It wasn’t that long ago that kitchen design was out of reach to the average homeowner. If you wanted to have a custom kitchen design you needed to hire a professional designer or use an in house designer at one of the home improvement depots. All that has changed in recent years and now it’s possible for the average person to design a stunning kitchen on their own using their personal computer.

A few years ago you could purchase specialized software for home design that would usually include the ability to design your kitchen. These programs were very clunky in the early days. They also required a fairly powerful computer and the kitchen design capabilities were quite limited.

Later, the same companies started to produced computer programs that were specifically built for kitchen design. These programs would allow you the change try what if scenarios with your kitchen by changing cabinets, counter tops and layouts. Most of the programs now have simple drag and drop interfaces and easy to navigate menus. All of the programs will create a nice 3D view of the finished kitchen, and some will even allow you to do a virtual walk through in 3D.

One of the most innovative and interesting changes to the kitchen design front is the advent of online tools that have all of the power of the desktop kitchen design tools. These tools usually require you to register before you can use them. The design tools that charge you for use will also normally give you a free trial period where you can test out the tool and see if you want to pay for the online service. What is really great about these online kitchen design tools is that you can get started right away and you don’t need any special hardware to make the software work. What is even better is that you get free software upgrades because the software is maintained on a central server. These tools also have the ability to view your finished work in 3D and most of them have simple drag and drop interfaces for adding things like cabinets, appliances, and even lighting.

The latest kitchen design tools will have you designing your next kitchen in a jiffy.