IKEA Hack: OLTEDAL Nightstand to Ironing Central

I was looking for a place to put my iron inside my sewing space, in a convenient way: It shouldn’t take up any room on the desktop, and keep the leg space interruption to a minimum. It would have to have easy access to electricity, but not be plugged in all the time (safety first!). I wanted something cheap, so I wasn’t going to get something custom made, and even though it’s on my long term wish list, I don’t do much any carpentry, so making it myself was not an option.

When in doubt: IKEA.

I looked through all of their office and living room and kids furniture and found nothing which was narrow enough, short enough, tall enough etc. Eventually, I stumbled upon the OLTEDAL nightstand. I looked over the measurements and instructions very carefully, and the very next day stopped by the IKEA near me and bought it.

I assembled it without inserting the back because (1) I wanted easy access to be able to plug in the iron and (2) I wanted to use the back as a pressing board for small items. It obviously won’t be enough for making large items, but for small blocks which need pressing – it would save me a lot of fuss getting the ironing board out.

I got the idea here, and here’s how it’s done (it’s really quite simple):

Materials

• OLTEDAL back or a piece of plywood.
• A staple gun and staples.
• 2 scrap pieces of batting approx. 2 inches wider and longer than your surface.
• 1 piece of fabric approx. 4 inches wider and longer than your surface

Instructions

• Center both layers of batting on top of your fabric (right side down), then place your surface on top of all the other layers.

• Fold fabric over batting, then fold all three layers over again and staple into place.

• When you reach the corners, trim the excess fabric and fold under to create a neat corner.

Enjoy!

P.S.

And of course, I can never get anything done without little “helping” hands.

[This tutorial is free for commercial use. Please read the Terms & Conditions for further details.]