Planning to stay, not move
The home you love wasn't designed for the next twenty years of your life. You've researched grab bars and ramps — but the real fix is usually a layout reset that keeps your independence and your home's style intact.
Marin & Sonoma County, California
Love your home again
It starts with the layout.
OpenForm Design reimagines residential layouts across Marin and Sonoma Counties for homeowners planning to age in place, families who need room to gather, and investors who need a floor plan that performs. We look past the surface to what will really make your home work, then deliver a clear, buildable, permit-ready roadmap and stay beside you through permitting and construction.
Sound familiar?
Does this sound familiar?
The numbers have to work
You're converting, adding an ADU, or repositioning a property, and the constraint isn't square footage — it's code compliance, allowances, and paperwork. You need a design roadmap tied directly to ROI.
Room to gather, space to unwind
Your home can't hold the life you want to host in it — family visits, long weekends, real rest. The blocker usually isn't land or square footage. It's budget definition and timeline clarity, and that's exactly where we start.
A layout that sells
The property's problem isn't cosmetic. Dated, awkward layouts cap resale appeal no matter the finishes. We identify the market-tested layout fixes that protect your margin.
Diagnosis
What you think the problem is — and what it usually is
- I need accessibility products — ramps, grab bars, wider doors
- You need a layout reset that supports mobility without medicalizing your home
- The house is too small
- The layout is misallocated — and for ADUs and conversions, the real constraint is code compliance and documentation, not space
- We need more square footage and less noise
- You need budget definition and a timeline you can trust — the design follows
- It just needs a cosmetic wow factor
- It needs a structural layout fix matched to what your market's buyers actually pay for
Every project starts with an honest diagnosis. If your stated problem isn't the real problem, we'll tell you — and show you the roadmap that solves the right one.
What we do
What does OpenForm Design actually do?
We provide full-service residential design: measured as-built drawings, design development with 3D modeling, construction documents, consultant coordination, permit assistance, and construction administration. For realtors, we also draft clean, accurate listing floor plans. Whether you're reworking a cramped kitchen, adding a second story, or building an ADU for rental income, we handle the path from idea to approved plans.
01
Aging in Place & Universal Design
A layout reset that protects independence — and your home's character.
02ADU & Additions
County-specific ADU, JADU, and home addition design.
03Second Homes & Retreats
Budget definition and timeline clarity for a getaway that gets built.
04Investors & Resale
Market-fit layout studies and design roadmaps tied to ROI.
05Architectural & MEP Drafting
Pick the system you need — architectural, electrical, mechanical, or plumbing — drafted individually or combined.
Our difference
Why do clients choose OpenForm Design over a big firm or a contractor's quick sketch?
There's often a gap between what a homeowner imagines, what appears on paper, and what ultimately gets built — and an even earlier gap between the problem you can see and the problem underneath it. Most designers hand off drawings and step away. We don't. We diagnose the real constraint first, explain your options in plain language, coordinate with builders and engineers, and advocate for your vision through every phase — including construction. And because Marin and Sonoma have materially different standards, fees, and feasibility constraints, we design to the rules of your county, not a generic template.
A great space isn't built from a cookie-cutter template; it's custom-designed around how you actually live, move, and feel inside your home.
Selected work
Featured projects
Recent work from Marin and Sonoma — from early design studies to listing-ready drawings.
Aging-in-place addition · Schematic design
The Middle Rincon Project
In schematic phase, an attached aging-in-place addition for a client: two care bedrooms, a caregiver suite and a Type A bath, strung along one accessible route and a deep SSE-facing porch.
Floor plan
Site plan
Listing floor & site plans
The Edison Project
On Edison St, Graton
Edison St, Graton: OpenForm Design drew accurate as-built floor and site plans for a listing agent, then turned them into rendered marketing plans that help buyers understand the home and lot at a glance. We turn existing homes into clear, listing-ready drawings, fast.
Who we are
OpenForm Design is the residential design studio that helps Marin and Sonoma County homeowners, realtors, and developers turn their ideas into buildable, permit-ready designs — and stays engaged as their advocate from first sketch through construction.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
We serve Marin County and Sonoma County, including San Rafael, Novato, Mill Valley, Sausalito, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, and Sebastopol.