I made an ironing table out of a piece of plywood cut to about 30 x 55. I find that this size works great for me. It's wide enough to lay a 45" piece of material across it and still have room to set my iron and starch at the end. I have this board positioned in the room so that I can stand and Iron on either side of it and let the pressed yardage drape off the other side.
I just recovered it with a fresh piece of the silver ironing board cover material over one layer of warm and natural. The first time I covered it, I used upholstery staples to fasten on the material, but since figured out that if I just duct tape it on, removal is much easier next time I need to replace it. It seems to hold quite securely. One end of this board is fastened to shelf brackets on the wall, the rest of it is supported by a chest of drawers used to store patterns, interfacing, and other sewing supplies.
Here's a tip I came up with out of necessity:
When I have blocks to square up, or pieced sections of a quilt to starch and press into shape, I use large ruler and a Sharpie permanent marker to draw lines directly on the ironing surface to use as guidelines when pressing. This worked particularly well when I was helping my daughter with a french braid. The individual braids had stretched out of shape a little, so I marked parallel guidelines on the ironing board and used them as guides to starch and press the braids uniformly. When I first tried this, I was a little worried about whether the marker would transfer to my material when ironing/steaming over it, so I used a piece of scrap and tested it first. I haven't had any problems with it, but I ALWAYS test it when I put new lines on the board just to be safe!
I also have one of those small, traditionally shaped "tabletop" ironing boards with the 3" folding legs on it that I set on top of this board to use when I am garment sewing and need to slide a leg or sleeve over it to press.
I LOVE my ironing table and never want to go back to a regular ironing board!
After seeing something similar when attending a class, I also made a small portable pressing table out wooden TV tray by padding and covering the top in the same manner. This little table is really handy if I am sewing something that I feel the need to press the seams on as I go. I set it up within reach when I am sitting at my machine and I don't have to get up and down 100 times when piecing intricate blocks! When I don't need it, it just folds up and tucks away under my regular ironing table.
Hope this info give you some ideas that you can use. :)
Wendy