The Year of the Urinal

More and more men are standing up for their bathroom rights at home. Literally.

After centuries of women ruling the bathroom with their makeup and perfume, it’s finally happening. Men are taking over. Says who, you ask? Says Russel Caldwell, president of full-service remodeling company Caldwell Construction Inc. Caldwell says that one of the most noticeable trends he’s seen in renovation of late has been the increased focus on luxury bathroom items. It’s not just heated towel racks and saunas being added to the bathroom, either. It’s TVs and even urinals.

Yes, urinals.

“The woman is the dictator of the bathroom and how it will come together aesthetically,” Caldwell says. “But now the guys want to have some input in the thing. A question we ask now is ‘Does a urinal interest you?’ We’re hearing ‘Yes,’ a lot more.”
“The women support it. They never have to complain about the men not putting the seat down.”

To Caldwell, the surprise isn’t that he’s getting so many more requests for urinals these days. The surprise is that men weren’t asking for them before. It’s something that never crosses most men’s minds until you ask them about it, Caldwell says. “When they find out they can have a urinal, they get tickled to death.”

Tom Boyce has a urinal in the downstairs bathroom of his Branson home. The urinal, like the bathroom it sits in, is Kansas City Chiefs–themed.

Boyce says that other residences weren’t an influence in the decision to add the urinal. Sports bars were. During the football season when the Chiefs play, the Boyces host big parties in the downstairs bar. “You know how it is when the game’s on and you’ve had a few beers... You want to keep the guys separate from the girls.” To add to the sports bar feel, there’s even a TV monitor above the urinal, so you don’t have to miss any of the action—an idea borrowed from Skybox Sports Bar and Grill in Springfield.

It’s no longer novelty for a remodel project to include making room for the upright fixture; it’s becoming commonplace. For one thing, a urinal doesn’t have as many space constraints as toilets. “We’re talking maybe 18 to 20 inches wide,” Caldwell says. A single wall mount is just 24 inches tall. It’s very easy to install compared to a toilet. They’re fashionable, too. Although most urinals don’t come with Chiefs logos on them—Boyce’s was hand-painted by an auto body shop—there are other design trends that are emerging in 417-land. Tony Cobb of Harry Cooper Supply says that black is, without a doubt, the most popular color for urinals and other bathroom accessories for guys going for a masculine feel. Caldwell agrees, and adds that while black is in, brass fixtures are out. “Suppliers might as well take it off their shelves right now,” Caldwell says.

Ultimately, trends in colors, shapes and functions of bathroom fixtures will come and go, but Caldwell sums up the allure of the urinal nicely: “A urinal is just the width of a human body for a guy standing in a human position, taking care of life’s natural functions.”