How to Make a Living Room Table from an Old Tire

Last Updated: October 17, 2019 Approved

With upcycling being a fashionable trend, why not integrate an upcycled piece of furniture into your living room? Instead of purchasing a new coffee table for your living room, create something elegant and interesting using an old tire as your base.

Steps

1
Select and clean a tire. While the tire treads will have no bearing on whether the tire will make for a sturdy base, you will want to ensure that the tire is intact and has no large rips or holes.^{[1]
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- Scrub well with dish soap and a scrub brush. Consider doing this outside, preferably near your garden hose.
- Hose off soap and debris.
- Repeat if necessary.
- Allow time for the tire to dry completely before starting your craft.
2
Measure and create the tabletop. Use your measuring tape to obtain the measurements of the tire opening to ascertain the plywood size. You will be cutting out a circular piece for the top.^{[2]
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- Mark the measurements directly on the plywood using a pencil and then use the jigsaw to cut to fit. Don’t forget to wear your safety glasses when using the jigsaw.
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3
Measure and create the table bottom. Instead of designing the bottom to match the top exactly, take the measurements of the tire’s diameter and then subtract 2 inches (5.1 cm). You will be creating a circular piece for the bottom as well.^{[3]
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- Cut piece from the plywood and set aside.
4
Secure the table legs to the bottom of the table. Using the plywood bottom, determine the spacing before you secure them in place. Position the legs in different areas of the tire bottom to see which placement has the best balance.^{[4]
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- Use wood glue to secure the legs to the table bottom. Make sure wood glue has completely dried before adding screws.
- Secure by drilling the legs to the plywood bottom and then secure them with L brackets.
5
Attach top and bottom pieces of plywood to the tire using construction adhesive.
- Start with the bottom piece and use an ample amount of glue for both pieces.
6
Paint and/or stain the plywood and legs. All wood pieces should have a few coats of stain or paint. Now is a good time to get a little creative and you can apply a variety of paint and stain techniques to the wood or just add a few smooth coats of stain to create a refined look.
7
Wrap the outside area of the tire with the rope. Apply construction adhesive to a small section of the tire and then (working quickly) wind the rope around the perimeter.^{[5]
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- Wind tightly so you can no longer identify the base as being a tire.
8
Place it on your living room and enjoy!

Community Q&A

Question

About how much rope is needed for this?

Community Answer

It takes a lot more rope than you would think. For example; one done with 3/4" rope can take about 80 feet of rope and that is not covering the top or bottom.
Question

What size tire did you use?

Community Answer

From the pictures, I can see it was a 225/55 R17 tire, but it wouldn't have to be this size to make this.