Materious's Trays for Newton Vineyard Designing a tray seems like it would be a relative no-brainer. But for Bruce and Stephanie Tharp of Materious, the Chicago-based design studio, it posed a challenge: "how to bring something interesting to what is fundamentally just a flat surface," as Mr. Tharp put it. Still, when the Tharps were approached by Newton Vineyard about designing an accessory for the company's Eco-Chic collection, they settled on a tray and found inspiration in the hillside terrain surrounding the Northern California vineyard. "The planting isn't continuous, it's spotty," Mr. Tharp said. If you look at a satellite map of the place, you see sections of grapes, which loosely look like the sections of the tray. We added terracing on the insert pieces to reflect the hillside. That makes for a puzzle-like design with removable pieces that can be used as coasters and, when removed, create shallow bowl-like spaces that can hold nuts or a wine glass. There's even a secret compartment with a corkscrew. Each of the 112 limited-edition trays is made by hand, from FSC-certified walnut; the tray is about $500 at newtonvineyard.com.