Add Photo-Realistic Textures to Your Kitchen Design Plan

After creating a kitchen layout, you can add colors and textures to complete the design.

Using SmartDraw, you can apply a texture to any cabinet or countertop, or even tiles, appliances, or other furniture.

SmartDraw comes with over 100 textures divided into categories like Granite, Marble, Wood, Grass, Metal, Water, Fabric, and more!

Simply choose Fill from the Shape Styles group and select Textures to add a photorealistic texture to any object. Click on More Textures if you don't immediately see the texture you're looking for.

Step 1: Pick a Texture
After selecting a shape or area to texturize, choose Texture from the Fill command under Shapes Styles on the home ribbon.

Click on a category and choose a texture using the previews.

Step 2: Check the Settings - Tiles or Countertop?
Let's assume you want to add tiles to your newly designed kitchen floor plan. SmartDraw lets you set the size of your tiles, so not only do you get to se what your tiles look like in your new kitchen, but you'll also know how many you'll need.

By default, the size of any tile is set to 1 feet across. You can easily change this by clicking on the Edit button and then setting a new size under "Scale the width of the texture to be..."

Now, if you want to add a marble texture to your countertop or want to apply a wooden texture to your cabinets, it's better to set the textures to scale to 100% width to avoid the "tiled" pattern look.

Step 3: Apply and Repeat
Once you've selected a texture, all you have to do is click Ok to apply it.

If you can't find the texture you're looking for among SmartDraw's collection, you can also easily import your own.

Many manufacturers and contractors have photos of available cabinet and countertop textures you can use on their web sites.

Right-click on a photo and choose "Save Image As" from the pop-up menu to save it to your hard drive. Note the photo's file name and location (in case you place it somewhere other than your desktop) so you can find it easily.

From inside SmartDraw, bring up the Select a Texture dialog and click on "Add Textures" to import your own photo.