Do you use placemats?

[RedRobyn2021]

We need new ones but I was looking the other week and they all seem a bit old fashioned if you know what I mean?

We have an oak table though and a 2 year old so we need something.

Just wondered what others use?

Don’t you heat your plates before serving dinner? We have a beautiful oak table that would be ruined without place mats. We have some lovely ones from John Lewis. Also, at the risk of sounding like Kevin from Motherland, we use slate chargers for ‘event’ dinners..

We have slate ones now. They are a bit heavy and I wouldn't have them with young kids. When the children were younger we just used oilcloths. I used to get them from John Lewis by the metre and had lots of different ones for different occasions. Pretty cheap, protects from spills (table mats won't) and brightens the kitchen up!

Yes, I do use them to protect the table from heat and water stains but I confess that I do tend towards practicality and comfort over modern.

I replace mine fairly often as they get stained - especially the cork topped type ones. Current ones are round grey ones from habitat I think and are more plasticky and seem to be lasting longer.

We have glass ones, so they don’t seem as obtrusive as regular mats. But we don’t have children around, probably wouldn’t work with diddies around. My sil has a heat resistant glass top for the whole table. I’d like something like that.

We've got bamboo ones from Sainsburys years ago they have lasted brilliantly.