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Describing a kitchen

There are two ways to build a kitchen here. You can place cabinets yourself — that's Building a kitchen. Or you can describe the kitchen in plain words and let it design one for you. This page is about the second way: what to say, what it works out on its own, and when it will stop and ask you something.

How it actually works

It helps to know what is happening, because it explains why the results are consistent.

When you describe a kitchen, the language model does one small job: it listens and writes down the facts you gave it — the shape, the wall lengths, roughly where you want the sink, the extras you asked for. A short list. Nothing more.

It does not place the cabinets.

The placement is done afterwards by a design engine — ordinary code, not a model. It picks the cabinets, solves the corners, spaces the run, mirrors the uppers, puts a hood over the range. Every time, the same way.

That split is deliberate, and it is why:

  • The same description gives you the same kitchen. The design isn't regenerated on a whim; it's computed.
  • The cabinets are always real. Sizes come from the catalog, not from a model guessing at dimensions.
  • You can be vague. Anything you leave out becomes a documented default rather than an error.

The shortest thing that works

"L-shaped kitchen, 12 foot back wall and 9 foot side wall, with a sink, a range, a dishwasher and a fridge. Add upper cabinets."

That's enough to get a complete kitchen. Everything else is decided for you and reported back so you can change it.

What it listens for

You can say Example
The shape one-wall, L-shape, U-shape, galley, island, G-shape
Wall lengths "12 foot back wall, 9 on the side" — give as many or as few as you know
Roughly where the big three go "sink under the window", "range on the far wall", "fridge at the end"
Extras you want "a dishwasher, a pantry, a lazy susan in the corner"
Things to leave out "no upper cabinets", "no pantry"
Finishes "white cabinets, quartz counters, oak floor"

Sink, range and fridge placements are hints, not instructions. You can say a wall ("the back wall") or a rough position — end, near, far, center, corner. The engine will honour a hint where the layout allows it and tell you when it couldn't.

Words it knows for extras

These map to specific cabinets:

Say You get
dishwasher 24" dishwasher
pantry 30" pantry
tall 84" tall unit
lazy susan 36" corner lazy susan
trash pullout · trash Trash pullout
spice Spice drawer
hood · range hood · vent 36" hood
double oven 36" range
island Free-standing island
drawers · drawer base 24" drawer base

Ask for something not on this list and it will ask you about it rather than quietly leaving it out — and it'll suggest the closest thing it does know.

What it decides for you

Anything you don't say becomes a default. These are the main ones, and all of them are listed back to you after the build under "what it decided":

  • Wall lengths you didn't give — a standard length is used.
  • The sink goes centred on a wall, under the window.
  • The range is kept off the end of a wall, because it needs counter space beside it.
  • A pantry goes at the end of a run.
  • Corners are solved for you — an inside corner gets a corner unit or a lazy susan rather than two cabinets fighting over the same space.
  • Uppers mirror the bases, with a hood above the range.
  • Counters and finishes get sensible defaults.

None of that is final. Read the list, then change whatever you disagree with.

Read the assumptions

The list of decisions after each build is the most useful thing on the screen. It's the difference between a kitchen that happens to look right and one you know is right.

When it asks instead of guessing

Sometimes a sensible default doesn't exist. Rather than invent one, it stops and asks a single question — for example when what you've described won't fit the walls you gave, or when you've asked for something it doesn't recognise.

Answer the question and it carries on. A build never silently drops something you asked for.

Changing it afterwards

Say what you want changed:

"Move the sink under the window." "Make that corner a lazy susan." "Drop the pantry." "Make it white instead."

Changes apply to the kitchen already on screen — it isn't rebuilt from scratch, so everything else stays where you put it.

Getting better results

  • Give the wall lengths if you know them. It's the single most useful thing you can say; everything else has a reasonable default and wall length doesn't.
  • Say it in one go. A full description in one sentence works better than five fragments, because it's all extracted together.
  • Don't spell out cabinet sizes. You don't need "a 36 inch base with three drawers" — say "drawers" and let the catalog pick. Sizes are what the engine is for.
  • Name what you don't want. "No uppers" is faster than building them and removing them.

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