At the table

Trivets, lazy Susans and serving boards: setting the rest of the table

Coasters take care of the glasses. The rest of the table has its own small hazards: a casserole straight from the oven, a pot of coffee, a cheese board that drips, a crowded middle where nobody can reach the salt. Here is what a trivet, a lazy Susan and a serving board each do about them.

By the Thirstystone team · updated November 1, 2026

Why the table needs anything at all

A wood table has a finish on it, and the finish is what you are protecting. Heat from a hot dish and water from a damp one are the two things that mark it. The Canadian Conservation Institute notes that water usually produces rapid and obvious damage on furniture finishes. A damp dish needs something under it as much as a hot one does.

Stone and tile counters are tougher, but even there the Natural Stone Institute writes that while many stones can withstand heat, the use of trivets or mats is recommended. A trivet costs less than a repair, and a good one stays on the counter as part of the room.

Cork or stone under a hot dish

Our trivets come in two kinds. Cork trivets are light rounds nearly 8 inches across, a third of an inch thick, three to a pack. They are the everyday ones: wide enough for a casserole or a pie dish, light enough to hang on a hook between meals. Cork does not mind a hot base and does not slide.

Stone trivets are smaller and heavier. The travertine and printed Occasions trivets are squares close to 8 inches, the monogram sandstone trivet about 6 inches, and every one of them has cork on the back so the stone does not scratch or skate across the table. They are as much decor as tool: a printed fleur de lis, a horse portrait or a row of wine bottles that stays on the counter after the dish is gone.

Cork has one more advantage at the stove: it is a poor conductor of heat, so the warmth of a pot does not travel through it to the counter quickly. Stone trivets warm up under a hot dish and hold that warmth for a while after. The cork backing under them keeps it off your counter, so it matters as much as the stone on top.

The one rule with any trivet is size. Pick one wider than the base of what you set on it. A heavy cast iron skillet straight off the stove is a job for the cork rounds or a large stone square, not a 6 inch trivet.

A lazy Susan for the middle of the table

A crowded table has a middle nobody can reach. A lazy Susan fixes that by bringing the middle to each person in turn: condiments at a family dinner, a cheese board at a party, a cake while you ice it. Our two are acacia, 14 inches across, one etched with a floral pattern and one printed with small blue flowers, and both turn on a base fixed under the wood.

Acacia is a close-grained wood, and like any wood it prefers a damp cloth to a soak. Wipe it after a meal and dry it straight away. If you serve dips or anything wet on it, put them in small dishes first.

Serving boards and small dishes

A small serving board and a spreader turn a block of cheese and a sleeve of crackers into something you can set out for guests. Our starfish and shell board is sized for two or three people, with a matching spreader, and the seashell spreader on its own makes a small gift.

Food safety advice for boards is simple. Nebraska Extension, passing on the USDA advice, says to wash boards with hot, soapy water after each use, then rinse and air dry or pat dry. The same article suggests keeping dips and anything with liquid in small containers so they do not leak over the board, and replacing a board once it is worn into grooves that are hard to clean.

Small dishes with lids help here. Our marble pinch pots are a pair, white for salt and black for pepper, each about 2 1/4 inches square and holding about 2 ounces. Next to the stove they keep a pinch at hand. With the lids off they hold dips on a cheese board.

A trivet as decor between meals

A printed stone trivet earns its counter space twice. At dinner it takes the casserole, and the rest of the day it stands against the backsplash or lies by the stove as a small picture. That is why the Occasions designs are pictures rather than patterns: a horse portrait for horse country, framed wildlife for a cabin kitchen, a row of wine bottles by the wine rack.

Stand a stone trivet on edge if you keep it upright, so the cork back is not pressed against a wet counter. Wipe the face with a damp cloth after a meal. The Natural Stone Institute recommends a neutral cleaner or mild dishwashing liquid with warm water for natural stone, and warns that lemon, vinegar and other acids may dull or etch calcareous stone, which includes the travertine of the Occasions trivets.

Cork, stone or wood: which goes where

Each material has a natural place on the table. Cork goes under the heavy, the hot and the everyday: the casserole, the Dutch oven, the teapot. Stone goes where it will be seen: the serving dish at the center, the cheese board, the bottle of white wine. Wood goes where something turns or gets carried: the lazy Susan, the board.

You do not need a matched set. A cork trivet under a stone serving dish is as good a pairing as two stone pieces, because the cork does the protecting and the stone does the showing.

Matching is optional, but a few rules keep the table calm. Keep warm materials with warm ones, acacia beside cork, and cool ones with cool, marble beside travertine. Let one piece carry the pattern: a printed trivet next to plain coasters reads better than a printed trivet next to printed coasters next to a printed lazy Susan.

Putting it together

A table set for company might have a set of coasters at each end, a cork trivet under the main dish, a lazy Susan in the middle with the condiments, and a small board for cheese before dinner. None of it needs to match, but it helps when the materials agree: acacia with acacia, stone with stone.

You can see every trivet on the trivet shelf, the lazy Susans and pinch pots on the serving shelf, and the coasters that go with them on the absorbent stone shelf.