Play mats for small homes: store it or style it

Our flat is a good size for three people, which means it is a small flat once a baby's things achieve their natural state of expansion. If your home is similar, the question is not whether to get a play mat. It is where the mat lives when it is not being used - or whether it ever gets put away at all.

Two honest strategies

The first: accept the mat as furniture. This is why we design in grey, beige and calm prints - a mat that looks like a rug can stay out permanently, and a mat that stays out gets used ten times a day. Our Soft Foam lives in the living room full time. Guests have complimented it without realising what it was, which is the entire point.

The second: make storage effortless. If the mat takes thirty seconds to fold or roll and has a home behind a door, it will actually be put away. If it takes two minutes and an argument, it will live on the floor forever, slightly annoying everyone. The Fold XPE exists because of this exact argument.

What we would skip

Puzzle mats in small homes. Every piece is a separate object to lose, and the gaps between pieces are crumb architecture. One surface, one piece, done.