Less than this width is not possible to go for practical issues of using the object itself! It was an aesthetically revolutionary sanitary ware, perhaps not very popular for cost reasons, but nevertheless surprising. Its toilet seat cover is still available and can be found at the following link [ clik here ]
Classic series Ideal Standard (ABSOLUTE)
Ideal Standard in the mid 90s launched a top range of products with very important stylistic and qualitative characteristics. Designed and produced by a work team separate and independent from the main company. Today we would call it an autonomous start-up from the parent company free to move and range in any direction and free from the harsh laws of price. A series of sumptuous and luxurious products were born that, yes, cost a lot, but were certainly luxury items. Among these ceramic series was: Classic. Sanitary ware with a hexagonal shape as seen in the post: ”Toilets and toilet seats in hexagonal / octagonal shapes” is considered by all industry insiders to be the sanitary ware series that most identifies the concept of luxury. Its category competitors (in the sense of shape) are DECO’ Cesame, 1930 Duravit and ROYAL Globo. WC covers for the Classic Absolute series can be found in the Sintesibagno store at the following link (clik here, with chrome hinges).
