the duct must be venting important stuff, so removing it is probably not gonna happen w/o some serious reconfiguration. the water heater and range are venting out, so i doubt you could really just rid of 'em like dat.

a quick fix would be to paint the duct white to blend and put a folding screen in front of the water heater.

a not so quick fix would be to soffit around the ducts and maybe create some shelving above and to the right of the range, in order to disguise that the soffit is hiding something. with the water heater, building a very thin 'closet' for it is also possible, but the access door needs to be the full size of the water heater... again, you can also create a shelf/cabinet above the fridge which would also disguise the fact that you're hiding the water heater.

A curtain can quickly cover the water heater. I would add more duct to make a robot sculpture or just paint it.

Gas stoves don't really need to be vented. I've lived in 5 or 6 places with unvented gas stoves, and it's fine. This looks like a recent addition, so there may be some code your landlord is following. He might not appreciate you removing the vent!

I'd just paint it.

knit a cozy for the pipes! or tie scraps of pretty fabric around them.

i like the idea of a folding screen for the water heater. or just a simple cafe rod with a patterned curtain. there's a lot of potential to inject color into your kitchen here!

ok. repeat after me.

we do not put flammables, fabric, near heat.

we do not block the air flow around water heaters.

enough said.

the venting on the stove, not required, it is only venting heat and smells from the oven.

also, something else is being vented by the stove pipe. we see the pipe coming and going into two walls. what is behind the stove? it appears that something is being vented from back there. CHECK FIRST. If it is another water heater, removing WILL be dangerous. DON'T DO IT.

onto design. tough here ... go with it ... i like the idea of painting it out, painting it a different color. not easy to do on a limited budget.

I agree about the curtain around the water heater.

I am curious about what's on the other side (if anything) of those two walls where the stove duct is entering and exiting. Definately talk to your landlord about it. If it actually is venting heat, you'll need a paint that's heat resistant if that's the route you decide to go. If it isn't removable, I'd probably let all my craziness out on it - it's already in your face.

Building an enclosure around the water heater and all the way up to the ceiling would be the nicest fix for that. Is there room to move the fridge a bit more to the right? That would give you more room to work with there, but if you can't move the fridge, you can still enclose it - you'll just have to be sure the entire front panel is easily removed for access. I have a door that opens on mine for access to the controls and for cleaning around it, but the whole front panel has to be removed to get the water heater out. Since you'd be using a very thin panel, it shouldn't be too expensive - you might even be able to score some 'scrap' as long as it's tall enough. Then just paint it white to blend with the wall.

Good luck, and be sure to post some pics when you're done.

Hi guys--

On the other side of the wall is a gas heater. This is in our dining room, which make's no sense or has practicality for us because our bedroom is on the other side of the flat.

So, after our first winter here, we discovered we were paying to heat our upstair's neighbors flat, because none of the heat came to our living space.

Here is a looksy...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44058863@N00/sets/72157600312505405/

We recently bought pumpkin orange color paint for the kitchen, but the task of cutting in around that duct to paint is so daunting we've put it off.

i don't know why the duct is there, and the water heater is exposed, we've been here 6 months, so still learning about the place.

my dinner is in 2 week's and I was looking for a quick fix until we can decide what to do long term. I would LOVE to take that vent down if really don't need it. (the landlord is a property managment company, so it was probably done for code than anything)

thanks for all of your helpful comments!

A curtain seems like the quickest fix for the water heater. I agree with the flammability concerns, but these can be remedied by spraying the fabric with a flame retardant, usually available at hardware or craft shops. this is the same type of spray that you would treat fabric with if you were making a lampshade.
As for the ductwork, why hide it? For a quick fix, oh sanrio freak, just hot glue a bunch of Hello Kitty's in cars on the sloped part. Your very own Kitty freeway.

What about using fishing line from the ceiling and hanging a fun picture in front of it.

For a quick fix on the water heater, I would probably go to a builder's salvage and get some old louver closet doors that will fit around it. Ad paint and you are done.

For a quick fix on the range vent, I would probably go to a builder's salvage and get some old louver closet doors.... kidding.

It doesn't look like the range vent is really needed and it looks like it was added later. The heater vent pipe is needed. I would lose the range connection, add some cabinets above the range that match the others in the kitchen. Again, perhaps from a builder's salvage. Let the vent pipe run through the cabinets. You hide it and gain cabinet space. I used to have a rental like that and it seemed to work fine.

Oh, and that is a cool new bike on your Flickr page!

Some more ideas:

Paint the ductwork so the color completely blends into the wall then perhaps for the area above the stove:

* Set up 2 rows of hanging pipe, horizontally, to make a double tier pot rack (you can hang all sorts of things from a pot rack to make it interesting looking). I would encourage you to come up with some sort of 'doorstop', to stabilize the pipes, to prevent wild swinging in a quake.

Or, for both areas:

* Buy a sheet of heat-tolerant plexi and paint or decorate the backside of it (above stove, decorate front side if around water heater), mount that hanging from the ceiling on hooks, to completely disguise the whole area and give it an artistic focus. That's what I'm doing as a temporary kitchen backsplash because I can't afford the pricey resin product, that's embedded with capiz shells, that I really want. If you look at some of their websites you'll get terrific decorating idea, try:
http://www.3-form.com/
http://designtex.com/

Definitely don't put fabric, or a room screen, even anything treated with flame retardant near any heat sources. Flame retardant retards flame, meaning it helps slow its spread, but doesn't make something flame proof or extinguish flame. My advice is never do anything that would allow a property owner (landlord for instance), or neighboring property owner (should there ever be a fire), to claim you'd been negligent.

my water heater is in the garage, but i have it mostly hidden behind a pegboard folding screen. since your party is in 2 weeks, you probably don't have time to build one. but maybe down the road, it's something to consider because it can also be used to hang kitchen tools, decorative items (little prints maybe?), etc.

i am curious about these fire concerns though ... my screen isn't *right* next to the heater -- there's 2-3' between them -- so maybe that's why it's not a problem. (it's been in place for over 2 years now.)

I don't see the problem with the salamander venting the stove. However, a bit of white paint on the silvery part would make itlook less in your face. I like anh-minh's pegboard screen idea for the hot water heater.

Check out the landscaping department and get some bamboo fencing for around the hot water heater. It curls around, so it would even be freestanding.

BTW, if you style tends towards Asian- painting those rectangular wall heaters with heat resistant dark red paint makes them look like Chinese screens! Especially if they have a grid-like pattern- but horiz pattern works too.

I am guessing from the look of that ductwork that it is in place as an outlet for the gas heater and hot water heater- and that someone (prob a previous tenant) added on to it to try and vent cooking odors from the stove...