DIY Recycled Tire Coffee Table

Learn how to make a DIY tire coffee table with this simple step-by-step photo tutorial. It is so easy to make your own beautiful upcycled tire table for your patio or outdoor space! This post contains affiliate links, which help to support this site at no extra cost to you.

When we were working on putting together our Outdoor Living Room Update, we really needed some kind of coffee table or ottoman to make the space work. It’s kind of magical how a pretty coffee table can transform a collection of chairs into a living space.

I wasn’t sure if we wanted to buy or DIY, but then I remembered the recycled tire coffee tables and ottomans I had seen floating around Pinterest. I thought that could be a great outdoor solution, so we gave it a go!

Luckily, my dad is a borderline hoarder collector who specializes in old broken down Nissans, so coming up with a tire to recycle was pretty easy. The finished table looks great in our space and was fairly easy to put together, so I’m calling it a WIN.

It did not turn out exactly perfectly (you can see how the rope goes a bit wonky around the indents in the tire tread), but I think it’s still pretty good. I thought about painting the feet and maybe the bottom few inches white or another color. What do you think? Should I go for a dipped look or leave as is?

DIY Tire Coffee Table

There are lots of similar tutorials out there, but here is how we put together our DIY tire coffee table. (I found this article helpful when creating our tire table.)

Tire Coffee Table Supplies:

• Old Tire
• 1/2″ Plywood (a 2’x4′ piece worked perfectly) (I actually used MDF, but plywood is better for outdoor use.)
• Jig Saw
• Drill
• Screws
• Furniture Feet
• 3/8″ Sisal Rope (I used about 250 ft)
• Construction Adhesive

How to Make your own Tire Coffee Table

Okay – who’s ready to turn a dirty old tire into a beautiful table?? Let’s do this!

Step One. Clean Tires.

The first step is to clean that tire off. Guys. Old tires are GROSS. This may be super obvious, but you do not want to be putting your hands all over a dirty tire. Plus all the dirt will make the adhesive less effective. So really hose that sucker off and let it dry before getting started.

Step Two. Assemble Base.

Next use your jig saw to cut two round pieces of plywood the diameter of the tire. As you can see my circle is not perfect, so don’t stress too much if yours goes a little wonky too.

Screw one piece of plywood onto the top and bottom of the tire.

Next, it’s time to screw the furniture feet into the bottom of your table.

I only purchased three furniture feet, because I liked the look and they were sold individually at my local home improvement store and I was being cheap. 😬

To get a stable table with only three feet, you need to carefully measure out the positioning of the feet to make sure they are so evenly spaced. Next time I make a tire table, I think I would splurge on four feet to make things a little easier and more stable.

When the placement of the feet was all measured out, we drilled holes slightly smaller than the screws on the feet and thenscrewed the feet into the bottom of the table.

Ta DAAA!  The base of the table is all done!

Step Three. Wrap with Rope.

Next up, time to wrap your tire table in pretty sisal rope! We spent a couple hours with some rope and glue covering that all up.

Here are a few tips to help you with your DIY table:

• It’s important to try to start your rope off in the dead center of the table top. I would recommend taking a minute to measure and find the center. We were a bit off, so the rope isn’t wrapped perfectly, but it worked okay.
• Be sure to wear gloves with this adhesive. You will have to really hold the rope in place, especially for those first few tight rounds.
• I recommend finding a buddy to help you wrap your rope. I really appreciated having two people working on this table because we could just pass the rope around to the other side. 

Just keep wrapping and gluing, wrapping and gluing, and pretty soon – you’re done!

Our new table is the perfect place to put your feet up and relax at the end of a hot Summer day.

What do you think? Have you ever made any kind of recycled tire project? Is this something you would try?

Until next time, Happy Making!

Check out more of my home decor projects here:

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