Tested: Upgrade your work surface with Harber London’s handmade leather desk mats

After getting a chance to go hands-on with the Harber London leather tech pouch, iPhone 15 sleeves, and more, we thought it would be a good idea to also check out its leather desk mats. The brand, for those unfamiliar, handcrafts gorgeous leather goods covering just about all tech accessory categories, and now it’s time to give its at-home or office space work surface accoutrement a run for its money. Head below for our hands-on impressions of the Harber London Leather Desk Mat. 

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Testing out the Harber London Leather Desk Mat

The Harber London desk mat collection includes a few different designs – the leather model on display for this review as well as an all wool model with a leather tab detail and its microfiber variant – alongside a couple smaller options known as the MacPad and Leather Mouse Pad. The Leather Desk Mat we are focusing on here is handmade in Spain and features the brand’s “signature premium full grain leather” on the top surface with your choice of either a wool or microfiber lining on the underside (I have been testing out the microfiber variant). 

We use premium Premium Full Grain Leather. These leathers will age beautifully as they form a unique patina overtime. As any noble woods, you may be able to appreciate some natural marks that shall not be deemed as defects but as a true statement of natural quality.

The Harber London Leather Desk Mat comes in three colorways, the tan version pictured up top, a black model, and the navy blue version. It starts at $129 and comes in three sizes. 

Take a closer look at the specs:

• Cut-Through hole for cords & cables
• Handmade by expert craftsmen in Spain
• Made with our Signature Premium Full Grain Leather
• 100% Wool Felt
• Soft Microfibre lining

9to5Toys’ Take

The model I have been testing out is the lighter brown color (Tan) with the microfiber backing – it’s super soft and keeps the mat in place nicely on my wood desktop. It, like the rest of the Harber London leather gear, has that handmade aesthetic I love, with a natural visible stitching surrounding the outer edge of the leather – a tiny bit of the under-lining sticks out around the edge for some visual interest.

I like the design, I love the top-notch materials being used here, and it will look great on just about desk if you ask me – my particular setup might admittedly be better suited for the black variant, but Harber has a few colors for folks to choose from. 

There are, for the most part, no tricks or special features here, it’s all about the leather and materials used. Some of the desk mats I have tested out have built-in charging and allow you to slip documents and other flat items between the layers of the mat – like the Journey MagSafe charging model, which I found to be quite a handy feature. But Harber London is taking a more minimalist and traditional approach here, forgoing a sort of hidden slip pocket on the design entirely. But it has provided a subtle cutout along the top of the mat to thread a charging cable through – it is a neat and tidy way to pass the charging cable for your keyboard or otherwise through the mat, and it doesn’t look odd or out of place when not in use for me. 

One thing I can’t help but consider with regards to the leather treatment here is the natural patina that’s bound to develop over time. I have always been a fan of the organic worn-in look natural leathers can develop with use, but how is that going to work with a desk mat?

Leather bags get handled on a regular basis when you place them down, open and close them, and grab the straps to lug them around though airports, train stations, at the work place, and so on – not unlike say, a leather jacket or tech pouch. But with a desk mat, at least in my case, the only active contact area is where the mouse is used – the keyboard, for the most part, just gets placed down and removed to wipe the surface clean periodically, but that one spot on the lower right side of mat, where the mouse is constantly being dragged and manipulated across the surface, is likely to be the only place where any overly noticeable patina develops. Right? 

How this actually looks over time remains to be seen – am I just going to have one darker slightly dis-colored worn-in spot with the rest of the surface remaining mostly unscathed? And is that going to look odd and just make me want to replace the mat sooner than an investment of this capacity should warrant? I’m not really sure, only time will tell. I certainly appreciate the natural battle scars leather develops with age and use, but this, perhaps, should be something folks consider with a pricey leather desk mat. 

Speaking of price, it’s the same story as all of the other handmade leather Harber London gear. Artisan craftsmanship leveraging natural materials like this is always going to come at a premium, and while I would obviously prefer this desk mat sold for less, you are getting what you pay for here. There are loads of genuine and not-so-genuine leather desk mats on Amazon for a whole lot less than this one, but as usual, it’s hard to imagine something selling for $40 delivering the same sort of longevity and quality as the handmade full grain treatment from Harber. 

Buy the Harber London Leather Desk Mat