We've got a lot of duct tape in our house. Well, I suppose everyone has a lot of duct tape in their house... what's a house without duct tape?

The bathroom was in desperate need of some color.

Something had to be done.

I'll try to leave the puns out of this instructable, but it's going to be difficult considering the subject matter.

Let's get to it...

Step 1: Gather the Materials

Stuff probably required for this project:

toilet seat in need of covering
copious amounts of duct tape
polyurethane, lacquer, varnish, shellac, etc. (unfortunately, that one-coat-equals-60-coats-of-varnish-epoxy-stuff probably wouldn't work since this isn't a flat surface)
appropriate brush
super glue

Step 2: Gather the Materials - Continued

It turns out that the can of polyurethane in the previous picture was emptier than I thought, but I didn't realize that until later. I ended up using lacquer.

Step 3: Seat Preparation

It seemed that in order to do a spanking good job, it would be wise to take the toilet seat off of the toilet. This turned out to be a pain in the behind.

Out of the eight screws holding the seat and the lid to the hinges, two of them were corroded to the point of the heads snapping off. Well, that's what happens in a house where little kids are working on their aim. I guess the screws weren't stainless steel.

Step 4: Tape Preparation

This is the kind of activity that really gives my OCD a good workout.

I laid out the rolls of tape, since they have to... Be. In. Order.

You noticed the pattern, didn't you?

Anyway, I pulled off about seven inches of tape off of each roll, and ripped those pieces in half, lengthwise.

Thinner strips seem to work better when applying the tape around the inside radius of the seat. Have you ever applied tape a set of bicycle handlebars? It's kinda the same thing.

Step 5: Apply the Duct Tape

Apply the strips of duct tape.

I went clockwise around the seat, just barely overlapping the strips of duct tape at the outside edge of the seat, and overlapping a lot at the inside of the seat.

Pull the tape fairly taught.

In terms of overlapping, the ripped side of each duct tape strip is exposed... I wanted to maintain that "duct tape look and feel" for this project.

Step 6: Duct Tape Has Been Applied

Here is an example of that "duct tape look and feel"

One potential issue with leaving the ripped side of the tape exposed is that you might need to apply some super glue to some of the edges in order to keep the surface profile as smooth as possible.

The higher the edges of the tape stick up, the more coats of finish you'll need to apply in order to cover them up.

Step 7: A Throne Fit for a King!

Here is the seat after all the tape has been applied.

The amazing thing about the pattern is that the repeating colors matched up perfectly. I got really lucky, because I certainly didn't plan for that!

At this point, I had applied about five coats of the lacquer. My guess is that I'll have to apply at least 15 more.

I haven't started on the toilet seat lid yet. I'm having a hard time deciding if the tape should be applied in strips, or squares, or some other shape. What about layering? And then there is the whole question of direction.

Let me know how your toilet seat reupholster project turns out.