Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren & Lindsay Oakley & Dupont.
Hi Lauren & Lindsay, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The Tile Edit really started with a shared love of mahjong, design, and the experience of gathering around a table. We’re two friends, Lauren and Lindsay (Lo & Linds), who fell in love with the game—not just the strategy of it, but everything that comes with it: getting friends together, setting the table, staying way longer than you planned, and having something that gives everyone a reason to slow down and connect.
As we played more, we found ourselves wanting pieces that felt a little more like us. We loved the tradition and history of mahjong, but saw an opportunity to approach the products through a fresh design lens—sets and accessories that were beautiful enough to leave out, thoughtfully designed for actual play, and felt at home in the spaces we were already creating.
That idea eventually became The Tile Edit.
We’ve been incredibly intentional about every detail, from the size and readability of our tiles to the colors, materials, finishes, and accessories that surround the game. We’ve spent months designing, tweaking, sampling, changing our minds, and obsessing over details most people will probably never know we obsessed over—which is also kind of the point.
We’re still very much at the beginning of our story, which makes this season especially exciting. The Tile Edit is our way of bringing together two things we really love: mahjong and really good design. More than anything, we want to create pieces that make people excited to gather, play, and stay awhile.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely hasn’t been without its challenges! Lo’s background is actually in manufacturing and product importing, so we came into this with a lot of knowledge about what goes into bringing a physical product to life. But even with that experience, there’s always a learning curve when you’re designing something completely from scratch.
Getting every little detail exactly how we envision it, navigating samples and revisions, and balancing production timelines, especially when you’re really particular about the end result, can definitely test your patience. We’ve had plenty of moments where something that seemed simple turned into ten more decisions, but we’ve also learned that’s just part of creating something you’re genuinely proud of.
Overall, though, the process has been so much fun. One of the coolest parts of The Tile Edit has been getting to build something together as friends and then share it with our friends and this growing community around us. Seeing people get excited about something that started as an idea between the two of us has made all of the little challenges along the way completely worth it.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
What sets The Tile Edit apart is that we’re looking at mahjong through both a design and a player-first lens. We love the tradition of the game, but we also believe the pieces you play with can feel beautiful, elevated, and personal to your style.
We’re incredibly detail-oriented when it comes to our products. From larger, easy-to-read numbers to color choices, materials, finishes, and even how everything feels in your hand and looks sitting on a table, every decision is intentional. We want our pieces to be functional first, but we also want them to be things you’re genuinely excited to own, use, and leave out in your home.
We also bring two very different skill sets to the business, which has been such an advantage. Lo has a background in product development, e-commerce, and marketing, while Linds brings an incredible creative eye and design perspective. Together, we’re able to obsess over both sides of the brand, from how a product is made and marketed to how it looks and feels.
What we’re most proud of, though, is the community that’s already forming around The Tile Edit. We’re creating products, but the bigger vision has always been about what happens around them. Friends gathering, learning the game, laughing around a table, and making mahjong part of their own traditions. That’s the part that makes this feel really special to us.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
We have to give a lot of credit to our husbands, Paul and Ross. They are pretty badass and, somewhat against their will at first, have officially learned how to play mahjong. They’ve become our built-in product testers, sounding boards, and probably our biggest hype men on Instagram. They listen to every idea, give us honest feedback, celebrate the little wins with us, and remind us how exciting this is when we’re deep in the weeds.
More than anything, they’ve given us the space to actually build this. Between the two of us, we have five kids, so The Tile Edit has truly become a family affair. Paul and Ross have stepped in countless times so we can take a meeting, work late, obsess over samples, shoot content, or spend a few more hours bringing an idea to life. We genuinely couldn’t be doing this without them.
And then there are our friends. We feel incredibly lucky to have people around us who believed in The Tile Edit when it hadn’t even made it out of the group chat yet. They’ve shared our posts, told their mahjong groups, sent our page to friends, spread the word through their neighborhoods, and cheered us on every step of the way. Watching our friends get genuinely excited about something we created has been one of the sweetest and most unexpected parts of this whole experience.
This may be a business the two of us started together, but there are so many people behind the scenes helping us make it happen. We feel really, really lucky to have them in our corner.
Pricing:
- We are fully launching in November – pricing available then
- We will be doing pop up events around Dripping Springs in Austin to play with our tiles before then
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tileedit.com
- Instagram: @_thetileedit
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/61582712580464/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.tile.edit
