Georges Briard Trivet
A few months ago, the site Retro Renovation posted a hot tip for the sale of some new old stock Georges Briard tiles. Georges Briard was a designer, in the 50s, 60s and 70s, who designed for housewares like serving dishes and cheese boards. The tiles were all metal enamel and hundreds had been found in some barn. These particular tiles most likely were meant to be made into finished products to sell. I've always liked his designs and jumped at the chance to purchase some tiles for projects. I purchased a bunch of the tiles from http://urbnuprising.com, who were great and shipped them out right away.
Georges Briard balloon tile, probably from the 60s.
Food tile, probably from the 50s or 60s.
Since my kitchen countertops are laminate and not stone, I have to be careful to not place hot pans directly on the surface. So I decided to use these tiles to make some trivets to keep my countertops safe.
For my first project I chose the lemon tile. I love this design, it has such cheery colors and the design itself is fabulous. I also have a matching one with apples and pears on it, but that will have to wait for a later project. Since the tile itself has no finished back, I wanted to mount it onto a more substantial base. I chose a piece of scrap pine board, I found in my basement and cut it to size.
The lemon tile and scrap board
I don't have a router, so instead, I hand carved out a channel to set the tile in. This was a lot of work and the channel was not as clean as I would have liked, so I'm planning on purchasing and using a router when I make my next one. Once the channel was carved out, I sanded the board down, filled in any holes or cracks in the wood and glued the tile to the board with some epoxy.
Hand-routed board. I only cut myself once.
My last step was to stain the board with a dark brown stain. Once that is completely dry, I will apply a coat or two of varnish. I'm pretty happy with the results and once I get the proper tools, I plan to make more trivets from the rest of my tiles.