A kitchen mat beloved in Sweden. Nordic textile design that delivers both function and interior style.

For many people, the kitchen is a place where they stand and cook up to three times a day.

We love making and eating delicious food, and eating is one of life's happiest moments—but when it becomes a daily task, there are days when we just don't feel like it. And yet, our own stomachs, and our families' stomachs, keep getting hungry without mercy, so sometimes we have to pick up the knife even when we're feeling reluctant.

What helps us through those feelings is often simply having something we truly love around us. The ZUTTO staff, who have introduced countless products and used many of them themselves, know firsthand how much having a favorite item can ease our mood and give us that little push we need.

This time, we'd like to introduce a kitchen mat that one of our staff members swears by. It doesn't actually help with the cooking itself, and if you just call it "a mat you lay on the floor," that's technically true—but she says that bringing this into her kitchen changed how she feels standing there.

Rethinking the role of the kitchen mat

To begin with, the role of a kitchen mat is to protect the floor from splashes of water and oil while cooking. Anyone who cooks knows that no matter how careful you are, water drips and oil spatters. More than any other floor in the house, the kitchen floor is exposed to harsh conditions and needs frequent cleaning.

The idea behind laying a kitchen mat in this space is to reduce dirt and stickiness on the floor.

However, if you want to cover not just the area in front of the sink but also in front of the stove, the mat naturally has to be fairly large. The size of a kitchen mat is essentially dictated by its function, and precisely because of that size, it also naturally becomes an interior element that changes the impression of the whole kitchen.

Are you struggling with the inconveniences of a fabric kitchen mat?

The easiest kitchen mat to try is a fabric one, but fabric mats do come with these kinds of drawbacks.

・They slip

・They shift out of place

・They get dirty easily

Being lightweight is one of the good things about fabric mats, but that same lightness makes them prone to slipping and shifting. The kitchen is a place where you use knives and fire—dangerous work—so it's worrying if the rug you're standing on easily moves out of place.

What's more, fabric absorbs both water and oil, so it stains easily, and often the stains won't come out even after washing. As a result, you end up having to replace it before you'd like to.

What a kitchen mat really needs to be—"non-slip, resistant to shifting, and resistant to stains"—is, in fact, best delivered by plastic. That's something we came to realize firsthand after hearing from a staff member who swears by one.

A staff favorite: BRITA SWEDEN's plastic kitchen mat

When you hear "plastic," you probably imagine something hard and thin. But that's not the case here—despite being plastic, this kitchen rug from BRITA SWEDEN is soft like a rug and feels pleasant underfoot, much like a tatami mat.

Contrary to what the material might suggest, plastic rugs are actually a traditional item in Sweden, made since around the 1940s. Crafted with care by women whose families have long specialized in handcraft, passed down through generations, these rugs are truly items rooted in daily life, and are loved by people accordingly.

The tight weave and substantial weight speak to its durability, while the weaving technique brings lovely Nordic textile designs to life on the plastic rug. The Nordic attitude of building a home life true to one's own likes, in order to make one's living space comfortable, offers a model for making the most of our current circumstances and turning our homes into more enjoyable places.

On top of that, plastic rugs have some highly functional qualities.

・Resistant to fading (stays beautiful for long-term use)

・Resistant to stains and doesn't absorb liquid, so a quick wipe is all it takes

・No pile, so it doesn't trap dust, and any debris that gets in can be removed with a vacuum (gentle on those with allergies)

・Made of a sturdy material, so you can fold or roll it up freely (portable, even good for picnics)

・Can be fully washed in a washing machine

[Staff Review]

One of our staff members is a devoted user of the BRITA SWEDEN kitchen rug. Compared to other kitchen mats out there, BRITA SWEDEN's kitchen rug gives the impression of being considerably pricier—so why did she decide to try it?

"I used to have a thin cotton mat down. But even with a non-slip pad underneath, it still shifted around, and the stains gradually became more noticeable—I was starting to feel the limits of a fabric kitchen mat. The BRITA SWEDEN kitchen rug isn't something you can easily afford on a whim, but as I researched what kind of material would actually be good, I found myself increasingly drawn to it. In the end, I came around to thinking that, for a woven textile of this size, it really wasn't that expensive after all, and made up my mind to buy it."

Here's what she had to say after using it:

"It feels sturdy with just the right amount of weight, so (though it may also depend on the flooring material) it doesn't slip around much while I'm using it. I was worried it might look cheap since I'd heard it was made of plastic, but that wasn't the case at all—it feels like I've gotten myself a quality rug.

Up until now, I've been carefully choosing cookware and storage items I liked so I could enjoy doing housework in the kitchen with a good feeling. I was surprised at how much brighter this kitchen mat made the whole space feel just by adding it in. I was really happy that it delivered both function and decoration at the same time."

"Also, the crisp, textured feel is nice on bare feet, so I've been trying it out in various spots to see if it has uses beyond the kitchen. When I laid it beside the bed, I found the cat napping on it, which made me smile. And when I placed it on the bathroom floor, I found myself worrying less than before when my child splashes water everywhere and makes a mess."

Putting Concerns to the Test: BRITA SWEDEN Kitchen Rugs

We once received an inquiry like this from a customer.

You mention that stains and dirt are easy to remove, but is that true even for things like soy sauce or wine?

Staff: "Actually, I once spilled soy sauce on it, and wiping it with a damp cloth about 15 seconds later took care of it with no problem. Looking at how this kitchen mat is woven, it seems to combine plastic thread with another type of material, so wiping with a damp cloth alone left a bit of color on the non-plastic thread. But after running it through a full wash in the washing machine, it was completely unnoticeable. Compared to fabric kitchen mats, I've really noticed how resistant this one is to staining."

*For BRITA SWEDEN plastic mats, please remove dirt by patting rather than rubbing.

"You say it can be washed whole in the washing machine, but I'm a bit worried about how that would turn out."

Our staff put this to the test as well.

"Since I was worried about it losing its shape, I put it in a laundry net and washed it alone in the machine. There wasn't any major dirt, and I just wanted to freshen it up, so I skipped the detergent and ran a 5-minute wash cycle followed by just 1 minute of spin drying. Since it has some weight to it, I was a bit nervous about the thumping noise during the wash, but it finished without any issues, and the shape distortion I'd worried about never happened at all. Since it's not the kind of material that soaks up water, even with such a short spin time it wasn't dripping wet, and carrying it out to hang and dry wasn't any trouble."

It's just a mat, and yet it's not just a mat. The staff member we spoke with for this piece seemed genuinely surprised at how much a single kitchen mat could bring to a space as an interior element.

By the way, since this mat has UV-resistant processing, you can also bring it along on picnics or to sports events. It's heavier than a thin picnic sheet, but that means there's less worry about it flipping up in the wind, and there's the added peace of mind that you can wash it if it gets dirty.

The versatility of being usable indoors and easy to bring outdoors is something that's hard to find in rugs or mats made of other materials. Beyond just serving as a "kitchen mat," discovering new ways to use it is part of the enjoyment of everyday life.

▼You'll find BRITA SWEDEN kitchen mats and entrance mats here