It began at Nobu, downtown San Diego, 2012. A blind date—though nothing felt blind about it. Chris was the founder of Coola, a luxury skincare line built around high-end sun protection. Adrienne— whose friends and family call her AJ—worked in advertising and produced lifestyle events for Sandow Media, often showcasing beauty products like Coola. He surfed in the early mornings and had a fine arts degree. She grew up in the Caribbean, the daughter of a restaurateur dad and an artistic mom who met when she hitched a ride on his sailboat.
The Birchbys married the following year and started a family. In 2019, after Chris sold a majority stake in Coola to SC Johnson (he sold the rest in 2024), they purchased a home a block from the ocean in Solana Beach and eventually embarked on a major renovation.
While pregnant with their first child, AJ did a deep dive into potentially toxic materials and learned that most homes are full of them—in everything from upholstery to paint and polyester. “We wanted our home to be exotic, tropical, and eco-friendly,” she says. They also envisioned a casual and elegant place, durable enough for four children, and they needed plenty of white wall space for Chris’ collection of edgy art.
When AJ found Solana Beach architectural and interior designer Christie May’s designs online, she was taken with her “outside-the-box” style. The renovation, May says, was a “full gut.” May replaced the worn exterior with fresh cedar shingles, adding charcoal-colored board-and-batten siding on the upper level for contrast. The new standing-seam metal roof picks up the horizontal lines of the battens.
May’s plans opened up the home, knocking out interior walls to turn cramped, dark spaces into expansive ones; removing false ceiling beams to take full advantage of the 10-foot ceilings; and replacing small, square windows with much larger ones.
Landscape architect Chris Brown designed the tropical gardens. In front of the house, he planted kentia palms and plumeria. A low wooden gate leads through a hedge of bay laurel into the front garden. The Birchbys can lounge on the long front porch while the kids play on the grass amid a garden of wild ginger, red-flowering lobster claw, angel’s trumpet, and philodendron. The porch leads to the front door and a small foyer with an acacia-root table that AJ bought years ago.
At the heart of the home is a square courtyard with the living room at one end. A hallway along the back leads to the kitchen, dining, and family area at the other.
May added large new sliding glass doors and windows on all three sides of the courtyard to connect the indoor and outdoor spaces and provide views of Brown’s dense, fragrant landscape.
AJ believes that a healthy interior must be free of harmful particles that may be released by foams, adhesives, finishes, and synthetic fabrics. May created custom furniture that utilizes non-toxic adhesives, brought in upholstery and rugs made from natural wool and cotton, and chose paints and wood finishes considered low- or no-VOC (volatile organic compound)—chemicals that can cause headaches, scratchy throats, even cancer. She selected window coverings handwoven from renewable natural fibers such as bamboo and jute.
In the living room, matching sofas designed by May flank a round stone coffee table in front of a green-tiled fireplace with a teak mantel and black marble hearth. The flecked, cream-colored wool rug is accented with thin black lines. Girl with Lilac Bow, a painting by artist John Millei (one of Chris’ teachers at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, where he obtained his MFA), hangs above the fireplace. “John is a southern California native, also a big surfer,” Chris says. “He’s really creative with paints, themes, materials, and the energy he brings to a brushstroke.”
On another wall is The Middle Teton by Sam McKinniss, evocative of the spectacular Wyoming mountain range. “His brushwork is very confident, and he’s a magician,” Chris adds.
“His paintings work well from a distance, and, up close, they provide little moments of surprise.”
Down the hallway by the courtyard, past a guest bathroom and laundry room, stairs lead up to the second level, where you’ll find the primary suite, three kids’ bedrooms, and two bathrooms. During construction, May loved the way daylight came between the studs lining the stairwell. She decided to glass the opening instead of drywalling it so the kitchen and dining area gets some bonus natural light.
Floors throughout the house are reclaimed teak from Indonesia. Interior doors are solid teak; other wood details are oak, stained to match. At the edge of the kitchen sits an eight-foot-long solid teak dining table the couple bought on their honeymoon in Ubud, Bali. Pendant lights made from coconut shells dangle above it. Behind the table hangs Troll, a pastel by artist Robin F. Williams. “I grew up in a house full of brothers, and I love being a girl dad,” Chris says. “Most of our pieces are by women artists. I like this piece because it reminds me of our daughter Beaux.”
The kitchen counters are natural quartzite. Brass pendant lights hang above the island, while antique brass fixtures and hardware lend steampunky accents. Bi-folding windows open the kitchen to the outdoor patio and dining area. The kitchen sink faces the garden, and the counter extends beyond the windows to become an outdoor bar and counter.
In the surrounding backyard, Brown kept several giant birds of paradise that came with the house. Beneath and around them grow reddish ti plants, asparagus ferns, and strappy-leaved liriope. At the edge of the garden, you’ll find an outdoor shower with stone pavers and a beachstone backsplash. Nearby, water bubbles through a fountain made of cored boulders. There are also a surfboard shed and a playhouse, both with cedar shingles and standing-seam metal roofs that match the house.
Next to the kitchen, the family room features a tiled fireplace flanked by window seats and tall, narrow windows. May designed the L-shaped sofa and covered all the furniture with natural fabrics. On the wall above the sofa is artist Friedrich Kunath’s A Better Place, an island landscape with a family of four running through.
“We’re going to have him add two more kids,” AJ says. Beyond new steel-and-glass sliders, the courtyard is a furnished outdoor room surfaced with basalt tiles. Along the edge of the courtyard, slabs of basalt frame rectangular reflecting pools against a wall of lava rock. Water trickles into the pools from copper scuppers that flank a gas firepit at the center of the wall. Brown’s landscape includes passion fruit vines, banana trees, monstera, and elephant ear. Madagascar jasmine and cordyline grow in containers on the new curved balcony. It’s a verdant oasis that easily accommodates a dozen.
Upstairs, the children’s bedrooms have built-in oak desks and cabinets, plus an array of eco-friendly furniture, finishes, and textiles. Their bathrooms are appointed with quartzite counters, ceramic tiles, brass fixtures, and fine-art wallpaper from Eskayel, a company founded by San Diegan Shanan Campanaro.
The primary suite is a cozy retreat. May dreamed up a custom bed with flecked, charcoal-gray fabric; even the mattress is made from natural materials. At its foot perches a teak bench covered with a sheephide rug. Beside the bed, there’s a seating area with bamboo chairs, a concrete microtop drum table, and Encinitas artist Emma Webster’s Ungrounded, a brooding landscape with touches of fluorescent color. May added built-in seats below new and enlarged windows. On the floor lies a shag wool rug from Morocco.
The floors in the primary bath are dark limestone, the counters are natural quartzite, and the cabinets have reeded doors. The shower features greenish gray porcelain tiles and a slate mosaic basin. Waterworks made the solid brass bathroom fixtures and faucets.
May’s design of many tones, forms, and textures is in constant conversation with the Birchbys’ ever-changing art collection. They own many more pieces than they can display, and the works are in perpetual rotation. Since the children have grown up around art, they appreciate it, and there’ve been no surprise attacks by Magic Marker, though the Birchbys encourage them to create and display works of their own. Chris lights up when he talks about art, both making it and collecting it. He uses words like “poetic” and “vibrancy” and “harmony”—words that apply equally to family life by the beach in this Pacific hideaway.
