About a year ago I replaced my ironing board. I wanted one that was wider and had a place to rest my iron. I searched a bit and found one. Unfortunately, I didn’t read the fine print about this particular ironing board – maybe I didn’t read at all? – it was made from an eco-friendly material.
Now I’m all for eco-friendly products. Really, I am. However, after a year of heavy use the ironing board started to warp and it was wreaking havoc on my work. I’m definitely one to stress the importance of pressing your work and mine looked like I didn’t even own an iron! Not good.
I was frustrated and feeling lazy. I didn’t really want to buy a new ironing board since mine was, theoretically, new and as much as I love Amazon Prime I didn’t want to wait a day OR go to Target to get one because I’d walk out with an entirely new wardrobe, home accessories and decor, and a crate full of paper products. I was, however, up for making my own. I mean, if I can’t buy what I want I should make it, right? Exactly! Besides, a bigger board would definitely come in handy. Go big or go home.
I looked around my sewing room and found batting, fabric, and some Insul Fleece that C&T sent me. The factor limiting me the most in this build was the size of the Insul Fleece. It’s 27″ x 45″. I can get more but then I’d have another delay, so that was out. Keeping that in mind, I headed to my local home improvement store and bought a board. I found a 2′ x 4′ piece of composite lumber that would be perfect. I knew I’d have to piece the Insul Fleece, but for a whopping $4.32 I knew I could boost the crafty and make it work.
So I loaded up the car and headed home.
I grabbed my staple gun and some staples and got to work. I wrapped a double layer batting around the board first, making sure to pull it taut and miter the corners.
If you pull the corner of the batting into a triangle over the corner of the wood you can miter the pieces when you staple up the sides.
I cut the Insul Fleece into 2 pieces by cutting 3″ off the width, making the first piece 24″ x 45″. I wrapped the Insul Fleece over the batting and tacked it down. I did the same thing with the smaller 3″ x 45″ piece at the end. I tugged a little on all sides and managed to make it fit (forgetting to take photos, too).
Once I had the batting and Insul Fleece stapled onto my board I covered it with some Moda Ash. I contemplated a more exciting fabric but I had enough of this on hand, it matches my decor and it’s easy to see stains and messes (not that that EVER happens) and I don’t have to worry about ruining a favorite piece of fabric.
This picture doesn’t quite do it justice, and sorry for the VERY messy, thread covered design wall, but this board is incredible! It’s super wide and the Insul Fleece is my new favorite thing EVER! It works so well for an ironing board. I hate to say it but I was kind of amazed in the most wonderful way. Yay for perfect piecing and pressing and inexpensive, creative solutions.
Great idea Patty! But I’m not getting how you attach the new ironing board top to the original ironing board…
I didn’t attach it. It’s portable, so double awesome. Maybe I should note that 😜
That is very similar to what I did. I only used one layer of batting and a cotton canvas fabric because I like my ironing board to be very firm. I also put smaller pieces of wood on the underside to prevent the new top from sliding around on the original ironing board because I also didn’t want to permanently attach it.
I thought about putting legs on the top, too, but didn’t. I don’t move my ironing board much so I wasn’t all that concerned about it moving. I should because no sooner do I say that I’ll need to move it or one of my kids will knock it over. Just one. more. thing. to. do. 🙂
That makes sense. I’m in a very small room so I have to move mine a lot!