Upcycled Tyre Seat

Upcycle old tyres into something useful – just like our Tyre Seat!

What happens to old car tyres once they have been stripped from your car? They may go to a shredding facility to be mulched and destined for concrete-making, they may end up in landfill, or perhaps they remain stashed behind garden sheds up and down the country. Used tyres can be upcycled and transformed into handy outdoor furniture, just like this project.

Finding free used tyres is a relatively easy job. Talk nicely to your local tyre centre and they may kindly lead you to the back of the garage for your pick of numerous old car tyres. For this project, mainly for practicality, choose a pair of matching low-profile car tyres.

What paint to use? Resene’s low sheen waterbourne Lumbersider works a treat. 2-3 layers of paint will transform those worn-looking tyres in no time. Due to the nature of rubber, touch up as required should any areas wear excessively.

To give the tyre seat stability and comfort, a structure is created to fit snuggly inside the stacked tyres. The internal leg structure keeps the tyres from slipping and the ‘top’ becomes the base of a foam seat. It looks much like a basic coffee table structure. All will be made clear in the instructions below.

How to make a Tyre Seat

This project requires:

2 used tyres (this project has used G14 tyres)
paint
600mm x 18mm x 1800mm laminated pine
610mm x 610mm x 30mm foam
1m of vinyl
skill saw & sander
8 x 38mm angle bracket and screws
4 x 75mm brackets and screws
spray adhesive
staple gun & scissors

Method

Step 1: Place one of the matching tyres onto laminated pine and, using a pencil, mark around outer perimeter and inner circle of tyre.

Cut to the outer perimeter line to create a large disc and sand edges. This will become the base of the foam seat. Retain remaining laminated pine.

Step 2: Paint each tyre with two coats of paint. For this project we have used Resene low sheen waterbourne Lumbersider: Lumbersider Pastel tinted to ‘Thistle’ and Lumbersider Deep tinted to ‘Woodland’.

Step 3: Measure height of the two stacked tyres. Use a spare piece of wood balanced across the diameter of the top tyre to create the horizon-line to measure from. This measure will dictate height to cut the internal legs on which the seat base (created earlier) will be secured. Then measure diameter of the inner circle which will determine the overall width of the internal leg structure to snuggly stop the tyres from slipping.

Step 4: Cut remaining laminated pine into three pieces (in our case, based on our tyre size): 1 x 340mmW x 365mmH and 2 x 160mmW x 365mmH. You may have different measurements depending on the size of tyre chosen.

With the larger piece in the centre and one shorter piece on either side to create a ‘+’ shape, secure together with 75mm brackets. Test for a perfect fit by slotting the leg structure inside a tyre, which should fit snuggly.

Step 5: Place the round wooden base on top of foam and mark foam to its shape.

Spray adhesive to both the foam and the wooden base, then stick together. Cut foam to shape of wooden base.

Step 6: Lay out vinyl (bad-side up) and place the foamed wooden base (foam-side down). Measure and cut the vinyl roughly to allow excess wrap to fold over the wooden base but not to infringe on the inner circle that has been previously marked.

Let the upholstery begin! One at a time, pull up four sides of the vinyl over the foam base and staple to the laminated pine. Continue to pull up the vinyl and staple the gaps in between. To avoid puckering the edges, this is best achieved by stapling alternate sides each time to ensure the vinyl remains taught. Adjust and staple where required. This is the underside of the seat so it doesn’t need to be meticulously perfect.

Trim excess vinyl.

Step 7: Place completed vinyl seat (bad-side up) on the ground and, using the 38mm brackets, secure the previously constructed ‘+’ leg structure to the base of the vinyl seat. All measurements going well, the leg structure will fit perfectly into the inner circle previously marked in Step 1.

To assemble: stack your tyres and slot in the base/seat.