Romero was born in 1971 in Chile, and moved with her parents to California in 1973, the year of the Pinochet coup d'état. She grew up in San Diego and attended university at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1993 and then going on to earn her master's degree in 1999 from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. In 1998, she designed the prototype for her LV homes, as a vacation home for her parents in Laguna Verde, Chile. The building was traditional construction and because there was a cost overrun, Romero realized that she could curtail expense and provide a more standard product via utilization of prefabrication. Her idea was to utilize the kit house to keep the homes affordable and allow construction to adjust to local building ordinances, but to offer modern, minimalist styling, using natural airflow and lighting, clean lines and balanced proportions. The Chilean house was completed in 2000 and was featured on the back cover of "Dwell Magazine". While the design created a flurry of media buzz, Romero was unable to interest US companies in building her typically flat-roofed designs.