Wrinkle-Free

A new ironing board—Polder’s Z-Series—could make wrestling with tricky leg latches and tripping on errant electrical cords a thing of the past. “I’ve always been good at taking things that seem very mundane and breathing new life into them,” Scott Henderson says. That’s only one reason why Kerry Cooper, of Polder, contacted the designer to create what he calls a next-generation ironing board. “All the ironing boards out there look the same,” Henderson explains. “The idea with the Z-Series was to think outside the box to create something fresh looking and brand new.” Here he discusses the details of his domestic innovation.

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The iron rest is made with formed stamped sheet metal and has a heat-resistant silicone pad on top. Other boards on the market have iron rests, but they’re smaller. With this generous area cradling the iron, you don’t need to be so precise in the way you put it down.

In addition to the new leg design, the overall composition and form is unique. The board is called Z-Series because its stability comes from the way the legs crisscross on a diagonal, creating a Z shape.

The rail around the edge of the iron rest creates some negative space, allowing the user to hang shirts or a spray bottle from it.

It occurred to me that rethinking the leg shape could allow us to run electrical wiring through the board. There is a power outlet under the board’s surface where your iron can plug in so you can iron more freely.

The L-shaped leg makes it simple to hang the board on any nail or hook, removing the need—as with the typical Y-shaped tubular leg structure—for a custom hanging device. This new construction also makes the board much thinner than a traditional one when folded.

Our first prototype was made without the orange detailing from my original renderings, but after seeing the response at the International Home & Housewares show, we are planning to produce a version using the brighter color. I like to have something a bit more fun and lively, not quiet.