Kitchen Design Software

Not long ago, if you wanted to design your kitchen, you had to rely on architects and interior designers to produce a reliable plan. Now, the market is flooded with software design tools to help you plan and render areas of your home for remodel.

Is there any kitchen design-specific software available for homeowners? Not really. In the free-or-inexpensive category, your choices fall into two areas: 1.) Generalized home design software packages with a good kitchen design component; or 2.) CAD (computer assisted drawing) programs that require you to produce your kitchen designs from scratch (though "scratch" is not exactly right, and I will cover this later).

So, unless you're a homeowner willing to pay over $1,000 or more for professional-quality kitchen design software, your choices are:

Kitchen Design Software: Paid, But Inexpensive

Predictably, you're better off spending a few bucks on paid kitchen design software. The tools work smoother, and they are more in tune with kitchen design needs.

1. AutoCAD® Freestyle by Autodesk

Looking for kitchen design software that bridges the gap between professional- and consumer-grade? This can be a tough call. But AutoCAD® Freestyle, from vaunted CAD/CAM manufacturer Autodesk, hits this sweet spot.

According to Lisa Crounse, AutoCAD Freestyle Product Manager, extensive usability studies were made in the development of Freestyle to ensure that the product would conform to users' instincts and desires, not the other way around.

As an all-purpose CAD software product, Freestyle allows you to create drawings of any part of the house, but it does have a good section devoted to kitchen drawing samples. Or start from scratch--your choice.

Simply put, Freestyle is one of the few homeowner-accessible design programs that will produce accurate renderings you can hand off to an architect or contractor--without them laughing at you (by contrast, see 3D Home Architect below).

• Cost: $79-$149
• The Good: CAD software that approaches professional-grade, but simple for homeowners to use and inexpensive.
• The Bad: If you're expecting lots of pretty little pictures served up on a silver platter, you may be disappointed. Freestyle represents a more rigorous approach to designing your kitchen, but an approach necessary if you actually want to see the project through to completion.

(Compare Prices - AutoCAD Freestyle)

2. Encore 3D Home Architect Design Suite By Encore Software

Not limited to kitchens, 3D Home Architect lets you choose kitchen counters, floors, lighting, appliances, and more. Users report that this offering from Encore is mediocre, at best. Drawings rendered by 3D Home Architect are more for your own usage, rather than for handing off to an architect or contractor.

• Cost: $35-70.
• The Good: Ease of use. Not incredibly detailed or realistic, but Encore 3D does help you block out the basic spaces.
• The Bad: Model kitchen designs are a bit uninspired. Honestly, this is fairly middle-brow stuff.

(Compare Prices - Encore 3D Home Architect).

3. punch! Software Home Design Studio Pro

punch! design software is a lot more complex and ambitious, and with prices that match this ambition. Still, if you want kitchen design software with more oomph! than an Encore 3D, this is the way to go. One criticism of punch! Home Design Studio is the lack of ability to import your own textures.

• Cost: $250+
• The Good: Professional-like kitchen design software, with all the associated strengths.
• The Bad: punch! software does have a learning curve, but nothing you cannot master in a weekend.

(Compare Prices - punch! Design Software).

4. SmartDraw

Now we're getting serious. SmartDraw straddles the line between weak off-the-shelf design software and those prohibitively expensive packages. How serious? It even has its own "Dummies" book.

• Cost: around $200 for one user.
• The Good: powerful software.
• The Bad: generalized design software that includes features you may not need.

(Compare Prices: SmartDraw For Dummies)

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 moderately easy to learn, Google SketchUp is a basic design tool (i.e., not just for kitchens), and Google's more powerful version called SketchUp Pro currently costs $495.

Important Tip For Surviving SketchUp: 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. Also, I found SketchUp a bit difficult to learn.