The Best Kitchen Mats, According to Home Cooks and Bakers

Material: solid vinyl top surface and foam sponge baseThickness: 0.5 inches or 0.75 inchesSize: multiple

If you were to enter McDowell’s kitchen, you’d see four kitchen mats that cover almost her entire working space. They’re the fruit of a deep internet search for custom floor mats and can be ordered to suit your preferred thickness and square footage. If you’re like McDowell and are looking for a kitchen-mat set that’s unique to your kitchen, I’d say these are your best bet.

McDowell opted for the 0.75-inch thickness, which I’d say is significantly more supportive than a half-inch mat, after cooking various meals using mats of both sizes. With this extra thickness, McDowell says, “Even when I shoot videos and photography in my kitchen and I place heavy tripods or other equipment on the mats, those items leave an impression only temporarily. The mats always bounce back!” Not to mention they protect her feet, back, and hardwood floors. And as McDowell says, “A kitchen mat that moves under you is worthless in my opinion,” so these don’t budge unless she picks them up herself. They’ve seen extreme use — “I’m regularly in the kitchen for eight hours or more a day. I also have regular help in the kitchen, and other folks, photographers and videographers, regularly working on them, too,” she says — and the mats only ripped when a mover was bringing in her new fridge. She cleans them with a steam mop or disinfectant spray and then lets them dry in the sun.

Material: PVC materialThickness: 0.4 inches or 0.47 inchesSize: 17.3 x 47 inches and 17.3 x 29 inches

Unlike the American Floor Mats option, this kitchen mat can’t be customized to the size of your kitchen. However, it’s the perfect size for culinary content creatorStephanie Rutherford’s space. She’s had two surgeries on her left foot, so even though this is one of thinnest and most affordable mats on the list, it still helps alleviate her pain from working in the kitchen for six to eight hours a day. The mats work so well in part because she’s placed them in the most trafficked parts of her space — along the island and in front of her mixer — and doesn’t move them around unless she’s cleaning the floors. And while they’ve lost a battle to some errant food dye, the mats are mostly stain free and can be cleaned with a wet paper towel. One thing to note: The mats wear down with time, so Rutherford ordered a brand new set after a few years of use.

Material: foamThickness: 0.5 inches or 0.75 inchesSize: 17 inches x 24 inches, 20 inches x 32 inches, 20 inches x 39 inches, 20 inches x 48 inches, 20 inches x 60 inches, 24 inches x 70 inches, 17 inches x 24 inches/17 inches x 48 inches, and 17 inches x 29 inches/17 inches x 59 inches

While a kitchen mat hasn’t made our list ofbest gifts for home cooks(yet!), recipe developer and culinary content creatorJustine Doironreceived hers as a gift from her fiancé. “He got it for me when I was just starting to really take cooking seriously, when we were living in Hoboken four years ago, because my feet and ankles were hurting,” she says. Unlike some of the other experts I interviewed, Doiron only has one kitchen mat, which she places under the sink to provide cushioning when she does dishes. However, you can also buy this kitchen mat in a set of two and place them in your most trafficked cooking areas, like Rutherford does. When Doiron isn’t standing at the sink, she’s wearing her “cooking grandma slippers,” which provide the same support as her kitchen mat. And while she and Chambers share the same unfavorable opinion about their kitchen mats’ appearances, Doiron puts hers in the closet when she has company over rather than topping it with a rug — “It’s a utility product, you know?” she says.

Material: foamThickness: 0.75 inchesSize: 20 inches x 32 inches, 20 inches x 48 inches, 20 inches x 72 inches, 30 inches x 72 inches, and 30 inches x 108 inches

If you’d like a kitchen mat that doesn’t sacrifice on appearance or support, consider fashion designer and culinary creatorPeter Som’s kitchen mat of choice. He purchased two of them — one for the stove and one for the sink — in anticipation of long hours in the kitchen working onhis cookbookFamily Style. The mats have a textured, woven tweed look to them that he says gives them “a bit more of a home feel, whereas if you’re doing a solid color, that usually feels a bit more industrial.”

The mat wipes off easily and has maintained its antique white appearance, which is important for Som, who is admittedly “sort of a messy cook.” And if you’re worried about tripping, there’s no need to stress: “There’s a really nice bevel along the edge that’s gentle, and that’s really good for non-trippage,” Som says.

Material:polyurethane foamThickness:0.75 inchesSize:22 inches x 72 inches

Chef andcookbook authorGiada De Laurentiis’s two-decade-long devotion to this kitchen mat is a testament to its quality. She started using this one after experiencing back pain while shooting her cooking showEveryday Italian. Once she saw what a difference it made, she bought additional mats to put by her sink, stove, and refrigerator. Since she first bought the mats 20 years ago, she’s only had to replace them about every five years, mostly due to scratching from her dogs. “My German shepherd likes to lie on it and sleep, even though he hasdog beds. I always find him on one in the morning,” she says.

Material: High density foam with printed top fabricThickness: 0.75 inchesSize: 22 inches x 36 inches, 22 inches x 52 inches, 22 inches x 72 inches, and 30 inches x 108 inches

For another kitchen mat that challenges the industrial appearance norms, there’s recipe developer and food creatorChristine Han’s mat, which she says is in perfect shape after about three years of use. She has two, which she stands on during her four to five hours in the kitchen on a daily basis and which she says “have stood the test of time.” She was looking for a kitchen mat that would both support her feet and catch food she dropped on the floor. She landed on the standing mats from House of Noa, which she describes as “supple” and are completely wipeable. “I cook with food coloring, I cook with kimchi, red-hot liquid that stains, and I’ve been able to get all of that out,” she says. Though the pattern she has is currently unavailable, House of Noa offers a variety of kitchen mats in different colors and patterns.

In theyear and a half that I’ve been testing this mat, I’ve kept it at the base of my oven and sink where I typically stand in one spot for long periods of time, say, tending to a sauce or washing the dishes. While this preference is largely a result of the mat’s thickness (0.75 inches) and supportive foam that hugs my feet, the fact that it’s one of the best-looking mats I’ve seen certainly helps, too. And since I’m a notably messy cook, I take pride that I have succeeded in ridding the mat of all stains, whether it’s juices from a tasting spoon gone rogue or speckles of oil from a hot pan.

Material: engineered polyurethane materialThickness: 0.75 inchesSize: 3 feet x 2 feet and 6 feet x 2 feet

If you’d like to emulate a professional kitchen in your home, I’d recommend considering chef and Strategist contributor Kiki Aranita’s mat. “Is it fashionable? No. Do my knees care about fashion? No,” she says. “It’s also so much better looking than those commercial kitchen mats with the big holes, so I don’t mind its appearance.” While the mat has one of the higher price tags on this list, Aranita says hers has held up for the past decade, so it’s an investment that should last years — “I clean it by wiping it down with all-purpose spray and a rag, and it’s still like new,” she says. Like Doiron, Aranita finds the mat is most useful for long stationary tasks. For her, that looks like breaking down large, complicated fish, and for her husband, it’s rolling out and shaping pasta for hours on end.

Material: engineered polyurethane materialThickness: 0.75 inchesSize: 3 feet x 2 feet and 6 feet x 2 feet

Should thelackof details in Aranita’s mat make it too drab for your kitchen, there’s also a nice-looking tile-esque version that I’ve tested while chopping mushrooms for risotto and making sourdough. It’s thesame depth as the House of Noa mat I’ve been using for the past year and half, but it feels more bouncy and cushioned in comparison. (In my mind, the House of Noa mat is to this one what afirm mattressis to ahybrid mattress. Both are supportive, but you’ll find more give in a hybrid mattress or, in this case, the Williams Sonoma mat.) So far, I haven’t noticed a difference in how my joints and back feel after standing on either mat for extended periods of time, but I’ll report back after I’ve tested the Williams Sonoma mat for a few more months.

Material:polyester with a polyurethane water-resistant barrierThickness:0.125 inches and 0.4 inchesSize:2.5 feet x 7 feet, 2.5 feet x 10 feet, 2.5 feet x 12 feet

A Ruggable comes with two parts — a rug and a cushioned pad — that attach with Velcro. This level of convenience is reflected in the higher price tag, and after testing one of the brand’s re-jute rugs (that work both indoors and outdoors), I’d say it’s worth the splurge for anyone who would like to cover large swaths of their kitchen floor with an aesthetically-appealing anti-fatigue mat. Since my New York apartment is pretty small, the three foot by five foot mat covers most of my kitchen floor, meaning I have a durable yet supportive layer separating my feet from the cold, uneven tiles below. It won’t be as cushy as some of the thicker, foam-forward mats on this list, but that hasn’t posed a problem for me in the month and a half that I’ve been standing on it while chopping vegetables, kneading pizza dough, and rolling spring rolls. As time goes on, I’ll need to bring it to the laundromat for a wash, but until then, a quick vacuum run over the stain- and water-resistant mat does the job just fine. Just note: You’ll need to manually select the “cushioned rug pad” after you add the mat to your cart to order the thicker, 0.4-inch pad.

Material: polyester with a polyurethane water-resistant barrierThickness: 6mm and 13mmSize: 2.5 feet x 7 feet, 2.5 feet x 10 feet, 2.5 feet x 12 feet

If you’re lucky enough to have a long kitchen like culinary-content creator and cookbook authorJon Kung, Ruggable’s runner rugs are one of your best bets. The mat comes in four versions — flatwoven standard, flatwoven cushioned, tufted standard, and tufted cushioned — that vary in thickness and softness. You’ll want to choose a version and size that goes best with your kitchen and texture preferences, but in general the tufted rugs will be softer (especially compared to the re-jute rug above) and the cushioned rugs will be the most supportive. Kung has a standard rug because the cushioned version isn’t available in the dimensions that work for his kitchen — 2.5 feet by 12 feet — but he says it still “helps with your joints, your knees, your back, all of that stuff,” even though he’s barefoot in the kitchen “all the time.” However, the more padding the better, so I’d recommend purchasing the cushioned version if the dimensions work for your kitchen.

Like the Ruggable above, this mat can also go in the washing machine for regular cleaning. While Kung hasn’t put it in the wash yet (it’s hard to find a machine that will fit a 12-foot runner), he’s found that a vacuum and carpet cleaner work just fine. “I’ve got two very energetic pit bulls that have knocked things off of the counter and onto it before — I imagine that it’s almost like a child equivalent — so they’re pretty resilient, and I think they’re designed to be that way,” he says. To put it simply, it checks all the boxes: “I love it. The dogs love it. And it looks nice,” he says.