We are here in our new home in Fort St. John BC and man oh man, moving into a new house is exciting stuff! I love figuring out where things will go and how things will be organized but let me tell you, it can be a bit overwhelming too. There are just SO MANY decisions to be made about everything. Every little thing! When I got overwhelmed and couldn’t even think about the next thing pulled out of a box, I took a time out and tackled something that needed to be done immediately. It could not wait and getting it done made me feel that much more at home. The toilet seat. This was the toilet seat in our master ensuite and I can’t even tell you how this thing made my skin crawl! It was one of those vinyl jobbies that whooshed out air when you sit on it. Good Lawd no. It had to go and right away. 
Not all home improvement projects are beautiful and glamourous – no, some of them just need to be done because they need to be done and this was one of those. I couldn’t live with this seat for one second! Luckily they are pretty easy to change out and inexpensive too. Here is a step by step in case you have a seat you’d like to update too.
Step 1 – Buy a new seat. I needed a standard round seat (not elongated) and I chose one that had a slow close and quick release so it could be easily removed for cleaning.
Step 2 – Remove the old seat. Flipping up the bolt covers revealed a plastic bolt and under the toilet there was a plastic nut holding it in place. Grab that nut to hold it and prevent the whole works from spinning as you unscrew the bolt with a screwdriver. Remove both bolts and the rest of the seat should lift off easily from there.
Step 3 – Install new hardware. The new hardware consisted of a plastic plug with the nut in the bottom. This plug held the nut in place making installation easier. Plug one into each bolt hole.
It fits flush (haha pun intended) into the toilet
Once the plugs were in, I put the quick release mechanism over the plugs and inserted the new bolts in place, screwing them into the nuts. After this, snap the covers in place hiding the bolts.
Step 4 – click the seat into place. This is easy with this style of seat – just slide it towards the mechanism and it will click into place. The red button in the center will allow you to remove it again should you need to.
Step 5 – Be happy that you no longer need to sit on that vinyl monstrosity!
Big Important Tip
If you’re going to tackle this job, and you should if you have an old gross seat, the hardest part is not dropping your tools and bits into the toilet. Ask me how I know *cough cough*. If you aren’t confident in your abilities to keep hold of your items, you can wrap your toilet bowl in plastic wrap so that things cannot fall into the water. You know, unless you personally enjoy washing your screw driver in Lysol like me.
I didn’t even know this type of quick release toilet seat even existed !
Ha! Neither did I until I went looking for a new seat. It was a Delta seat and so far so good 😀
Do you remember the name of this seat as I can’t find it anywhere but have the same fitting
Oh I’m so sorry but I don’t. I needed to buy a second seat and they didn’t have the same type so I had to buy something else for downstairs. I just went and looked at this one in our bathroom and the brand isn’t printed anywhere on it. Amazon has quite a few types of quick release seats – maybe you’ll find it there. Good luck!
I love that you said the old seat whoooooshed when you sat on it, and I totally knew what you meant!! The new seat looks great…I actually had no idea they were so simple to replace!