Kitchen Design Software

Kitchen Design Software

Long ago, if you wanted to design your kitchen, you had to rely on architects and interior designers to come up with a reliable plan. Now, the market is flooded with software design tools for the home which can help you design your kitchen yourself.

Kitchen Design Software: Free

1. HomeStyler by AutoDesk

AutoDesk's free home design software is thankfully online-based: it works in your browser, so no cumbersome software to download.

• Cost: Free.
• The Good: Geared more for home and kitchen design than Google SketchUp, which is a general design tool. Also, I like the ability to choose brands, such as Kohler, Merilat, Flor, Sherwin-Williams, and others.
• The Bad: Produces only very rudimentary renderings. Also, no walk-through ability.

2. Google SketchUp

In the area of free software tools, we mainly find software that, yes, is free but misses the mark a bit. "You get what you pay for" is true in this case, because kitchen design is a very specialized type of design which the free tools do not adequately cover. Kitchens have parameters you need to stay within (for example, you need to maintain a certain spacing between cabinetry units), which the free tools do not really address.

Truly free and easy to learn to use, Google SketchUp is just a basic design tool (i.e., it's not just for kitchens), and their "better" version called SketchUp Pro currently costs $495. It's hard to start from scratch, so you may want to go to their 3D Warehouse and work off of an existing plan created by someone else.

Tip: Use Previously Built Kitchen Designs. Why create your kitchen designs from scratch? Go to Google's 3D Warehouse, where fellow users have uploaded kitchen designs that you can manipulate once you install SketchUp on your computer.

• Cost: Free.
• The Good: Strong fan-base; you'll always find support from peers.
• The Bad: Only peer support available. Like other Google products, Google sends it onto the market and forgets it.

Kitchen Design Software