Don't Toss An Old Ironing Board When You Can Repurpose It In Your Entryway

Given how most of us feel about ironing, any opportunity to transmute an ironing board into a piece of entryway decor should be met with the same earnest joy as beating swords into plowshares. But we know what you're thinking: Why would I welcome visitors with a symbol of misery –- and an oddly shaped one, at that? For some the answer might be simple irony, or the iron-clad power of memory and familiarity. These are objects of utility and history, in the same way that old pedal sewing machines are. Their asymmetrical weirdness and working-class cred make them perfect for saying, "Welcome to my home. It's unassuming but elegant, and I don't miss a trick."

So how can you make it happen? TikTok's upcycling guru @redeux_style lucked upon a vintage wood ironing board from 1927, and with what appears to be a darkening coat of stain, made it work for her entryway. Adorned with a couple of interesting plant pots, a few books, and an art deco lamp, the entrance table announces itself as a beautiful object topped with other beautiful things, and lets visitors know what they're in for. Whatever's beyond might be old or new, polished or not, but it won't be boring. There's a universe of creative ways to repurpose an old ironing board, but this may be the best. It has the same charm as one of those wooden 2x4 DIY entryway tables from TikTok, but leaning away from the rustic and toward the classic.

[Featured image by Fæ via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

Materials determine how you handle your old ironing board. An all-wood vintage board will inherently hold some interest in the same way that a wood drafting table or easel would. You'll often be best served by leaving the wood alone or giving it a new coat of stain, though you might find reasons to paint the top. Boards that have wood tops and thin, flat metal legs are extremely versatile without modification, since the metal adds a sense of recent modernity, even with a little surface rust. An all-metal ironing board from the 1970s or 1980s might strike you as a cheap piece unworthy of upcycling, but the nostalgia factor actually makes repurposing these boards a no-brainer. Can't you just hear the sound of it opening, its retro credibility gasping out with every creak? 

Color is the key to making any vintage -– or even not-quite-vintage -– ironing board work as home decor. A fairly ordinary, newish ironing board with a coat of dramatic paint (one color, all over) turns it into a point of interest, and finding similarly colored items to place on this new table only accentuates the intentional shabby chic vibe. Normally, you'd put the paint away when it comes to antiques, but a pedestrian object like an ironing board invites you to be freer. Try using pottery of a similar color on top of your ironing board table, or painting the top the same color as another piece in your entryway.