9 best ironing boards, from sturdy workhorses to easy-fold designs

Offering a wide ironing space of 45cm and the biggest height range of all of the boards we tested, this makes ironing a lot more pleasant. Reaching a maximum adjustable height of 102cm, it’s comfortable for people standing 6ft tall and more. But the lowest height of 65cm is also handy, giving us the option of ironing sitting down – a game-changer for those who have mobility issues.

Wide boards do not come cheap but this is the best value one we tested. And over the course of a few years it’s well worth the price given that it will give you back hours of your time that you’d otherwise have spent doing housework. We couldn’t fault the stability either. There are two horizontal struts rather than four separate legs, meaning its weight is distributed evenly. It’s also a great choice for families with children thanks to a child lock so that the board can’t collapse accidentally or be opened by little hands.

Weighing just 2.4kg and quick to put up, this ironing board is brilliant for last-minute ironing emergencies. It offers a decent size ironing surface for shirts, trousers and dresses and feels sturdier than a table top ironing board. But the coolest feature about this mini marvel is that it has a hook at the top of the board so that it can be hung neatly in a wardrobe or on the back of a cupboard door when you’re not using it. You won’t have to look at your ironing board around the home on a daily basis again, meaning no more guilt about what you should be doing. The Lakeland board is there for you when you need it and discreet the rest of the time.

We liked the attractive palm print cover, which had us dreaming of tropical climes. The metal mesh board underneath allowed heat to pass through evenly for wrinkle-free results. The only downside is that the 88cm ironing height is not adjustable, so it wouldn’t work for those especially petite or tall.

You don’t need to spend a lot to have a quality ironing board and this Wilko pick proves that with its simple yet reliable design that comes at an affordable price. The four-leg frame is foldable and compact enough to slide under a bed and it offers a decent range of height adjustment to make ironing more comfortable. To tweak the height, all you have to do is press a lever to raise or lower it, releasing it when it’s at the preferred level. If you have a large ironing pile, this versatile board is more than up to the job.

At this price, we wouldn’t expect a heat reflective cover, but we were impressed by how quick it was to iron clothes on this. This is down to thick padding under the cover, which makes a surface that dissipates heat fairly quickly. There’s an iron rest to store the appliance when you’re changing garments and this doubles up as a handy rack for clothes hangers that you can store your finished items before transferring them to the wardrobe.

At this time, delivery isn’t available, but you can find out on the website whether it’s in stock in a store near you.

Do you wish you could speed up ironing time without compromising on quality? If so, you’ll appreciate this solid heat-reflective board. A metalised foil layer on the underside of the cover helps to reflect steam and heat back into the laundry, making it easier and quicker to iron pretty much anything. It’s especially brilliant for crumpled sheets and duvet covers. Stubborn creases will disappear with just two to three iron strokes, rather than repeated movements. If you love the look and feel of hotel room bedding, this board can help you bring that luxury into your own bedroom without getting tangled up in knots or unnecessarily hot and sweaty.

We also approved of the child-safe lock system that holds the board so it can’t collapse if someone crawls underneath or brushes past it. It has a rack around the iron rest to hold freshly ironed items and anti-slip feet to keep it stable on hard floors. The cover’s cute too – we liked the flame design and it acted as encouragement to speed through the chore like we were “on fire”.

This is the super king-size bed of ironing boards. If you think of a regular-size board as a double, you may think it’s pretty comfortable and there’s enough room to iron your clothes. But it’s not until you try a super king that you realise there’s something better out there.

Boardmann has taken everything we assumed and put up with about ironing boards and thrown them out the window. This XL board fits shirts perfectly so you can iron the entire back with no lifting or shifting. Ironing more in each pass makes the job feel less arduous and we reckon it made the job 40 per cent faster, too.

Extra features include a mesh back to allow steam to penetrate the fabric and remove creases and a hanging rail around the iron rest so that you can notch up (and admire) your work as you go. There’s even a 30-day guarantee, which makes trying this risk-free. If it doesn’t improve how you iron, you can return it in its original packaging for a full refund.

As we like the finer things in life, we had high hopes for this board and it didn’t disappoint. Established in 1941, Minky has both a Royal Warrant – granted as a supplier of high quality products to the Royal Household and the Princes Warrant – awarded for product quality and a commitment to the environment. And from the moment we opened it, to when we’d finished ironing, we noticed lots of details that made life a little easier.

For example, it has non-slip rubber feet for extra stability. This is useful to both avoid leaving marks on carpet and to prevent the board sliding on laminate or tiled floors. It also adjusts better than other boards as you can choose exactly what height you want up to a maximum of 1m which makes it more pleasant for those of us with longer legs. While the extra wide ironing surface (122cm x 43cm) is ideal for ironing larger garments with less need to keep repositioning clothes around the board.

Under the cover, there’s a mesh flow metal design and thick felt to ensure better heat retention in the ironing surface and speed up ironing. It’s not as fast as a board with a heat-reflective cover but by making you extremely comfortable at the board, you can iron like a ninja and blast through your load.

Swiss company Laurastar is famous for its steam systems that clean, sanitise and iron out wrinkles. Each system is designed to work for at least 10 years and will be repaired for free if there’s an issue before then – and that includes its ironing boards. Buying a board from Laurastar is a long-term investment that should reduce the amount in landfill as you’re guaranteed to use it for 10 years rather than throw it out after a few. And that makes it better on the wallet, too.

The hot lips cover design is very cool and this is a board we’d be happy to store on the back of the kitchen door or in a corner as we think it looks like a modern work of art. We also like the design of the legs on this quality ironing board – horizontal struts rather than individual legs – that spread its weight evenly, which meant less dents on our carpet, and better overall sturdiness.

If you’re short on storage space but looking for a sturdy board, this is the hardiest table top board we’ve ever seen. It has non-slip adjustable feet with rubber bottoms so it will stay in place no matter how vigorously you iron. There’s no chance of this slipping or sliding, even if you’re trying to press something last minute before leaving the house. A generous amount of padding under the cover means the iron is able to glide nice and smoothly over its surface no matter where you use it. If there’s no table or desk space free, this is compact enough to place on top of a washing machine and yet offers a decent size surface area to make shirts look crisp and fresh.

But it’s the genius way this folds up that impresses us the most. Not only do the legs collapse but the board itself folds in half. Once half its size, there’s a toggle at the top to lock it into place. The back of the folded board has a storage bay for an iron so you can keep everything you need for the job in one place. And if you want to conserve even more space, you can use the included hanging hook on a wall or door to lift everything out of the line of sight.

If you don’t iron weekly, then you’re not going to want a big, bulky ironing board occupying valuable space in your house. This lightweight steel board can be hung up in a wardrobe or cupboard, ready for those times when you’ve looked in the mirror and realised your outfit could be improved if you pressed out the creases.

Offering an ironing surface of 80cm x 30cm, you will need to reposition items often but the upside is that it’s small enough to use on a coffee table. Another positive is the price, offering a steady surface that you can use for years for less than £12. The cotton cover offers a smooth gliding surface and the grey and white print feels calming, too.

Just one word of warning – don’t press down too hard. The legs can wobble slightly if you’re heavy handed. It’s not the board on which to linger on very wrinkled items but not a problem if you’re quickly pushing the iron over the surface of a garment for a fast finish.