I don't know anything about "architect". I have used Sketchup with considerable success for two dimensional. I didn't graduate to three dimensional but two dimensional was all I needed. Others here have also mentioned sketchup too - many have indicated that learning curve can be tedious (and I agree) but tool itself is free.

Good luck in your search. I can't imagine doing this job without using some kind of computerized design tool but some do it, I think.

I've copied pictures of layouts from GW and pasted them into my Paint program on my computer. From there I've been able to do very rough layout change suggestions. The problem I've had is that I don't know how to upload those pictures onto gardenweb with the revised GW upload tool. My workaround has been to take a picture of my computer screen (showing the paint drawing) with a digital camera and upload the photo. It looks primitive, but it's the best I can do right now. If someone was to mention how to upload straight from the computer (please...anyone?), it would be better. : )

If you want to invest in a program, Chief Architect is a good one. Look on Amazon. It'll be around $100 iirc.

Free programs include the NKBA kitchen planner, which is nearly identical to the free program offered by Lowes for kitchen planning. Either will let you put up walls, place cabs and, and view in 3D. It's a little futzy to work with, but the the renderings are pretty good.

I'm using the free version of Sketchup to model my kitchen, and it's really awesome for visualizing. But if you haven't used CAD drawing tools before, there is a significant learning curve, and I've invested a lot of time into it.
On the plus side, there are many awesome tutorials available, and a huge library of pre-drawn elements available to use for free, including cabinets, appliances, faucets, lighting, etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sketchup 3D Warehouse

Laughable, I also use Paint. This is how you post Paint images in three steps.

1) Save your Paint image to your desktop.

2) Upload that image to imgur.com.

This is how you do that:
a. open imgur.com
b. click on the blue "upload images" button at the top
c. click on "browse your computer"
d. select the Paint image you just saved to your desktop
e. click "start upload" or just hit the enter/return key on your keyboard
f. after it finishes uploading, click (or double click) on the picture so it opens by itself in a new window with a white background
e. copy the URL at the top of that page (it will be something like
"http://i.imgur.com/f83mTvA.jpg";)

3) In the text of the gardenweb post you are typing, type this:

Except delete the î symbol. And the URL between the quotation marks should obviously be the one you just copied, not the example one I am doing.

When you delete the î symbol, that line of code will appear as an embedded image when you submit your post. Like this:

{{gwi:2134887}}

Laughable, if you want to use the GW upload function (Jillius' method would let you post multiple photos and position them anywhere in your post, but does require an intermediary hosting site), use 'Save As' when you are in paint, select an image format (JPEG/.jpg probably the best bet) in the 'save as type' field and save the file to a folder on your computer. Then use the 'Browse' button on GW to go to the same folder and select your saved image.

Let me know if it's still not working and what's happening and I can try to give more specific instructions.

Thanks for the help, y'all. Here's a test image. Ok, this is the same problem I've encountered in the past. My screen is showing a full-size image in paint. But, when I save it as a jpeg and upload it using GW's Browse feature , I'm getting this micro-sized image that would be useless to anyone trying to look at it. Do you know how to upload it directly using Browse so that it shows up full size. (I do not have this problem when uploading camera shots, only jpegs from Paint.)

Try it with my method?

Here it's the same thing, using photobucket this time. {{gwi:2134888}}

ok, what's happening here is that paint is giving you a large white canvas to work with and your actual image you want us to see is only occupying a small part of it. But the file you're saving out of paint is the size of the canvas, not the size of your content.

In other words, the image you're uploading is displaying full-size, occupying all the space GW allows, but most of it is just white space.

You should be able to adjust your canvas size in paint to tighten it up around your sketch - either by using 'crop' or dragging the handlebars more closely around the image. I'll see if I can get a screenshot.

Here is your image with a lovely lavender background to demonstrate how big it is

here is one of the 'handlebars' in Paint you can use to adjust the size

And here is your image cropped:

You can adjust the size by dragging those handlebars, using the 'crop' tool or changing the number of pixels in 'Image properties.'

Incidentally, this happens when you select 'New' in paint then copy and paste your image. 'New' creates a large canvas, then you paste an image only a portion of the size onto it.

If you save the image from the web and open it in paint rather than copying and pasting, it will open at the original size of the image without creating the huge canvas. This is how others might have been using Paint without running into this issue.

@ilovepie: I use the Ikea Kitchen Planner to work on designs. Also a bit clunky but it's what I'm used to. I found it more user friendly than Lowe's.

@laughable: Here's what I do. Hope it helps. I use the free downloadable Google Snipping Tool. It allows you to draw a square or rectangle around anything on the screen that you want to copy and, so far, has worked with every program I've tried it on including word processor, a drawing program, and a desktop publishing program. I then save the jpeg and upload it to Photobucket. Then copy the HTML share link to put in the GW message. Done. HTH.

Thank you so much, emmers and funkycamper. I'm excited to try again!

30 minutes of swearing at Sketchup. Proceeding to Paint.....