Quick answer
You no longer need CAD software or a paid designer to produce a full kitchen spec. A free browser-based designer lets you pick a layout, set every cabinet width in millimetres, and outputs to-scale plan and elevation drawings, a live price built from coded lines, and a print-ready spec PDF. Dimensions are still locked by a site measure before manufacture.
Key points
- A usable kitchen spec is four documents: a dimensioned plan, an elevation, a finish schedule and a price built from named lines.
- That used to mean a CAD seat or a design fee. A browser configurator now produces all four in one sitting, free.
- Every cabinet width is set in millimetres against the 600 mm module, so the drawing you print is a drawing a workshop can price from.
- The price is live and built from coded Schedule-of-Rates lines, so it moves the moment you change a cabinet.
- It does not replace the site measure. Dimensions get locked on site, by a person, before anything is cut.
A builder we work with prices renovations at his kitchen table on Tuesday nights. The client wants a number and something to look at by the end of the week, the margin at concept stage does not carry a design fee, and he has never opened a CAD programme in his life. Until recently his options were poor: sketch it, wait for someone else to draw it, or quote blind and true it up later.
That gap, between the people who need a kitchen spec and the people who own CAD seats, is what a browser configurator closes. Not by dumbing the spec down, but by producing the same four documents a drawing office would: a dimensioned plan, an elevation, a finish schedule and a price built from named lines. This piece walks through what a spec has to contain, what the designer on our site produces against that list, who gets the most out of it, and where it honestly stops.
What a kitchen spec has to contain
Strip the presentation away and a buildable kitchen spec is four things.
- A plan, to scale, showing the run in the room with the overall dimensions on it
- An elevation with every cabinet width in millimetres, plus the vertical stack: 150 mm toe kick, 720 mm carcass, 900 mm finished bench, 600 mm splashback zone, 720 mm uppers, 2,220 mm overall
- A finish schedule naming doors, edging, benchtop and hardware
- A price built from identifiable lines, so a change to one cabinet moves one line
The list is the same whether it comes from a drawing office or a browser. It is what a workshop needs to price from and what an approver needs to sign, and the reviewing side of that is covered in kitchen shop drawings and what to check before you sign.
Do you need CAD software to design a kitchen?
No, and for most people it was never a real option anyway. A CAD seat costs money and weeks of learning. Hiring a kitchen designer earns its keep on a large custom job and makes no sense on a rental refresh or a straightforward galley. So the traditional paths were three: learn CAD, pay for design, or sketch on paper and wait for a supplier to translate the sketch into drawings and a number. The third path is the one most people took, and it is days of back-and-forth with errors introduced at every translation.
The fourth path is newer: a configurator that runs in the browser and asks for no CAD skills at all. You pick a layout, then set each cabinet's width in millimetres until the run matches your room. The drafting conventions, the module logic and the pricing arithmetic are already inside the tool, which is the part that used to require either training or a fee.
The old path and the browser path end at the same four documents.
What the designer on our site produces
Ours is free and runs in the browser. You start from a layout, straight, galley or L-shape among them, with social-housing presets for coded work, and set each cabinet's width in millimetres; 600 mm is the default module and everything adjusts from there. As you work, a price builds live from coded Schedule-of-Rates lines, the same line shapes used on volume and social-housing packages, so the number is itemised rather than a lump.
At the end you get to-scale plan and elevation drawings with every dimension in millimetres, and a print-ready spec PDF carrying the drawings, the widths and the priced lines. That PDF is the artefact: hand it to a client, file it with a tender, or send it to us to true up. There is also an upload path for people who already hold a plan on paper: photograph it and the system drafts the cabinet run for you, which is its own subject, covered in uploading a floor plan for a kitchen quote.
| Spec document | The old path | In the browser |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensioned plan | Drawn by a designer or CAD operator | To-scale, generated as you set widths |
| Elevation | Same office, days later | Generated with the plan, dimensions in mm |
| Priced breakdown | A separate quote, arriving later | Live, built from coded rate lines |
| Spec PDF | Assembled by hand | Print-ready at the end of the session |
Who gets the most out of it
Builders quoting fast, first. A renovation number with drawings behind it, produced the same evening the client asked, instead of a week later. Because the price is coded, the client conversation is about specific lines, not a lump sum, and trimming the job to a budget means adjusting cabinets and watching the number follow.
Developers typing kitchens, second. Set a type up once, adjust widths per plan, and per-type pricing falls out in an afternoon. It pairs naturally with the sizing conventions in standard kitchen sizes for NZ townhouses, because typed kitchens live or die on module discipline.
And owners who think in pictures. Someone who cannot read a floor plan can still say exactly which drawers they want, and they get to watch the elevation change as they change it. Choosing the starting shape is easier with the standard kitchen layouts explained; from there it is width-setting, not design theory.
Where it stops
Honesty matters more than enthusiasm here. The designer produces a spec, not a finished contract. Dimensions are locked by a site measure before anything is manufactured, every time, because walls are out of square, floors are out of level, and services are where they are. A person checks the design against the room before it is built, and a site measure outranks any plan measure, including one you made carefully.
It will not design your services, answer consent questions, or choose finishes for you. What it removes is the queue: the days between wanting a specced, priced kitchen and holding one. The part that stays is the part that always needed a tape measure and a human.
A fair way to spend an hour
Measure the room, open the designer on our site, pick the nearest layout and set the widths to your walls. An hour later you hold a dimensioned plan, an elevation, a line-priced breakdown and a PDF that says exactly what you mean. If you want it built, send it through: a quote comes back within 24 hours with a reference number, and a site measure locks the dimensions before our East Tāmaki workshop cuts anything. The worst case is that you spent an hour and now understand your own kitchen to the millimetre, which is more than most people carry into a showroom.
Frequently asked questions
Is there free kitchen design software that doesn't need CAD skills?
Yes. The designer on the MTN Kitchens site is free, runs in the browser and assumes no CAD ability. You pick a layout, set each cabinet's width in millimetres, and it generates to-scale plan and elevation drawings, a live price built from coded rate lines, and a print-ready spec PDF. There is nothing to install and no fee at any point in the design stage.
Can an online kitchen designer produce real drawings?
It can produce to-scale plan and elevation drawings with every dimension in millimetres, output as a print-ready PDF. They are genuine working drawings: a workshop can price from them and an approver can review them. What they are not is final construction dimensions, because a site measure locks those before manufacture, the same as with drawings from any design office.
How does the live pricing in the designer work?
The price is assembled from coded Schedule-of-Rates lines, the same line shapes used on volume and social-housing kitchen work: wet underbench cabinet per number, dry cabinetry per metre, overheads per metre, tall units, benchtops, splashback and the small lines. Because each cabinet feeds a line, changing one cabinet moves one line and the total updates as you work.
Can builders use it to price jobs for clients?
That is one of its best uses. A builder can produce a dimensioned layout, an elevation and an itemised price in an evening, attach the PDF to their client quote, and adjust the design live when the client wants to trim cost. The coded lines make the trimming conversation specific. Final dimensions still get locked at site measure before anything is manufactured.
Is the online design what actually gets built?
Only after two checks. A site measure locks the real dimensions, because rooms are never quite what plans say, and a person confirms the whole specification before manufacture. The browser session gets you a design, drawings and an honest number in one sitting; it does not send anything to the saw on its own, and it is not meant to.
What if I already have a kitchen plan drawn on paper?
Upload it instead of rebuilding it. The designer accepts a photo, scan or screenshot of a plan and drafts the cabinet run automatically, left to right, with widths and roles for you to check and correct. Clearer images read better, and any width the plan does not label is estimated for you to confirm. The price and drawings then follow from the corrected run.