The Best Desk Pads For Your Workspace

Desk pads are like the unheralded heroes of the home office. These unassuming rectangular cuts of fabric, leather, or wool protect the surface of your desk from all kinds of abuse. Whether you’re handwriting or drawing, pounding away at your keyboard, aggressively gaming with your mouse, grabbing a quick bite at lunch, or even cutting and tinkering around with gear, your desk plays host to a wide range of potentially harmful activities. But the best desk pads will protect your desk from all of these maladies, all while sprucing up and organizing your workspace.

For our guide to the best desk pads on the market, we looked at blotters and mats to cover a wide range of budgets, tastes, and needs. Whether you’re looking for a resilient cutting mat, an oversized gaming mousepad with some extra flair, or a timeless and classic leather blotter that will last a lifetime, you’ll find a desk pad here that will suit your needs. So have a look below at our guide to the best desk pads you can buy for your home office.

What Makes a Great Desk Pad?

Purpose: First and foremost, what’s your reason for buying a desk pad? If you’re just looking to spruce up your workspace with some style, then opt for classic leather blotters or a mat with some style or patterns. However, if you’re trying to protect your desk’s surface area, then you’ll probably want something a little more durable. For gaming pads, look for a model that extends out to the side and doubles as a mousepad.

Of course, some may not be using their desk for computer work at all. If that’s the case, you’ll want something that’s super durable and cut-proof.

Material: For the most part, material will come down to personal preference. However, when it comes to durability, vinyl and other synthetics will be your best best. As for comfort, however, wool and other soft materials are key.

Size: Again, this will have to do with what you’re using it for. If you’re looking to cover your laptop, keyboard, and mouse, you’ll want to go bigger and deeper. Likewise, a narrow model will do just fine if you’re just looking for a surface protector for your mouse and keyboard.

Adir Professional Reversible Self-Healing Cutting Mat

Best for Blade Cutting: If it’s durability you’re after, then a self-healing cutting mat should be on your radar. This one from Adir has a rugged industrial aesthetic and is made from a high-quality vinyl composite that closes immediately after cutting, so it will hold up to any serious blade work you plan on performing at your desk. It’s also safe for you, too, with a non-slip, anti-glare cutting surface and calibrated grid lines to guide you through a multitude of tasks.

Satechi Eco-Leather Deskmate

Best Overall: San Diego-based Satechi makes attractive and high-quality tech and office accessories, and they do so affordably. Take the Deskmate, for instance. Made from an attractive eco-friendly leather alternative, this desk pad has a premium feel, it’s water-resistant, and it’s safe for all surfaces. Its versatile style, size, and material make it ideal for a number of uses, and its three available colors all look super sharp.

Grovemade Wool Felt Desk Mat

Best Wool Pad: Grovemade has emerged in recent years as the leader in the desk pad space, as they have shone a spotlight on the unsung office accessory with their Instagram-ready designs. Grovemade makes their Desk Mat in numerous sizes and a number of materials, but our favorite is their Wool Felt option. Unique and attractive with its marbled look, this iconic desk pad boasts a soft feel along with the natural temperature-regulating properties of merino wool.

Razer Goliathus Extended Chroma

Best for Gaming: If you’re a gamer, then you’ll need better performance than what you’d get from your average desk pad. That’s where this entrant from Razer comes in. The aptly named Goliathus Extended is a massive version of the brand’s bestselling mouse pad, effectively turning your entire computer space into a giant gaming surface. It’s engineered to enhance the performance of all gaming mice and its Chroma RGB lighting system will adequately set the mood for competition.

OrbitKey Desk Mat

Best for Organization: Any desk pad will improve the look of your workspace, but few, if any, will clean it up as well as this offering from OrbitKey. Known for their key organizers, OrbitKey has turned their attention to tidying up your desk with this desk pad that features a hidden storage space for notes and documents, a minimalist and stylish indented bar for pens and pencils, and even a magnetic cable holder to keep your charging cord from cluttering up your desk.

KeySmart TaskPad

Best High-Tech Pad: Not content with just keeping your charging cord out of the way, KeySmart seeks to eliminate it from your desk completely with their TaskPad. Not only is this desk pad made from PU leather that’s non-slip, water-resistant, anti-stain, and anti-scratch, but it also includes a built-in wireless charger. That means you can banish all chargers from your desk, freeing up precious space as you charge your phone on your sleek-looking desk pad. Oh, and it functions as a mousepad too.

Killspencer Desk Mat

Best Leather Pad: All of these technological innovations and futuristic fabrics are great for some, but others prefer the classics. And it doesn’t get any more classic than leather. This quality offering from Killspencer is the real deal, crafted in America from premium bull hide leather. Its chic design is completely free from any ornamentation save for a subtle stamped Killspencer logo, meaning nothing will distract from the quality craftsmanship and natural material.

Hard Graft Rest Station Large Classic

Most Elegant: Hard Graft dubbed their desk pad the “Rest Station” because they envisioned it as the equivalent of a comfy office chair for your laptop — and they put just as much care into crafting it as they would if you were sitting on it yourself. Made in Italy from locally sourced Italian and European materials, the Rest Station combines a felted wool base with a rich leather top for an elegant desk pad that’s as comfortable as it is breathtaking.

Montblanc Leather Desk Pad

Best for Writing: If you demand the absolute most opulent option available for your desk, then Montblanc has your back. The German luxury brand’s Desk Pad looks to make the time spent at your desk as sumptuous as possible with a flexible leather top and a suede backing to keep it stable. And since this desk pad is made by perhaps the finest pen maker in the world, Montblanc made sure to craft its surface in such a way that it supports and enhances handwriting.

The Best Desktop Essentials

A desk pad is an excellent place to start, but it’s far from the only useful thing to keep on your desk for a productive workspace. From a headphone stand, to an heirloom-quality desk knife, to a great pen, there are many items that should call your home office “home.” And we’ve rounded up the best in our guide to the best desktop essentials.