Fortune Favors the Bold

For designer Alexis Tompkins of Chroma and her young family, an unlikely San Francisco listing was the key to indoor-outdoor bliss

- ELIZABETH FAZZARE

Alexis Tompkins, cofounder of the San Francisco design firm Chroma, is no stranger to color, having conjured some of the West Coast's boldest rooms in recent memory. But no palette, in her eyes, can compete with Mother Nature's. So when the 2021 AD New American Voices honoree went hunting for a family home after years in a thirdlevel apartment, "it was my dream to have some outdoor space. A little patch of green is such a luxury in a city." Creating the oasis she was envisioning, however, would require some elbow grease, improvisation, and collaboration.