SketchUp Kitchen Cabinet Modeling: A Fast L-Shaped Kitchen with a Plugin

Ufuk ŞEN

November 7, 2026Updated: November 9, 20265 min read1

When you model a SketchUp kitchen cabinet, drawing every door and shelf one by one takes hours. In this lesson, we build an L-shaped kitchen in minutes with a kitchen cabinet extension. First we explain how to install the extension and why it sometimes doesn’t work. Then we place the base and wall cabinets, round the corners and get the model ready for rendering.

SketchUp Kitchen Cabinet Modeling: A Fast L-Shaped Kitchen with a Plugin

We recorded this lesson in 2023 as part 18 of our modeling series. Extension interfaces and versions change over time. So always read the current description before you install. (The video is in Turkish; this guide walks through the key steps in English.)

In this video

Where to download the extension, and the difference between two extension sites
The “extension doesn’t work” problem caused by a dependency
Choosing cabinet door and handle styles
Placing L-shaped base and wall cabinets along a line
The corner cabinet, a glass-door wall unit and the sink opening
Raising render quality by rounding corners

Where do you download the extension?

At the start of the video, we make a simple distinction. There are two big sources for SketchUp extensions. The first is SketchUp’s own store, Extension Warehouse. The second is SketchUcation, a site that gathers extensions made by users.

The kitchen extension we use in this lesson is on SketchUcation. When you visit the site, the paid membership options catch your eye. But if you scroll down the page, you see the Free Account option. This free account is enough to download extensions.

Why doesn’t a SketchUp kitchen cabinet extension work?

Many users ask on forums, “I installed the extension, but it doesn’t work.” Most of the time, the reason is simple: another extension it depends on is missing. Our extension also needs SketchUcation’s own store extension.

So first we download the SketchUcation store extension as an RBZ file and install it in SketchUp. Then we install the kitchen extension and close and reopen SketchUp. In the video, we also open the description on the extension page and show the dependencies section. In short, don’t install without reading the description. We explain the steps of an RBZ installation in detail in our installing SketchUp plugins post.

Choosing the door and handle style

The extension’s working principle is quite simple. First, we draw a line along the wall to the point where the cabinets will end. In our example, the kitchen is L-shaped, so the line also turns at the corner.

Before placing the cabinets, we open the style window with the S key. Here we choose whether the doors will be plain, patterned or glass. We also set the handle types in this window. On first use, we suggest you play with these options a little. That is the fastest way to see which style suits your project.

Placing SketchUp kitchen cabinets: the L shape

When the style is ready, we select the line and run the L-shape command. The extension shows the base and wall door dimensions in a window. You can change these values now or later. When we click OK, the cabinets line up along the line at once.

A single large door along a long run doesn’t look realistic. So we click the corner point again and create the corner cabinet separately. The extension offers us a 45-degree corner option. With this option, we get a cabinet that fits the corner exactly.

Wall units and the sink opening

In the next step, we build the cabinets out piece by piece. For example, we draw a 60 cm line and choose the single-unit module command. Since we don’t need a base part, we leave only the upper door on. The extension creates a glass upper panel.

Then we take this panel with Move and set it on top of the existing cabinet. With the Ctrl key, we make another copy and line it up next to it. That way we quickly get the upper line right. For the sink, you can mark out a rectangle on the countertop and cut it. But bringing in the sink model and cutting with it gives a more accurate result. We cover this in our placing a kitchen sink post.

Rounding corners on a SketchUp kitchen cabinet

At the end of the video, we touch on an important quality point. Models with sharp corners don’t reflect light and shadow realistically. In real life, no furniture edge is razor-sharp. So softening the edges slightly raises render quality noticeably.

In the video, we use the RoundCorner extension for this. We select the part, enter 0.3 as the offset value and create the corner with Generate. Some render engines also have their own corner rounding features. For example, in D5 Render you do this at the render stage. You can find the corner rounding solution we developed ourselves in our rounding corners and chamfering post.

A faster way: KitchenFun Studio

In this lesson, we used an extension from SketchUcation. If you want to run kitchen design together with dimensions, modules and a production list, we also have our own extension. We describe its features in our KitchenFun Studio post.

Summary

SketchUp kitchen cabinet modeling gets much faster with an extension. First you install the extension and the store extension it depends on. Then you choose the door and handle style with the S key. You place L-shaped cabinets along the line you drew by the wall, and add the corner and wall units separately. Finally, you get the model ready for rendering by rounding the corners.

Frequently asked questions

Why isn’t my SketchUp kitchen cabinet extension working?

Most likely, another extension it depends on is missing. Read the dependencies section in the description on the extension page and install the required extension first.