Hi, I’m Tiffany.

I’ve always been drawn to beautiful things. I notice colors, patterns, textures, and the little details—and I love figuring out how they work together. That’s been a common thread through years of designing products, building creative businesses, and making my home feel like me.

So when I started shopping for my first mahjong set, I did what any perfectly reasonable designer would do: I built myself a template to compare all the possibilities.

Mahjong is an investment, and I wanted to love my whole setup, right down to the tile bag, tote, and shufflers. There was so much beauty to explore, but looking at products on separate websites wasn’t helping me decide. I needed to see everything together.

Down the mahj rabbit hole

I started swapping tiles, mats, and racks into digital mock-ups, exploring different combinations until I could figure out what felt the most me.

As it turns out, I’m not a one-size-fits-all tile-and-mat girl. I keep my sets out in my home, and just as my home gets seasonal refreshes, so does my mahjong setup. Different colors and styles appeal to me at different times of year. Apparently, even my mahjong table likes a change of clothes.

I’ve learned to follow the creative rabbit holes.

I’ve followed a lot of ideas into places I couldn’t have predicted. Over the years, those ideas have become products, brands, and businesses. I’ve learned that when the creative juices start flowing, sometimes the best thing I can do is get out of their way and see where they take me.

Mahj Matchmaker is one chapter in a much longer creative story. If you’re curious about the other things my husband, Jeff, and I have built together, you can read our story at Emery & Oak.

My mahjong journey started with that same curiosity—and a shopping project that apparently had bigger plans.

From a Facebook group to a growing match library

While browsing mahjong Facebook groups, I noticed how many people were asking the same questions I’d been asking myself: "What mat goes with these tiles?" "Which racks would you choose?"

By then, I’d spent so much time exploring collections that I could often remember which mats had the colors someone was looking for. My designer brain had been quietly filing it all away.

I began sharing mock-ups and helping people compare options. Then I started my own Facebook group, Mahj Matchmaker, and uploaded my combinations into albums organized by tile set. It gave people a place to browse the possibilities without piecing them together from hundreds of comments.

That group became the first home of my match library. It still exists today, along with those original albums and a community where players share their tables, ask questions, and help each other find what they’re looking for.

And, true to form, I kept creating.

Eventually, the library needed more room to grow. That brought Mahj Matchmaker here: a website with an expanding collection of curated matches, more ways to explore them, and a home for the ideas that keep coming.

I didn’t set out to build all of this when I started shopping for my first set. But I’ve been on enough creative journeys to recognize when an idea is worth following.

Sometimes you need to see it to know.

My curated match library is for those of us who crave a visual moodboard before making a decision. Whether you’re choosing your first set, finding a mat for tiles you already own, or dreaming up a seasonal refresh, I’m here to help you explore the possibilities and narrow things down.

The goal is to find a combination you love—one that feels like you.

Because when we see it, THEN we know.

Happy matching!

Tiffany