What Size Glass Chopping Board Do You Need?

Most people land on a colourful glass board, fall for a print, and then pause at the size dropdown. It is the last little hurdle before buying, and it is worth about thirty seconds of thought.

Here is what each size actually suits, so you can pick once and get on with it.

The three sizes, quickly

Our boards come in three shapes and sizes:

• Small: 20 x 28cm. About the size of a sheet of A4 paper, a touch wider.
• Large: 28.5 x 39cm. Roughly A3, and the one most people picture when they think chopping board.
• Round: 30cm across. A circle, so it takes up less depth on a worktop than the large rectangle but gives you a generous middle.

If you want the short version: buy large if it is your main prep board, small if worktop space is tight or it is a second board, round if you want it out on display as much as in use.

Small: 20 x 28cm

The small board is the one people underestimate and then buy two of.

It suits you if:

• Your worktop is short on space, or you are in a rented flat, a house share or a first place.
• You want a board for quick jobs. A lemon, a bit of garlic, cheese and crackers, the school lunchbox round.
• You already own a big board and want something colourful for the small stuff.
• You want to prop it up as a splash of pattern behind the kettle and lift it down when you need it.

Browse the colourful small glass chopping boards if that sounds like your kitchen.

Large: 28.5 x 39cm

This is the workhorse. If you are buying one board and one board only, buy this one.

It suits you if:

• You cook properly. Full dinners, batch cooking, a lot of veg at once.
• You want room to keep chopped things to one side while you carry on.
• You want to serve on it. It holds a proper cheeseboard, a spread of snacks or a whole traybake.
• You want it working as a colourful glass worktop saver, covering a patch of counter you would rather not look at.

The large size is where a bold print really earns its keep, because there is enough surface for the design to be seen properly rather than crowded out by a chopping board's worth of onion.

You will find every large design in the main colourful glass chopping boards collection.

Round: 30cm

Round boards behave differently, and people tend to either love them immediately or not think of them at all.

A circle suits you if:

• You want the board out permanently. Round reads as an object rather than equipment, so it sits happily on a worktop or shelf between uses.
• Your worktop is narrow. A 30cm circle takes less depth than the large rectangle while still giving you a decent working area in the middle.
• You are serving. Cheese, dips, a cake, a spread of nibbles all look better on a round.
• You want something that does not look like everyone else's kitchen.

The trade-off is honest: you lose the corners, so it is a little tighter for heavy chopping than the large rectangle.

Have a look at the colourful round glass chopping boards to see how differently the prints sit on a circle.

Every size protects a surface, not just the big one

It is easy to think of worktop protection as a job for the large board. It is not. All three sizes do it, and the smaller ones often do it better because they live in one spot permanently.

Some of the places our customers put them:

• The coffee or tea station. A small or round board under the machine, the kettle or the pot catches the drips, the splashes and the ring marks that build up over months. It is far easier to wipe a board than to scrub a worktop, and it puts a bit of colour in a corner that is usually all appliance.
• Next to the hob. A landing spot for the spoon, the lid and the drips.
• Under a fruit bowl or a plant pot. Stops the slow marks that appear underneath and only show up when you finally move it.
• Over a patch you would rather not look at. A chip, a stain, a scorch mark from a previous owner. A board sitting on top solves it in about a second.
• On an open shelf or a dresser. Purely for the look, and lifted down when you need it.

This is the same thinking behind our colourful glass worktop savers: same boards, different job in mind.

One note whatever you use it for. Glass does not like sudden temperature changes, so do not put a hot pan straight from the hob onto a cold board, and let a board come back to room temperature before washing it.

Measure before you choose

Two minutes with a tape measure saves a lot of bother.

Check the clear run of worktop where the board will actually live, not where you imagine it living. Then check the gap under your wall units if the board is going to sit out with anything on top of it. And if you are planning to store it upright, measure the cupboard.

A large board needs about 40cm of clear width to be comfortable in use. If your only free stretch is between the hob and the sink and it is 30cm, the round or the small will serve you far better than a large one you keep shuffling out of the way.

Buying as a gift?

Go large. It is far and away our most gifted size, and there is a reason.

A large board arrives feeling like a proper present. There is enough surface for the print to be the first thing they notice, it works as a serving board the moment guests arrive, and it is the size people actually reach for day to day rather than the one that gets shuffled to the back of a cupboard. If you are buying a housewarming, birthday or Christmas gift and you want it to land well, this is the one.

Round is the choice if you know their taste and you want it to be seen. It is the size people put on a shelf and leave there.

Small works best as an addition rather than the whole gift. Pair it with a matching coaster set, or add it to a large board so they end up with one for dinner and one for the quick jobs.

What the size does not change

Whichever you pick, the board itself is the same: smooth tempered glass with the design printed underneath, so what your food touches is bare glass and nothing else.

That is the practical case for glass. It is non-porous, so it does not absorb juices, odours or stains, and it does not develop the fine grooves that a knife leaves in wood or plastic. It wipes clean, and the pattern stays put underneath rather than wearing off the top.

The honest downside, and it applies to every size: glass is a hard surface, so it takes the edge off a knife faster than wood does.

The fix is the thing most of us should be doing anyway. Sharpen your knives regularly and it stops being an issue.

A few minutes with a honing steel every week or so keeps a working edge in shape, and a proper sharpen every few months brings it back properly. Most kitchen knives are duller than their owners realise, and a blunt knife is the one that slips. If you have never sharpened yours, a basic pull-through sharpener costs very little and takes about a minute to use.

Keep a wooden board for the really heavy jobs if you like, and let the glass one handle everything else.

For everyday looking-after, our glass chopping board care guide covers it in a minute.

Want a matching set?

Most of our designs run across the range, so a board can be joined by colourful glass placemats and glass coasters in the same print if you want the table and the worktop to talk to each other.

Worth knowing before you order: boards are made to order, which is how we can offer this many designs without holding a warehouse of stock.

So, which one?

One board, does everything, main prep surface, or you are buying it as a gift: large.

Small kitchen, second board, or a permanent spot under the coffee machine: small.

Out on display, serving, narrow worktop, something a bit different: round.

Still torn between two prints rather than two sizes? That is the better problem to have. Start with the colourful glass chopping boards and pick the one you would not mind looking at every day.