Wooden serving tray – Swiss craftsmanship from sustainable forestry

Breakfast in bed, apéro outside, the cups carried back to the kitchen: a wooden serving tray is the shortest way between the kitchen and the balcony. Ours are designed by Reana in Baden and made by hand at the sheltered workshop Ekkharthof in Lengwil (TG) – solid wood, with two handles.

Which size do you need?

• Size S, 30 × 20 × 5.5 cm: two coffees and something sweet alongside. The tray you will have in your hands most often – in oak, walnut, ash and beech.
• Size M, 39 × 24 × 5.5 cm: breakfast for one, the glasses for the whole table – or as a permanent surface on the coffee table. In oak, walnut and beech.
• Size L, 50 × 33 × 5.5 cm: room for one or two dinner plates, depending on their size. Dinner for two reaches the table in a single trip. In oak only.

Not sure? Go by whatever happens most often in your home: for coffee and a snack the S is enough, for a full meal you need the L. The M sits in between and does a little of both.

Which wood – and where it comes from

Oak has a strong grain, it is light in colour and takes a lot of use. It grows within 50 km of Kreuzlingen. That radius reaches across the border: the wood comes from Switzerland, Germany or Austria. Walnut is its dark, quiet counterpart and comes from the USA. Both come from sustainable forestry. Oak is our own favourite – it goes with almost any table.

A few trays in ash and beech are still available while stocks last. In the long run we are focusing on oak and walnut.

Care: water yes, dishwasher no

After use, rinse by hand or wipe with a damp cloth, then dry. What wood does not like: the dishwasher and hours sitting in water. The trays arrive already oiled once: you can use them straight away and re-oil them once or twice a year with a food-safe wood oil, and they will stay beautiful for years. And if a red wine ring does settle in after a few years, you can sand the tray down and oil it again.

Even more personal with your engraving

We laser your wording straight into the wood: a name, a date, a short sentence – you have 35 characters. You enter it when you order, we engrave the underside at the bottom right, so the serving surface stays clear. The engraving costs 29.00 CHF and we do it ourselves in our own studio in Baden. An engraved tray makes a wedding, christening, retirement or housewarming present that does not disappear into a cupboard.

For a logo, wording over several lines or larger quantities – as a corporate gift, for instance – write to hallo@nanimanu.ch and you will get a quote.

Not wood, but on the same shelf: the Porto serving tray in powder-coated aluminium with handles in oiled ash, made by the Weizenkorn Foundation in Basel – like Ekkharthof, a social institution. Light, easy to care for and available in three colours.