If you ask Brooke and Brice, no matter where big dreams take them, Lebanon will always be home. From the story of how they met, to their friendships and business, Wilson County is where it all began for them. And although their television show, Making Modern, airs on big networks like Magnolia and HBO, their full-time careers are still local, and might not be what you would expect.
“I’m still a full time pharmaceutical rep in Nashville,” explained Brooke, while Brice is a dentist who specializes in orthodontics. It was their passion for design that led them to opening an award winning, adult orthodontic practice in 2019.
“I actually opened my own practice at the very end of 2019, and you can imagine what that looked like right at the beginning of Covid,” Brice told us, but it didn’t take long to catch notoriety because of its design and concept.
“My practice is really unique, I try to push the envelope with everything I do,” Brice explained, “it’s an adult only practice, which is crazy, but what we wanted was a place adults can go to that doesn’t have dolphins on the wall and feel like a place for kids. This is a very good way to break down those boundaries and give them a place that is luxurious and mature.”
Brooke says, “We feel like with our generation, so many parents paid for braces for their kids, but didn’t do it for themselves. Or for other people whose teeth have moved and shifted, it’s time for those people to have somewhere to go and feel comfortable and not have to sit in little bitty chairs. It’s a really fun concept.”
So how did they end up on tv?
“In 2016 we were building our dream house, but unfortunately, to the builder, he was just building another house,” Brice says, “So in the process we parted ways with the contractor and Brooke took a lot of that on to finish it.”
“We were both creative and always have been, I have always taken things apart and tried to find a new way to use the pieces,” says Brooke, “But it was that unfortunate event with our home builder that pushed us to take things into our own hands. Once it was finished, that's how the show happened.”
Their own projects led to helping neighbors tiling kitchens, bathrooms, and creating other designs, with Brooke eventually earning her general contractor license.
“People used to tell us all the time, ya’ll need a tv show, you would make a great home show, and one day a friend of a friend was a tv producer whose interest was piqued. We filmed a three minute sizzle, which is actually about eight hours of filming content that is shrunk down to a show pitch, and we figured nothing would come from it,” they said. “Neither of us had any big desire to be on television, so after we filmed the pitch, we moved on with our lives and were surprised months later to get a call that four networks were interested in our show. Most of the time it takes 10 years to get picked, but Magnolia paid for us to shoot the pilot.”
For Brice, all of these things are passions, whether it's giving people beautiful smiles, or designing things, he believes there will always be a place in his life to balance them all.
But because Brooke juggles a lot between her career, contractor projects, and the show, she may eventually make some choices on where she goes from here. But one thing they are sure of, is their marriage will always come first.
“We just pray the right doors open at the right time, and when they close we move on to the next thing in our lives,” says Brooke, “We are the show hosts, but we are also in the trenches, so when the camera goes away on film, we are still the ones working. They say if you stay can married while you’re building a house, you’re strong, but for us, we band together, team up, and it makes it so we can get a lot done. And at the end of the day the only thing that is important to us is that our marriage is strong.”
Want to book Brooke and Brice for a project and maybe a chance to be on their show? Although their waitlist is long, you can visit deepsouthmodern.co, brookeandbrice.com, or social media to submit your design requests. Watch for their third season to debut later this Summer.
They say if you can stay married while you’re building a house, you’re strong, but for us, we band together and it makes it so we can get a lot done.