Page 50 - South Mississippi Living - March, 2026

One Kitchen at a Time
Modern Home Cabinets and Flooring Is Built by Sisters, Carved From Experience
story by Cherie Ward photos by Katherine Sowers and courtesy of Modern Home
If you walk into Modern Home on Washington Avenue
in Ocean Springs, you might expect a pitch. A sales script. Maybe someone asking what Pinterest board you brought with you.
What you’ll actually get is Heather Mercier and Ashley Mercier—sisters, business partners, and the kind of women who show up to job sites with a tape measure in hand while people still assume they’re the front desk help.
They’re not.
They’re the owners. They’re the designers. They’re the ones doing the measuring, the planning, the problem-solving—and yes, the laughing. A lot of laughing.
“We grew up in it,” Heather said, referring to the cabinet business their father owned for most of their lives. “Sawdust everywhere. That was just normal.”
Their dad, Chip Mercier, was a high-end, custom cabinetmaker—old-school, meticulous, working on
multimillion-dollar homes along the Gulf Coast. From the time they finished high school, both sisters were part of that world. It was demanding. Stressful. Precise. And, as Ashley put it plainly, “That was work.”
What they’re doing now is different. Modern Home has been open for two years, offering cabinetry, countertops, select flooring such as luxury vinyl plank, and tile—especially for showers. There’s a showroom, but it’s intentionally curated. They don’t try to display everything. They don’t need to.
“If someone wants something specific, we can get it,” Ashley said. “We know where to source it.”
That confidence didn’t come from classes or certifications. Both sisters are entirely self-taught. Heather said she prefers learning by doing—never memorizing the rules but figuring things out as she goes and making her own way.
Ashley handles the design side, working through computer programs to visualize layouts and then watching those digital
50 | March 2026
www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living
HOME & GARDEN