Thrones Fit for a King

Toilets are occasionally referred to as thrones, but a few of them actually deserve that sobriquet — either because they're that beautiful, that costly, that efficient or all of the above. Often the red-headed stepchild of the bathroom-design process, some toilets are capable of being the belle of the bathroom.

Europeans — as is often the case — lead the style stampede in bathroom fixtures, with toilets that will leave you staring — and your guests wondering which fixture is the toilet. All these models offer both floor- and wall-mount toilets (which are more prevalent across the pond and which have the tank in the wall and leave the floor completely clear). The German company Duravit employed designer Philippe Starck for several bathroom-fixture lines. His Starck 1 toilet bowl looks like a cone with the bottom sliced off. The wall-mount style is sleekness personified, and the floor-mount model simply adds a thin, tall tank at the back.