This wood trivet is so beautiful, I’d hang it on my walls.

—Tina Roth Eisenberg

Montreal-based designer Anne Thomas runs a studio called TOMA Objects that creates unique versions of everyday products, with an emphasis on playfulness and wit. The geometric "Inside Out" wood trivet is a good example of this.

Handmade from natural birch plywood and in the form of a curved, continuous line, it's a charming place to set hot objects — kitchen pans, tea/coffee kettles, coffee cups, etc — and thus protect your tabletop. Use one alone or have a line of them running across the table as an ad hoc "hot stuff" surface.

The Gretel Home online shop offers both the small ($24) and large ($32) versions of the trivet. Both are available in natural and black colors.