Benson Mills Tweed Woven Vinyl Placemats, 13" x 18", Natural, Set of 8

I've been redecorating our house and making some changes to freshen up the looks in several rooms. We had had our previous placemats for a number of years and they didn't really match the color scheme in our house so I decided to look for new ones. I didn't really want cloth placemats since that is what we had before and I wanted something different. These placemats showed up in my search results and I loved the look right away plus the price was great. I really liked the chocolate color but our dining room table is a reddish-brown and I opted to get the natural color since it would stand out more.These placemats come in a set of eight and are made of 100% woven vinyl. They measure 18 inches by 13 inches and are made in China. The natural color is composed of beige, light brown, dark brown, black, and white and mesh well together to form a tweed pattern that is very stylish.I was excited to receive our placemats and they really help to spruce up our dining room! We only have spots for six placemats on our dining room table so we used the other two on our kitchen table. Our twins have their own favorite character placemats but, even if they didn't, I would let them use these placemats because...guess what??? They are also incredibly easy to clean! If you get food or a beverage on them, simply use a wet sponge or paper towel and clean them off. These placemats are also lightweight and made nicely. The one thing with these is that, since they are woven vinyl, they have small holes all over them so you will want to make sure you have coasters if you don't want condensation dripping onto your nice table. We have some bamboo coasters and those work well with these.Overall, I'm very pleased with this purchase and am happy we found them! I love the look of these placemats and they have worked well for us so far and we use them multiple times a day. We only use them indoors but they would also look great if you are having a picnic outside on your patio. Our families were in town several weeks ago and we received compliments on how nice they look. If you are looking for new placemats, these are a good option and they come in many colors, shapes, and designs!

I have kids. There, I said it. They're little (only one is eating solid foods), but I still live in a fantasy world where I occasionally pretend that my house hasn't been overwhelmed by all kid things all the time. (Don't ruin this for me yet... let me live like this awhile longer.) This means that I still like to set a nice table and keep my table clean. That means I like matching placemats and I insist on using them to cut down on the amount of times I have to clean the wood table. I plan on avoiding laminated cartoon placemats for as long as humanly possible. We were using cloth placemats, but aforementioned kid is just simply not the cleanest of eaters, so I found myself washing/drying and then thinking about ironing my placemats (at least one of them) way more often than is practical for anyone. I needed an easy-to-clean solution that wasn't some loud cartoon character, taunting my attempts at adulthood.Enter these placemats. They are awesome! They look nice on our wood table and they are SUPER easy to clean! Most stuff can just be rinsed off. If the food is particularly ground in there or something like sauce, a light brush with the sponge and a rinse in the sink work wonders. They dry quickly and can go back on the table before you can say 'bath time'.These are not quite as heat resistant as I would like - if you have hot drinks, I suggest also using a coaster, just in case. And they are not water proof - if you spill enough water/liquid on them, it will seep through to your table. But they resist a pretty fair amount of liquid and can be cleaned up easily. Bottom line, they don't have to take up space in a washer, and, best of all, they don't need to be ironed. They look great!

I bought these for my mom because she has a lot of cloth place mats that just seem to get dirty and gross really quickly. They are also typically very seasonal, so if they don't match the season it's just weird to use them. These vinyl mats are great because they are easy to keep clean and they are a neutral pattern that can be used every day with almost every decoration. Just watch out, they are actually woven, so liquid will go through to the table underneath. These are great though, definitely a good buy :)Edit 1/11/14:Well, the inevitable happened - I spilled a whole glass of milk on the table and all over these placemats. Thankfully, because these are vinyl and woven, though the milk went through to the table, it was super easy to clean up. I just picked up the milky mats and rinsed them off in the sink, wiped them off, wiped the table off, and put the mats back down. Much easier to clean than cloth mats.

These are excellent place mats. One should be sure regarding the size they need before ordering. These measure 13" x 18". They're large mats, best suited for use on a rectangular table where they can be spaced properly.In my case ... the table is a six person table, oblong in shape. When the mats are placed, the end one is overlapped by the two alongside ... very unsightly, and basically not usable for my purpose. I'm now looking for 12" x 18" (or 17" if available), as replacements, which should address the problem.I won't be sending the originals back, since I didn't do my homework in the first place ... it's my error.That said ... I still really like these and trust they will make the more careful purchaser very happy.