Kitchen Design Software: An Overview

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.

Paid Kitchen Design Software

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.

Encore 3D Home Architect Design Suite v8.0 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.

Buy Direct - Encore 3D Home Architect

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 true kitchen design software, this is the way to go. One criticism of punch! Home Design Studio is the lack of ability to import your own textures.

Buy Direct - punch! Software Home Design Studio Pro

SmartDraw

SmartDraw is poised to become the "go to" software for kitchen design for non-professionals. I say this because when you look at kitchen design tools, you are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

On the one hand, you have these diehard, professional tools like the Pulsar Usa Pro 100, which run over $2,000 and are difficult to learn. On the other hand, you have these generalized--and quite wimpy--house design tools that you can buy off the shelf at any Circuit City, Staples, or Office Depot. You can even buy them for $5, but they don't do a very good job of addressing the kitchen specifics.

SmartDraw has the obligatory "free 7 day trial," but I don't put much stock in that when it comes to software, since software always has a learning curve. SmartDraw isn't some monster program that will eat up your computer resources (requires IBM-compatible PC with Windows Vista, XP or 2000, 256MB RAM, 3GB free hard disk space).

Tip: start with their templates rather than from scratch. Even if you don't like the template, it doesn't matter. You can tweak it enough that eventually it will no longer resemble the original.

SmartDraw Software

Free Kitchen Design Software

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.

Google SketchUp