Why we built it.
Setout Kitchen is a 3D kitchen planner for people who are about to have a kitchen built and want to see it, check it and hand over a plan before anything is closed up behind plaster. It is made by one person, in the open, and this page says who and how.
This started with one kitchen that did not turn out right.
We built a house. Like most people doing that, we did not hire a designer — we worked directly with a builder who has put up dozens of homes and knows far more about construction than we do. The problem was never his skill. It was that the two of us were describing different kitchens to each other and neither of us knew it.
We chose the counter from a sample the size of a postcard, under a light nothing like the light in our kitchen. L-shape or one long run, which side the sink goes, where the mixer plugs in, where the purifier drains — decided standing in a room full of dust, agreed verbally, and closed up behind plaster two days later.
The work finished. It was not bad work. It just was not what we had in our heads, and by then nothing could be changed. Months later we were still finding the gaps: a missing socket here, a shelf at the wrong height there. Not because anyone was careless. Because nobody in that kitchen had ever seen it before it was built.
The tools we tried afterwards split badly. The AI apps produced a beautiful kitchen in seconds and it was never ours — the window moved, the proportions drifted, the stone was an invention nobody could order. The planners were built for cabinets and had never heard of a mixer grinder or a water purifier, which is where our kitchen actually went wrong.
So we are building the one that starts where ours started: a room, a list of everything a kitchen needs, the finishes you are actually considering, and at the end a photograph and a plan somebody can build from. Free to plan for 1 month, because the decision is the expensive part.
Six rules this site keeps to.
Claims match the product
Every capability on this site is one you can use today. Anything planned is labelled as planned. When something slips, the copy changes before the launch, not after.
No invented proof
No testimonials, ratings, customer counts or logos until they are real and given with permission. The examples on this site are unedited exports and renders from the planner, dated.
Numbers with sources
Guides say where a dimension comes from: a planning guideline, a manufacturer's manual, a product default, or a local rule to confirm. A wrong dimension is not fixed by a disclaimer.
Dated, corrected in the open
Pages show when they were published and last changed in substance. A correction gets a note on the page, not a quiet edit.
Your plans stay yours
Projects are saved to your account so they open wherever you sign in, and they are used for nothing else: not sold, not shared for advertising and not used to train AI models. What we hold is set out on the privacy page, and a backup file of any project is yours to download at any time.
Free to plan for 1 month
Planning, the checks, the plan and the elevations are free for 1 month from sign-up. After that a one-off pack keeps projects editable for 12 months, and its credits pay for realistic images because those cost real money to generate. Nothing renews, and nothing you made is locked away: it stays viewable and downloadable.
Guidance, written down, with its limits stated.
The layout checks encode the planning clearances kitchen designers work to: landing worktop beside a sink or hob, the height of a hood, the walkway between facing runs, the distance from a dishwasher to its sink. Each threshold is listed on the appliances page and explained, with sources, in the dimensions guide.
They are not building code and they have not yet been reviewed by an independent kitchen designer or electrician. When they are, the reviewer's name, the date and the scope of the review will appear here. Until then, treat every warning as a question for your builder rather than a verdict.
Sujit Mali
Builds Setout Kitchen and wrote its layout checks after fitting his own kitchen without a plan and living with the results. Not a kitchen designer or an electrician: the guides say where a professional or a local code decides.
Based in India, building for homeowners everywhere, starting with the United States. Writes every guide on this site and reads every message sent to hello@setoutkitchen.com.
Setout Kitchen was founded in 2026. “Setting out” is the trade term for marking positions on site before work starts, which is what the plan is for.
The wall is still bare. That is the good news.
Build it here first — the room, every appliance, the finishes you are weighing up — and walk into the conversation with your builder holding a photograph and a plan instead of a description. Start with your room and make it your own.
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