10 Best Floor Mats for Babies and Kids

A lot of baby gear can be garish — bright colors and eye-popping designs stimulate a child’s development but might not fit your more sophisticated design scheme — and baby play mats can be some of the primary offenders. For those looking for playmats and floor mats that are both padded and good-looking (and safe for your child to spend a lot of time on), we spoke to editors, bloggers, and parents about their favorite mats (not to confused with activity gyms, though a couple is included here) for children that would look great not only in a nursery but also in your living room.

1) Tiny Love Meadow Days Super Play Mat

Most play mats for babies include a fabric base with an overhead “gym” attached (and are commonly known as play or activity gyms), but for those looking for just a mat, Fatherly deputy editor Matt Berical recommends this extra-large mat from Tiny Love that features built-in activities and a variety of textures. “It’s a large, quilted mat that works as a portable play space for kids,” he says. “It’s made to help kids move around and interact, and it folds up really small so it’s easy for parents to pack in a bag whenever they go somewhere. It’s also machine washable.”

2) Pehr’s Life Aquatic Play Mat

If the subtle design is what you’re after, Berical likes this circular mat from Pehr. “This is a very plain, design-friendly play mat with no bells and whistles,” he says. “It has a really nice hand-screen printed design. And it’s made out of cotton, is very gentle, and is available in a few colors. It’s something that a lot of parents like because it fits in everywhere.” The quilted circular mat features delicate line drawings of sea creatures on one side, while the reverse is patterned with stripes. Ashlee Neuman, the Bump’s deputy editor, also recommends Pehr’s play mat in the Noah’s Ark pattern, which has colorful animals on one side and stars on the other.

3) Skip Hop Baby Treetop Friends Activity Gym/Playmat

If you want the dual functions of an activity gym and a play mat, Berical recommends Skip Hop’s Baby Treetop Friends Activity Gym, a popular choice among parents. It features a round, padded, machine-washable surface with a couple of activities as well as an overhead gym with dangling toys that can be set up and removed in two minutes. “It’s a really nice padded activity mat with additions that everyone really likes. The consensus is that even after kids have passed that stage, there’s still a use for it,” he says. “It packs up really small, is comfortable, and is made with friendly materials.”

4) Lovevery Play Gym

Berical also likes Lovevery’s play gym, which was designed by child development experts and features a removable overhead gym made of sustainably sourced wooden legs and accessories like an organic cotton Montessori ball, a wooden batting ring, and a teether, all washable. “It’s comfortable for the baby and there’s a lot of clever developmental aspects to it,” he says. “It’s just a good-looking and well-designed piece of equipment for your child.”

5) Little Nomad House of Noa Roam Free Play Mat — Mist

For older kids who simply need a protective surface to play or learn to crawl on, foam floor mats are your best bet. House of Noa makes play mats that resemble rugs. Instead of being one piece, though, they are made of two-foot square jigsaw tiles that seamlessly interlock and are also expandable. It was recommended by several experts and parents, including former Babylist editor in chief Rebekah Otto and Neuman, who describes it as “a durable foam mat that has the look of a beautifully patterned rug.” In other words, it’s another great option for parents who want a more subtle mat in their living spaces. According to publicist Alisa Richter, “It’s aesthetically pleasing, and there’s a great selection of patterns and colors that blend in with the most decor,” adding that she likes “the subtle colorways.” It’s also lightweight and very portable: “when we traveled we often brought some of the squares so our son had a safe place to play.” Speech-language pathologist Ellice Kim Lacerda also used the Noa mat for her kids. While she admits it on the pricier side, she says it looks nice and that the customer service is top-notch. “We had a few squares start peeling. When I contacted them, they sent us free replacements quickly,” she says. (She adds that the mats may not necessarily be great for households with dogs or cats, as their claws can scratch up the surface). For publicist Sonya Li Casino, it’s the mat’s adaptability and expandable nature that she particularly likes. “I found it practical because I have since ordered two more sets of rugs separately because I keep wanting to cover more spaces,” she explains. Like the other foam mats on this list, it’s also made with premium quality, non-toxic EVA foam.

6) Romy Play Rug

For a rug-style foam mat that comes in one piece, Los Angeles-based El Abad, founder of the blog Happy Mom Land and the Happy Mom Conference, recommends mats from Ruggish. While she advises looking for mats that are eco-friendly, sustainably made, and have no chemical odors, design is also a priority for Abad: “When it comes to home design, I love having things for babies, but I want them to fit into our home décor and furniture pieces and don’t want them to stick out like a sore thumb,” says Abad. “Even in the play area, I like things to be neutral and kept really clean so I don’t want anything too busy-looking or too colorful. Something that can actually look like it could be a beautiful rug is what I ended up choosing.” That would be the play rug from L.A.–based company Ruggish. Made from non-toxic memory foam that’s free of BPA, phthalates, lead, latex, formaldehyde, and EVA, it features a double-sided design that resembles a rug on one side and has a graphic, interactive toy car track on the other. “The track is on a gray background and is still very neutral-looking. It’s not very colorful but it’s fun. My little boys love driving their little cars on there, and it made them want to crawl against it.” When kids grow older, turn it over to the rug side to create an adult-approved play surface in the family room. Neuman also recommends the Ruggish, calling it a “splurge, but oh-so-cute.”

7) Skip Hop Reversible Foam Baby Play Mat — Vibrant Village

Danielle Borr, a graduate student and member of mater mea, a community for Black moms, used Skip Hop’s reversible, single-piece foam mat with her children. “I loved it because it was subtle even though it’s on the colorful side,” she says. This style has a gray and white triangle pattern on one side, and a “vibrant village” scene on the other. “When he used it, my baby (and older kids) liked the cityscape design and would roll cars and toys over it,” she says, adding that “there was a little bit of a sensory aspect to the mat because it was textured.” She also liked that it “rolled easily for storing,” and had a “light rubberized effect that made it stay in place without needing to be held down at the corners,” plus, she notes, the padding felt especially nice. Made of PVC-free and phthalate-free foam, it’s waterproof and also wipes clean.

8) Baby Care Play Mat Haute Collection

Registered dietician Shirley Kim is a fan of foam mats from Baby Care. “They are relatively light, so they’re easy to move around,” she says, adding that they’re a cinch to clean and also comfortable for kids to sit and crawl on. Mom of two Julie Kim agrees, adding that it’s low-maintenance and durable. “We don’t baby a lot of our stuff, and our mats have been folded up countless times in the past four years for all of our moves and still look fine without creases,” she says. She also has a dog that walks over it daily, “and it’s held up with that, too.” Available in a bunch of patterns that range in style from more muted pastel-colored designs to ones that are brighter and perhaps more appealing to children (rather than adults), the mats are non-toxic, free from phthalate, BPA, lead, latex, formaldehyde, and EVA, reversible, and waterproof.

9) Skip Hop Playspot Geo Foam Floor Tiles

If you’re looking for something a little more affordable, this jigsaw-style play mat from Skip Hop is a hit with parents and was recommended by Otto, Neuman, and Greenpoint store Flying Squirrel’s owner Kate Schmitz. “Skip Hop play mats are very tasteful instead of being horrible primary colors,” says Schmitz. They’re the most adaptable, too, and come in a variety of muted colors. And because the pieces are not square, “you can arrange them to create a pattern of your choosing, like chevron stripes,” according to Neuman. Otto agrees: “Because they can be reconfigured, you can also change the look of them,” she says, depending on your child’s needs. Arrange them into a longer piece to create a hallway for a crawler, for example. “And there’s enough range [in the colorways], where if you have a gray couch and you want something to match, you can find something.” The mat comes in black and white, gray and white, or white, peach, and gray combinations.

10) Coco Village Playmat — Hexagon

For another jigsaw-style mat with non-square pieces, consider this mat from Coco Village that Emily Buhr, an account manager at Vox Media, recommends. She likes it because it’s subtle. “A lot of mats we looked at were bright, primary colors,” she says. “Since we live in an apartment, the mat is in our living room, so it goes much better with our decor.” She notes that it doesn’t stand out too much, “but also does what we need it to do, which is provide cushion for our child when playing.” She adds that it’s “fun to mix around the colors with her.” Made from premium EVA foam, it’s also free of lead, BPA, and phthalates.