Problem and Solution

THE PROBLEM

I keep thinking that I have my new studio fitted out perfectly but then some problem comes along. This time it was associated with the ironing station that I had set up by the sewing machine…..

The first problem that I encountered was that the travel iron was hard to turn on and off. I hated to leave it on all of the time so just didn’t bother with it. The solution was to replace it with a full size iron that I had bought as a backup…..

This solved part of the problem but with the “real” iron, I found that the ironing board wasn’t working well. It simply didn’t have enough padding on it, which caused the metal grating on the back to be prominent, causing friction when trying to iron…..

I also realized that, even though the board was sitting on top of another portable ironing surface, it was still getting really hot (and wet) underneath and would eventually ruin the counter top. This board does have legs but opening them made it way too tall and the legs would easily slide off of the counter.

THE SOLUTION

After a lot of thought, I moved out to the stack of wood scraps in the garage and found a nice piece of 3/4 inch plywood. A neighbor used his table saw to cut it into one piece that was 24×17 and three other smaller strips.

I connected the legs to the board with nails….

….and then covered the board with a layer of aluminum foil…..

Then I took the ironing pad that I had bought and stretched it over the top and onto the backside, stapling it often to hold it in place…..

The final task was to glue a layer of felt to the wood strips so that they wouldn’t scratch the counter top….

It was slightly tippy on one side (probably because I didn’t get the strip nailed on straight enough), and my smart husband, Michael, suggested that I just glue a second layer of felt to that side!!! It was the perfect idea and the new ironing table is steady and secure!!

And best of all, it works perfectly!! There is plenty of room for ironing and the small gap between the board and the countertop means that nothing gets warm or wet.

I am super happy with the result……

I wonder what the next problem will be?????