I really just wanted a doormat that would last more than a month, would look presentable, and wouldn’t make my porch decor look tacky. I found all that and more with this type of doormat and I can’t believe how much satisfaction such a little thing can bring me when it just does what it’s supposed to do. 🙂 Here’s my LL Bean Waterhog Doormat Review!
I’ve always had some pretty strong opinions about doormats. Mainly, that those cute coir mats that you can get are kind of just garbage. I love how cute they look and it’s so nice to put out a fresh, seasonal doormat with a cute saying to greet you, but they just wear our so quickly. If I take the time to sweep off my porch, wipe the spiderwebs away, and put out a fresh mat, I’d like for my porch to look well-taken care of for at least a little while, you know? Somehow, when you add a coir mat into the mix, your porch ends up looking more neglected within a few weeks than it did before you tidied up your porch. The cute patterns start to fade, the dog fur builds up, random little bits of thread somehow make their way into those coir fibres, and it’s just not clean-looking, at all. Trying to find a solution to that problem is exactly how I ended up discovering this LL Bean Waterhog doormat, which has just addressed all of these issues so nicely. It just works.
Other Doormat Options I’ve Tried
So of course, I’ve tried the cute, colourful, patterned coir mats. They’re a classic doormat choice. I always love them when I first put them out, but after that, they start to get worn out and sad-looking pretty quickly and it’s just unpleasant. I guess the good thing about that is that it gives you an excuse to get a new doormat for every season, but with two porches that need mats, it just ends up feeling like I’m always buying doormats and it feels like a waste of money.
After being so unhappy with the coir mats, I clued into the fact that flat-weave cotton mats are an option that work really well in my particular situation, where I have covered porches over both of my doors that need doormats. The great thing about these cotton mats is that you can just throw them in the washing machine every week or two to freshen them up. They do fade in the sun after a few years, but you really don’t notice it too much, especially if you have a mat in a neutral color. I do still like this option, actually. Here’s how one of these cotton mats looks on our front porch, looking from the front. This is from last fall.
You can see it lies flat really nicely and just kind of disappears.
The classic cotton Dash and Albert rugs are perfect for this. I love this one, this one, and I think this one is my current favorite if you think this might be a good option for you.
The LL Bean Waterhog Doormat Types I’m Using Currently
As well as the cotton mat option works for me, I really wanted something with a look that was a little less casual and that’s how I came to try this particular type of Waterhog doormat. I have this one (in the color called “Bluestone”) on the inside of the door and it has performed really well there for the past year through all kinds of weather so I decided that maybe it might do almost as well on the outside of the door as well.
Apparently I don’t have a lot of photos of the one in the mudroom, but here you can see it in this photo from my post about how to clean running shoes.
I love the classic look of these crescent mats so I decided to give one a try. The one I have here, which is the plaid pattern in the color khaki, is currently sold out, but they have an almost identical one available in a lot of different colors. I have a few other mats in the camel color that I’ve ordered more recently and the color is almost identical to the old khaki. It kind of gives you that classic coir look without getting all worn-out looking the second you put it outside.
Crescent Doormat | White All-Weather Planters | Similar Blue and White Planter | White All-Weather Adirondack Chair
I’ve had the mat outside for about 6 months now and all I have to report back is that absolutely nothing has happened. It’s just exactly the same. It’s been exposed to storms, hot summer sun, mud, pets, and all that good stuff and this is how it looks.
Just the same as it did the day I put it down.
The mat I had inside the door was looking a little dirty recently with a bit of mud caked in one corner and some dog fur stuck in it in a few places so I took it out to the driveway and hosed it down and it was good as new! This one on the side porch still looked just fine though, so I didn’t even bother to hose it down. It seems that the rain from the storms this summer was enough to keep it looking clean and fresh. 🙂
Crescent Doormat | White All-Weather Planters | Similar Blue and White Planter | White All-Weather Adirondack Chair
So basically, this is the doormat that you buy once, then just ignore for years and years and it just stays there, doing its thing without making your entryway slowly look more and more neglected the way a lot of others can.
Other Options I Love
LL Bean has been doing a great job of expanding the options for different styles of this mat, which is a great thing because I will definitely be trying a few more.
I really don’t love our current plastic boot trays that we use in our mudroom and I think these new boot mats will be the perfect solution. I love the classic Bean Boot pattern on them, the fact that they come in different sizes, and the fact that they’re polished-looking while still being super affordable compared to all of the nicer boot trays that I’ve been looking at.
I’m thoroughly intrigued by these Christmas tree mats.
These dogs! Super fun for dog owners. I might do a fun one like this at one of our back doors one day.
You can’t go wrong with a classic monogram at the front door.
I love that you can also get these mats in giant sizes. Perfect for a laundry room, garage, pool house, or for a workshop.
Do you have one of these mats? Do you love yours as much as I do?
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.