Free Kitchen Layout Planner: Drag & Drop To Create Your Perfect Design

How to Use the Kitchen Floor Plan Design Tool

The planner shows your kitchen in the correct proportions and lets you know if something won’t work. You can set the size of the room, add in the countertops, the sink, the cooker and the fridge, and while you are moving the items, it will check the aisles, the work triangle and the counter space next to each appliance. There’s no need to sign up, and there’s nothing to install; it works on a phone, although a laptop makes dragging easier.

Start with the room dimensions – At the top, enter the width and depth in feet. Measure from wall to wall, from finished surface to finished surface, not from the framing. Each square on the grid represents one foot and the entire plan will rescale to match what you have entered. If you are not sure which measurements matter, start with the kitchen dimensions worth knowing first. Browse to the nearest half foot; you’re checking if the layout works, not placing the cabinets.

Drop in the countertops and appliances – The twelve items in the first row of buttons include a counter, an island, a peninsula, a sink, a range, a cooktop, a refrigerator, a dishwasher, a wall oven, a microwave, a pantry and a table. Each of them is inserted at a realistic default size and fits onto 6 inch increments. When you click on a piece, the precise size of it will appear above the grid. You can type in new figures or take the blue corner and drag it. Counter runs are the ones you’ll most often resize, since a real kitchen consists of a number of long runs rather than a row of identical three-foot boxes.

Rotate so things face the room – The rotate button rotates a piece in quarter-turn increments and instead of merely spinning the image it exchanges the actual width and depth. The planner keeps track of the direction each piece is facing since it is the front that requires standing space; you can check this by pushing a counter against the wall that the piece is facing and it will then turn itself around.

Doors and windows lock onto the walls – If you drag a door towards any wall, it will fasten to it and then slide along that wall; what occurs afterward will depend on the type you have chosen.

• The in-swing and out-swing movements trace a complete quarter-circle arc on the floor; you can flip the hinge to the other jamb or push the swing out at any time.
• The sliding door has two bypass panels that move on a track and require no floor space at all.
• The pocket disappears into the wall as well as the floor.
• The windows are on the wall and serve no purpose of blocking anything, which means you can place one directly over the sink run without the planner objecting.

The arc is worth noting; the most common thing that people find after the drywall is put in is a door swinging into the corner where the fridge was intended to go.

Watch the work triangle draw itself – The planner includes a sink, a cooking area and a fridge, connecting these with three dashed lines and putting a label on each of the links. This is known as the work triangle, and it is the earliest concept in kitchen design for a sound reason since it provides a basic indication of the amount of walking your kitchen will require. The warning will show you which one is missing until all three fixtures are in place, provided that a leg is shorter than 4 feet or longer than 9 feet, or the three combined total is more than 26 feet.

Read the warnings as you go – When the floor is shaded green, it means there is sufficient space; if it is shaded red, then there isn’t. Below the toolbar, the problem is stated in simple terms, for example, “Range has 9 inches and 15 inches of countertop next to it, needs 15 inches on one side and 12 on the other.” Each warning indicates the guideline that it is based on. For one cook or two, there is a dropdown; this increases the width of the work area from 42 to 48 inches, and that single alteration is frequently what makes the difference between an island fitting and one not fitting. If more than one person actually cooks in the space at the same time, then use the setting for two cooks and accept that.

Save it, share it, print it – The layout is saved in the browser and so won’t be lost if you close the tab; the Copy Share Link option puts the entire plan into a URL which you can text to a partner or paste into an email to your contractor, while Download Image provides you with a PNG showing the dimensions, and Print allows you to print it onto paper or save it as a PDF.

Best Practices for a Kitchen That Functions

Place the sink first, and put it where you want to look out – More than any other item in the room, the sink is used. It is put to use for cleaning, preparing food, filling a pot and rinsing a mug. Choose the window or the view of the living room and then arrange the rest of the room around it. Since the plumbing makes the sink the most expensive item to move later, it is also the decision for which one should spend the most time at this stage.

Don’t forget to add landing areas – If there is no counter adjacent to the rack then the roasting pan has no place to go to and each time you cook you’ll end up placing it on the floor or onto the closed burners. When the planner looks at these figures, he finds that they are more stringent than most people anticipate: 15 inches on one side of the range and 12 on the other, 24 and 18 around the sink, and 15 inches next to the fridge on the handle side. These numbers are not generous at all; they are merely the absolute minimum required for an item to be placed there. A 30 inch range and a 48 inch pro range need very different space around them, so check the typical range widths before you set the size.

Be honest about whether you have room for an island – For an island you use on all four sides, you need a work area that is 42 inches wide for each cook. An island that is 3 feet deep and has 42 inches on either side requires approximately 10 feet of clear floor space between the two counter sections, in addition to the sections themselves, which take up 2 feet each. So the width of the room should be about 13 to 14 feet before the island becomes a tight space. Below it, a peninsula carries out much the same function and only requires clearance on three sides; it is not the second-best option as people suppose. The planner checks the clearance around an island but not the island itself, so it is worth reading how big an island should actually be and then using the tool to size your island with the calculator.

Keep the dishwasher next to the sink, and pick a side – The NKBA requires the dishwasher to be within 36 inches of the sink, which in reality means that it has to be right next to it; if it’s any farther away, then you’ll have to carry the dripping plates across the room. The side that actually matters is more than it seems; right-handed people generally prefer it to be on the left so that they can scrape with their right hand and load with their left without having to turn around. Stand at the sink where you are and imitate the action before you decide. Widths vary as well, so confirm the standard dishwasher sizes before you plan around a 24 inch gap.

Don’t put the fridge in the middle of a run – Placing a fridge in the center of the counter divides your working area into two useless parts and positions a tall cabinet right in the middle of your line of sight; however, if you put it at the end, preferably close to where the groceries enter, it will no longer interrupt your view. It also includes a counter on the handle side so that you have a place to put the bag when the door is open. The planner’s default fridge is 36 by 30 inches, so check the standard refrigerator sizes and change it if yours is counter-depth or built-in.

The corner is not free storage – At the point where two opposing runs meet the cabinet in the corner is deep, dark and difficult to access. Of course that’s how corners are. What is not acceptable, however, is placing either the cooker or the sink in the corner since you then lose the landing space on one side and have to stand in the narrow part of the entire kitchen. For the appliances that you use twice a year, use the corners, or spend the money on a proper pull-out.

Try the layout you think won’t fit – Galley kitchens have a bad name and in fact they are often the most efficient layout since all the items are two steps away. It helps to know how wide a galley kitchen needs to be before you rule one out. L-shaped kitchens provide a natural corner for the dining table and a single-wall kitchen in a small apartment can outperform a cramped U-shaped one. Work through the six standard kitchen layout shapes, prepare three versions and then copy the share link for each one; the process takes ten minutes and is the closest you get to being in the finished room.

What the Clearance Check Is Based On

All the warnings that the planner displays are based on the NKBA Kitchen Planning Guidelines, which are the standards published by the National Kitchen & Bath Association for the design of residential kitchens. The following explains what is being measured and the reason for each figure.

Other things which are not measurements include pieces that overlap one another and a door the movement of which would clash with an appliance or a cabinet front. The counter above your dishwasher contributes to the sink’s landing area since in an actual kitchen the countertop extends directly over the sink. The fridge in that position does not count because nothing extends over a fridge.

Numbers the planner doesn’t draw, but your inspector will – A floor plan does not indicate height or include information about wiring, since it is the building codes and not the guidelines that deal with these matters.

• The vertical clearance required by IRC G2447.5 is 30 inches above a cooking surface with respect to unprotected combustible material; it reduces to 24 inches where the material is protected or when a microwave is installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
• The NEC 210.11(C)(1) requirement specifies at least two 20-amp circuits for the countertop outlets, each being a small appliance circuit.
• The outlets on the countertop should be positioned in such a way that no point on the wall is further than 24 inches from an outlet, this amounting to about one outlet for every 4 feet, and any counter that is 12 inches or wider must have at least one.
• Standard base cabinets have a depth of 24 inches with the countertop at 36 inches high, and the wall cabinets are positioned 18 inches above the countertop. The planner sets 24 inch deep countertops as the default for this reason. Compare them against the standard base and wall cabinet sizes.
• The amount of ventilation needed for range hoods differs greatly depending on the jurisdiction and on whether the range is gas or electric. Start with the range hood sizing and clearance figures.

It’s worth knowing that the NKBA figures are design guidelines and not legally binding. The IRC and NEC numbers mentioned above are part of the code, and any local amendments take effect over both of these. Kitchens that are accessible are based on a completely different set of standards. You should use the planner to work out the layout and then check with your local building department anything you plan to build.

Where to start – Work out the dimensions of the room and enter the figures. Position the sink where you’d like to stand, then add the cooker and the fridge, and check what the triangle indicates before fitting in any cabinet. If those three items are in a good arrangement, the rest of the kitchen will mostly take care of itself. Add the door since it’s the one thing most likely to spoil a plan that you’ve already decided you like, and it’s better to discover that now rather than when looking at it on paper in a showroom. Once the layout works, you can check what the remodel will cost or price out the cabinet run. And if the rest of the house is on the list, you can plan a bathroom the same way or try the closet version of this tool.

To showcase highly specific designs, some images on this website use advanced AI-generation software to illustrate ideas and room inspiration. See our editorial policy to learn more.