Brick Cutting Board

In a sunny garage where classic video game tunes hummed softly from an old speaker, a woodworker named Mason decided to build something fun—something that combined his two great loves: woodworking and Super Mario.

He’d just finished a batch of serious-looking walnut bowls and needed a break. Something sillier. Something pixelated.

He pulled out scraps of padauk, hard white maple, and started playing with patterns. Before long, he had an idea: What if I made a cutting board that looked like a Mario level? Brick blocks. Mystery boxes. Even a sneaky little pipe.

Mason got to work.

He cut dozens of tiny rectangular tiles and arranged them like a retro mosaic. Maple for the background “sky.” Padauk the classic red bricks. Hard White Maple for the question blocks. And right near the bottom—just because he could—he built a little green pipe, just big enough to make people double-take.

When he glued it up and sanded it smooth, it looked uncannily like a screenshot from a Mario game, frozen in wood. He added a food-safe finish and stepped back to admire his work.

“It’s-a me,” he said proudly, holding it up like a magic shield.

He brought it to a local craft fair, expecting a few chuckles from fellow gamers. But the board stole the show. Kids pointed. Parents got nostalgic. One guy even made the coin sound with his mouth when he saw the question block.

“Does it give you mushrooms when you chop on it?” someone asked.

“Only if you’re slicing portobellos,” Mason replied with a grin.

He ended up calling it the Super Chopup Board, and though he could’ve sold ten more, he never made another quite like it. Because some magic only needs to happen once to be unforgettable.

(Made by Pete Lang for In The Kitchen Contest)