Ceramic Tile Wood Trivet with Handle, 20 x 14 cm

The casserole comes off the hob and lands on a painted tile instead of on the table.

Sunday lunch, the pot is heavy and everyone is already sitting down. You slide the little wooden paddle into the middle of the table, set the casserole down on the glazed tile, and the table underneath stays as it was. Later a spoonful of sauce goes over the side, lands on the glaze rather than on bare timber, and comes off with one pass of a damp cloth.

It is a small object built from two materials: a dark stained wooden body cut in the shape of a chopping paddle, 20 cm long and 14 cm wide, and a glazed ceramic tile set flush into the face. The maker gives a thickness of about 1.7 cm. A hole is punched through the rounded handle, and on most of the maker photographs a leather look cord is threaded through it so the pad hangs on a hook. Eight tile patterns are offered, painted in the square tile idiom, in blues, greens, oranges and yellows.

Key Benefits

• A glazed face, not bare wood Spills sit on the ceramic and wipe off, instead of soaking into the grain the way they do on a plain wooden board.
• Handle and hanging hole The paddle shape gives you somewhere to hold it, and the hole means it lives on a hook rather than in a drawer.
• Table sized At 20 by 14 cm it takes a casserole, a teapot or a hot dish without dominating the table setting.
• Eight patterns From a blue lotus on white to an orange and blue petal rosette or a yellow quatrefoil, each tile is different enough to buy two.
• Reads as an object, not a utensil Stood on edge against a wall or on a shelf it looks like a small painted tile, which is where most of them end up between meals.

Best for: a dining table where hot dishes arrive from the kitchen, a teapot that lives out on the side, and anyone who would rather look at a painted tile than a cork disc.

Why It Works

A plain wooden trivet has one weakness and it is not heat, it is sauce. Bare timber absorbs whatever lands on it, so within a month a wooden mat carries a permanent map of everything it has held. Setting a glazed tile into the face moves the working surface to something non porous, while keeping the wood where it belongs, around the edge and under the pot. The paddle handle is the second useful idea: it gives you a cool place to grip the mat when you move it while a pot is still on it, and it carries the hanging hole.

Quick Product Facts: wooden body with a glazed ceramic tile set into the face; 20 x 14 cm; about 1.7 cm thick; paddle shape with a rounded handle and a hanging hole; eight painted tile patterns; packing list is one heat insulation pad.

How It Fits Your Routine

At dinner it comes out with the food and goes back on its hook afterwards. Wipe the tile, leave the wood alone, hang it up.

Between meals it earns its place as decoration. Stand it on a shelf next to the spice jars or hang two side by side above the worktop, and the painted tiles do the same job a small framed print would.

Keep it away from standing water. Wipe the glaze with a damp cloth and dry the wooden frame straight away, never soak it and never put it in a dishwasher, because the join between tile and timber is glued rather than fired.

FAQ

How hot a pan can it take? No maximum temperature is rated anywhere on the sheet. One of the maker's own marketing panels shows a pot marked 240 degrees and tells you to replace the mat if it scorches, which tells you what to expect: it is a wooden trivet with a tile in it, it will mark under a very hot cast iron pan, and it is not a substitute for a proper heatproof stand.

Is it wood or bamboo? The specification list says wood. One of the maker's own panels talks about bamboo instead. We cannot tell you which of the two it is, so we are reporting both rather than picking one.

Does the cord come with it? A leather look cord appears through the hanging hole on most of the photographs, but the packing list names only the pad. Treat the cord as a possibility rather than a promise, and the hole works with any string.

Can I cut on it? No. The face is a glazed ceramic tile, so a knife will scratch the glaze and blunt itself. It is a trivet and a tabletop piece, not a board.