Joseph Ng

Joseph Ng is the co-owner and lead estimator at Creative Home Decor, the family-run cabinet, countertop, tile and paint shop at 1831 Utica Avenue in Brooklyn. He opened the doors in 2009 with his wife Livia and has been on the floor every working day since.

Most of what he writes here comes straight off real Brooklyn jobs, older Flatbush co-ops with cabinets that have to clear a 30-inch elevator, Marine Park single-family homes where the soffits hide steel, Bay Ridge two-families where two kitchens share one delivery window. The pricing, the lead times, the cabinet brands he keeps recommending, all of it is what he is actually quoting that week, not generic filler.

Joseph works with about 40 active contractors across the five boroughs, plus homeowners who walk in off Utica. The shop has supplied a little over 950 kitchens since 2009. He templates most stone jobs personally and checks every cabinet order before it leaves the warehouse.

Joseph and Livia split the design work evenly, either one of them can sit down with you over a layout and tell you exactly what will fit, what to skip, and what it will cost. Most days Livia is the one on the phone, and Joseph is out templating or back in the warehouse.