Do you have Photoshop? If you do you can upload and resize pictures of existing furniture (and even recolour them if, for instance, you are thinking of reupholstering) that way, then drop them in to your room design. SketchUp is free and a lot of people find it the easiest interior design software to use. Have fun!

To be honest it all dispense on needs if its for professional designs or just to play around. We are currently using two design software: Autodesk 3ds Max: Price around £5000-£6000 for 3year license, Pro100: price around £800-£1000 for a full version (£200-£300 per new update).

Kitchen or all room mockups - i've progressed from old school paper cutouts on graph paper - which is super quick to chop/change, to using Sketchup - again block models for the basic sizes of units and really easy to move things around and try out different combinations. Takes half a dozen clicks to build a representative 600x600 unit and group it. You can also cut and paste the whole room and have a whole line of variations in the same file to try things out. e.g.... Neither approach any good for photo realistic renderings.

Well do make sure you get your ideas/drawings safety checked before you start work or order anything! Some apps like magic plan and house design work on iPads quite well - sketchup for pc and for one off custom pieces of furniture- Jali.co.uk and Tylko .com are useful.