You've all seen tires transformed to ottomans, tables and stool. Well have you seen it transformed into a round sofa?? If not, YOU are about to see it now :-).

"Guerilla design is all about taking existing objects and hacking/modding/refinishing them into something fresh and new" - well I rolled up my sleeves and started to conjure up this wonderfully comfy sofa. The storage space is amazing too!

Step 1: Gather Your Scrap

I tried to recycle and get what ever I could free so that the cost would be at a minimum . All in all it costed me approximately $60 in materials after using re-purposed/free wood. This of course could vary depending on your country's prices.

Truck Tire- free

4 legs ( blocks of 3x3x2)- free - got this the 4 square blocks found in palletes

5 beams- 3x2" is fine. I got some 2x6" beams free from a relatives house when they were renovating. These lovely beams were rescued from becoming firewood our who knows what insignificant use.

Synthetic Leather - this is optional. I had some scrap sheets left over from another project. So thought to use it.

1 sheet 9mm plywood-$20

2 sheet of 2" sponge- $20

1 sheet of 1/2" sponge-$3

Drop Cloth- Approximately $10

8 screws and 20 1/4" nuts and bolt.- @5

I used the drop cloth as the cover. Most people tend to use it as sofa slip covers. You can of course go for other types of fabric like synthetic leather.

Now let's get started.

Step 2: Making the Lid

First you need to measure your tire's diameter. Mine was 42". Then reduce a couple of inches from either side. Now draw the 2 circles on ply wood. Make sure to mark the center so that it would be easy to divide the area in 4. Cut the circles out. Some would go for 1/2" wood, but as my tire had enough support I did not need to go for a thicker plywood.

1. Place one circle on the tire. Remember I told to divide the area in 4?? well now you drill at that 4 points through the wood in to the tire. Mark the respective holes on the tire to match the lid so that if there is a mistake in alignment we would not have a problem later in finding the correct holes. Now remove the lid and drill with a bigger bit on the tire. Why do we do this? because the rubber will contract and the hole will be too small for the bolt to go through. Gradually drill with larger bits till the bolt will go through. It should be snug.

2. Place glue on the lid side of the bolt and tighten the nut. Now apply glue on the wooden lid and glue up the 2" sponge. My sponge was 3'x 8'. Therefore it was not enough as my lid was 38" and I wanted about 1" over hang. So I glued another sponge and joined it. To prevent the sponge separating I sewed the sponge ends together. Please refer to the picture.

3. Now to cut the fabric. The sponge should be larger than the lid and the fabric should be larger than the sponge.

Now stapler around by pulling the fabric and stapler a side down. Now do the same to the opposite side. Do the 4 corners and then keep pulling and stapling till it is all done.

Step 3: Making the Base

Now to make the base. Here we would be using the 1/2" sponge.

Measure the height of the tire. Add about 4" or more to it. Now measure the perimeter of the tire. Obviously the sponge was not enough for me as my tire's perimeter was approximately 127" and the lenght of the sponge was only 96"! So I gain had to attach it. Cut the the sponge to the required heights. Now place on tire and stapler it down. Yes, you can really stapler in to tires! Flip the tire to the side and stapler on both sides while slowly rolling. It is much easier this way. When you have to attach the another sponge, simply slip it under the previous sponge and stapler it down.

Now I wanted to fix the beams like fingers on the tire. Dived the perimeter of the tire in half and add about 10" and mark the section. We would be using the less side for the wooden fingers. Now divide and mark 5 equal section on the sponge. Check and mark the width of the beams on the sponge. Now cut the sections out.

Covering the base with fabric

Now keep in mind the height and diameter you cut for the sponge. Add a couple of inches to the top and side. Cut fabric. Sew and attach fabric to get the required length. Now wrap the fabric round the tire and pull tight. Pin it and pull the fabric tube out. Now sew where you pinned it. Slip the fabric tube back on ( wrong side facing in) to the tire and now stapler the fabric right round, on the top side and bottom of the tire. It would be easier if you can first flip the tire to the side. Stapler the 4 corners on both sides ( as shown in the previous step of how to stapler the fabric to the lid). Then fold the edges and stapler right round for a neat edge. Do the same to the bottom side of the tire.

Now slowly cut out the fabric where the sponge cutouts are. Glue back the cut flaps with hot glue.

Step 4: The Bottom of the Chair

This step is optional. You can opt out of putting legs if you like.

I'm covering the legs with rubber because my floor is wood and I didn't want to scrape the floor while moving this furniture. As I had some left over synthetic leather I thought to use it as well to give it a more appealing and professional look.

Place the leather/fabric down with wrong side facing up. Now stapler the material down using a stapler as shown in previous step.

Dismantle a pallet and take the 4 square blocks. Mark corner to corner in one side to get the center point. Drill a pilot hole.

Glue a scrap piece of rubber on the other side. No measure to height of the block and cut the material to go right round and a bit more for height and side. Stapler the material to the bock by wrapping it around the block and stapler it down.

Now drill 4 holes in equal distance on the circle as we did for the lid. Place the blocks on the bottom of the circle with the wooden side facing the leather. Screw in a nail. make sure you screw right in the center of the block where you did a pilot hole.

Now place this circle on the bottom of the tire and drill between the legs and screw in a nail. As you would not be removing this part, you can simply drill and screw in a nail.

Almost done!

Step 5: The Back Support

Now basically we have made an extra large ottoman. To make it a round sofa it needs a back rest.

For this I opted a finger like back rest.

I first cleaned the wood out and sanded it well. It had so much much in it I was covered in white and red dust! Now as my beams were too thick I got it ripped in two. This way I got 6 beams. I skimmed the sides too, to make the wood smooth. After all the ripping and and sanding each beam was 30" long x2.5" wide x 1.5" thick.

I placed some blocks on the floor as a spacer. Then I kept a beam next to the cut out on the base and marked where the cutout was on the wood. I made a template on cardboard and marked exactly where I wanted the bolts to go. Dill first with a 1/4" drill bit. Then take another drill bit the size of the head of the bolt and drill just deep enough so that the bolt head would be inside. This is my way of countersinking my bolts :-). Now, unlike a screw the bolt would not go easily through the tire. So first you have to place the beam on the tire and then drill with a 1/4" drill bit through the wood and into the tire. Now remove the beam and try and find were you drilled( You would find the hole very small) Take a large drill bit ( I used the same one I used to countersink my bolts) and go through the previously drilled holes. Now you will be able to pass the bolt through.

I fixed 4 bolts per beam. Tighten the 2 bolts at the bottom very tightly. If you want more flex like a spring for the back rest, do not tighten the top 2 bolts. Leave a bit of gap and lock the nut in place with another nut.

Now that all the fingers are fixed check if all are up to your satisfaction. Now mark about 12" down from the top of the beam. Drill a 1/4" hole. This step can of course be done earlier. I only thought of it afterwards. The reason for this hole will be explained in the later steps :-)

Step 6: Back Pilow

Now to make the back pillow! For this I used the other 2" sponge.

I needed 24" high x54" long pillow. I also wanted to double the sponge. So I first cut a block of 24" by 54". Then the rest I cut and placed on top of the large sponge and glued it in place. As I did in the previous steps I sewed and joined the sponge. Also to give the edges a nice pillow like smooth finish I sewed the top and bottom edges all around.

Now to sew the cover

The cover is sewn like any normal pillow cover. Cut the drop clothe to about 55" x49". Fold in half length wise and sew 2 sides. Now fold and slip in the sponge to it's cover. Sew close the opening with a whip stitch. Make the stitch as invisible as possible.

Now place the pillow on the wooden fingers. Make sure the center of the pillow is touching the center beam. Mark where the holes are on the pillow. Sew long ribbons to the back of the pillow on the marked points. The ribbon should be long enough to wrap around the beam and tie a bow.

Now place the pillow on the beams. Pass both ribbons through the hole and wrap each end once around the beam and then tie a bow.

The reason for the hole is to prevent the pillow from moving up and down.

Whew! All done.

Step 7: Enjoy Your Chair !

Some might say the back rest is too high, but I fell in love with this sofa and wanted to try it. You can easily adjust the height by modifiing the height of the beam and pillow to suit your needs. It suites my needs as I find that I can nicely rest my head and stretch my legs! { Okay, so my leg sticks out a bit, but it's still comfortable :) }

I know this instructable is kind of long with loads of details. I just wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to make it too!

Please take a moment and vote for the Guerilla Design Contest, AND Small Space Contest! I would really appreciate it! Thanks :-)