Designing a tray inspired by the Korean soban

Looking back on June 2026 · written in 2026

Hi friends, Maisy here.

When I started designing the Zen Tray, I kept thinking about how much of our setup lived at the desk. We'd made pieces that belonged together there, but I wanted a way to bring some of them into the rest of the house. Your phone and the little things you reach for don't always stay in one room, and I liked the idea of giving them a surface that could move with you.

That's where the tray began. I wanted something I could use on my nightstand, on the coffee table or wherever I felt like sitting with a cup of tea. It needed to be useful, but I also wanted to enjoy looking at it when it wasn't holding anything.

Finding the shape

We tried quite a few rectangles and squares, in different sizes. They worked, but none of them felt quite like the piece I had in mind. When we arrived at eight sides, it finally started to feel right. It had a shape of its own, rather than feeling like something I'd put away when I was done using it.

The design is inspired by the Korean soban, a small portable dining table traditionally used for one person's meal. What drew me to it was the idea of a surface you could bring to where you wanted to sit, instead of arranging your day around a fixed table.

I think a tray can do something similar on a smaller scale. Putting your cup and a few things together on it gives them a place of their own. I like how that changes the way an ordinary cup of tea feels, without needing to change much else about the room.

Where mine ended up

Mine lives on my nightstand. I keep my Zen MagSafe Charger Stand on it so I can charge my phone while I'm unwinding, with a trinket tray beside it holding a little Buddha aroma stone and an essential oil I like.

The charger stand and Fa tray snap onto the Zen Tray, just as they do on our Pro Desk Mat. That connection was important to me. I didn't want to start a completely separate setup for another room; I wanted the pieces we'd already designed to have somewhere else to go.

The tray became part of our first Wood Collection. We worked with cherry, walnut, maple and white oak across the collection, and gave the tray its three-toned design. We make them here in our studio, and the differences in the wood mean each finished one looks a little different.

Learning about the soban gave me another way to think about what we were making. Our tray isn't the same object, but that idea of bringing a small surface into your everyday life stayed with me throughout the design.

If you have one at home, I'd love to see where you use it and what you keep on yours. I shared more of the design story in the video below if you'd like to watch. Thank you for following along while we figured this one out.

Maisy

From our family, to yours.