One of our toilets at our Airbnb was showing a lot of wear and tear on the seat — the paint was chipping in places. Plus, there wasn’t a soft-close mechanism, so every time we closed the top, it would clang against the seat.

I’d never swapped out a toilet seat before, but it turned out to be the easiest project I’ve ever done! I highly recommend that you consider this quick and easy task if your toilet looks a little dated.

I wasn’t sure which size or type to buy, so I ordered about 8 different seats from Lowe’s an opened all the boxes. I learned that there are two main types of seats: round and elongated. The toilet pictured above is elongated.

I chose a black toilet top for the retro vibe, and I ended up going with this option. It was middle-of-the-road as far as price, and this wood version felt more high-end to me than the plastic ones.

Toilet seats are attached to the porcelain base with two bolts. The bolts on our toilet had probably been there for decades, and it took a little elbow grease to pry them off with pliers. But once they were off, the new bolts slid on, and I tightened them by hand. And, voila, the room looks very different!

This project was only $40 and took about 10 minutes. And the whole bathroom looks much better! Such an easy and rewarding project.

As a reminder, here’s what the bathroom looked like when we bought the condo. It’s come a long way! Read more about the low-cost transformation here.

Happy weekend!