All the ideas you might get here won't do you a bit of good because there are so many issues concentrated in that little space that need to be addressed:

You're going to have plumbing, gas and electrical to deal with. If you're in a multi-unit dwelling you likely have other people's plumbing and gas pipes running through that wall as well - or that wall could be load bearing...
...and you're going to have to submit plans, pull permits and get inspections to make sure it's an appropriately planned project.

You really need to hire a professional - an architect, licensed interior designer or licensed general contractor - to give you the options available to you and plan this properly.

I'm no expert on hardcore renos like that, but....um.

Could you have cabinets part of the way across and then have it end in open shelving by the window? Maybe with a curve at the end of the shelving so it avoids the window altogether? (I wish my camera was working - I have a low vintage bookshelf that has the exact shelf ends I am trying to describe!)

I would put the fridge in the nook where the tall cabinets are and the wall that you want to remove would be stove, sink, cabinets and all the counter. Nothing on the window wall.

Then I would remove as much wall as possible above the stove, sink, counter area and put upper storage on whatever cant be removed.

Maybe you could just create a bar / window on the wall you want to knock down. You could keep the sink and the stove, but put an under-the-counter industrial fridge unit or a tall, narrow one from www.turboairinc.com

Open shelving might make the kitchen seem more spacious, and you could use wallpaper or a fun accent color. Lighting might help, too, something besides just that single fixture.

Is that a radiator on the empty wall? I'm not sure you're going to be able to move that (but I'm not familiar with radiators at all).

I think if you want to move all the appliances you are going to have costly problems like bepsf mentioned. What about creating a cutout like this galley kitchen--
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/kitchen/before-and-after-a-modest-kitchen-update-079082

You could put a countertop on the cutout ledge to eat at or place snacks on. On the opposite wall you can do slim open shelves for spices, cups, jars or whatever. Good luck!

Can't comment on the knocking down of the wall...

But, we have a very small galley kitchen and I looked high and low for a smaller stainless range - finally settled on Avanti and are very happy:

Small (20" or 24" wide) gas range in stainless - Avanti

http://www.avantiproducts.com/products/cat/39

We fit in a fairly normal width fridge (30")- but needed one that was not too high and settled on a stainless Amana bottom freezer:

http://www.amana.com/refrigeration/bottom_freezer_refrigerators/19_cu__ft__bottom_freezer_refrigerator_abl1922fes.pro?scr=category

Good luck!

are those vintage steel cabinets? PLEASE PLEASE find them a new home! I have steel cabinets (house built in 1941, kitchen added in 1950 or so). I love my cabinets.. I know they seem 'tenant grade', but too many have been thrown away, reuse is so much better. Maybe someone you know has a basement or garage that needs storage? or another unit owner who would add them to their kitchen rehab? criagslist? That integrated sink/counter is very nice: laundry room move?

BTW, I have seen my vintage cabinets used in MULTI-MILLION dollar lofts! I saw them in a modern decorator book.
Professionally applied auto paint could make a big inpact.

I do think you are on the right track removing that wall. not sure of the details to help you with this though...

Dear Monica;
Congrats on your purchase and your renovation idea sounds wonderful! I really love small spaces and a galley kitchen is the most efficient kitchen for one person because it lends itself to an easy to use atmosphere.

I do, however, have some concerns. From what I can see from your photos, your mechanical services run thru the wall that you want to remove and this is a challenge. Moving the gas line, drain, waste and vent lines are all in that wall. Also, I can tell there is electrical by the recepticals you have on the outside of the wall. These would all need to be moved and are concerns that you would need to clear thru your council with an owners intent. If you want to go ahead with this, there are SO many options - I don't know where to begin.

That said, if you were to keep the existing layout you could spend your money on a reduced depth refrigerator, an under-sink single drawer dishwasher, a re-organization of the cabinets, and improvements to the ventilation over the gas range.

My mother has pumped out many a Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner for 8 in a kitchen smaller than yours... so it CAN be done. If you have more questions, Google me.

Corey Klassen

You will probably need some kind of general contractor to deal with all the moving the gas, the plumbing, etc issues. I'm not sure it's worth the money.

use regular base cabinets on one side and upper cabinets on the floor of the other side, thus giving you more floor space and it wont feel as closed in. Bring them right up to the ceiling

I wouldnt do open shelving if your a frequent cook, that greasy film gets everywhere.

If possible use glass doors on your cabinets you use for glasses/dishwear

measure everything you own from the usual size of your cereal boxes to the size of your food processor and figure out where it will go first; and thus you can use every inch of your kitchen. embrace cabinet organizers and extra shelving in your cabinets.

Try to keep as much as you can off your counter tops to maximize your work space.

build kickboard pull out drawers for flat storage (ie cookie sheets, collapsable stool, etc.

Have pull out countertops installed above the top drawer in your base cabinetry for more temporary work space

I got an inexpensive drop-leaf table from Ikea (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80091713) when I had an apartment with a tiny kitchen. I poly-ed it and hung it at counter height, and it was a life saver! I've brought it along to every kitchen since then, even as my counter real estate has grown. Maybe you could even hang two on the wall opposite the appliances.

Good luck, & congrats on the new place! :)

bepsf is right on this one

You NEED to hire a professional in order to get the best advice on what you can do here. Getting input from the AT community based on a very brief description and four photos is NOT going to give you the answers or ideas that you NEED. You need a professional to actually look at the space in person to determine what you can and can not do.

I LOVE THE SINK!!!

Anyway, look........you're not going to fit a whole kitchen in that kitchen, so think outside the kitchen :-)

Keep stuff you hardly ever use elsewhere. Get an under-cabinet fridge. Or get two and encase them to look like a buffet outside the kitchen.

Hang art on the kitchen wall. Any kind of shelving will be inadequate and will just make it look darker, smaller, and cluttered.

Oh, if you get rid of the big fridge you can open up the top half of the doorway to let some light and air in there.

A complete re-no is going to take some time, money, and most of all, expertise.

If you are looking to make in-the-meantime improvements, I would suggest:

1. A narrow-depth stainless steel "cart" or cutting/side table that can go where the radiator is and clear it (i.e., fits over it).

2. Hanging storage over the side table (pots, pans, knives, spices, etc.).

3. A smaller fridge, such as the LG bottom-freezer that is only 24" wide.

4. Paint! Art! Curtain! A little color would do wonders.

If those are built-in cabinets and pantry, then those are providing an OK amount of storage space. Stick to what you use most often. You might even store most of your dishes in a cabinet by your dining table.

Yes, you need an architect, and a contractor, and permits, and it will be messy business moving gas and plumbing and such.

If you are going to bother with all that, it's probably best to take out the whole thing, and put a kitchen that works better somewhere slightly different - like starting where the tall cabinets are and going along that wall, with a movable island / table facing it. (It's hard to tell what the rest of the place is like from the photos...)

Otherwise, you could perhpas punch a few little windows into the wall behind the sink / stove, and take off the wall with the doorway to open things up a bit.

I have a very similiar kitchen, 5'9" wide x 12' long. It is very tight, but I got my 24" Viking stove, 24" Liebheur refrigerator, 24" dishwasher, etc. You would be better of hiring a interior designer who has done small spaces before. I went with custom cabinetry that was a little more money but gave me more storage. Make sure you really think where you are going to put everything. Find out about the pluming, gas lines first. Ask your super what other people have done in your building. Get a GOOD contractor with references!!! Well planned is half done. Good Luck!

She could do open shelving, if she does a cutaway window and installs a good fan. There's that small window, too. If you fry a lot of meat, forget it, but most people don't these days.

I still think taking the whole wall out and moving appliances sounds like a big pain in the neck. An under-the-counter unit with a glass door replacing the fridge would give her counter space and open the room up.

How about turning your kitchen inside out? Everything you need (plumbing, gas, electrical) is already in that wall. With the help of a contractor you could put your kitchen on the other side of it.
You could turn the old kitchen room into a library/storage room or a walk in closet.

I doubt the kitchen wall is load-bearing, because of the way it bumps out into the space, similar to an add-on. If it is load-bearing, it'd be a real surprise. Load-bearing means studs will be 16" on center, but if you can only find a stud every 18" or more, you're dealing with non-load-bearing. (For interior non-load-bearing walls, studs can be placed up to 24" on center.)

That said, there's no reason you can't punch a hole in the wall to create a pass-through, or even a series of pass-throughs. Poke hole in wall with screwdriver, bend wire hanger to 90' angle, push wire into wall, and twirl to see if it runs into anything or hangs up on anything. Mark on wall where you estimate it bumped/caught. Use the last inch or so of a drywall saw, carefully saw out a square about 4" - 8" on a side, in a spot where the hanger didn't catch on anything. Tug drywall from wall (for easier repair later if you decide to) and then use a flashlight to peer into the wall and see what you can see.

Basically, when I've done pass-throughs, the easiest way to do it is just keep enlarging the hole until you've got as much room as you can manage without mucking up or cutting through whatever is there. (Be VERY careful when sawing up against a wall stud, as that's where the electrical lines will be stapled in their vertical run from outlet to ceiling. Best to stop about 2" shy of stud, and visually check before going further.)

My recommendation would be to get a sideboard with height equal to countertops (usually about 35") and place it against the outside of the kitchen wall. Cut holes as you can along the underside of the cabinets, drywall them up neatly, and it'll create the illusion of a punctuated wall dividing an island that's either 46" deep (18" sideboard 4" wall 24" kitchen cabinet) or 52" deep if you use standard kitchen cabinetry on the exterior wall.

As long as you're not cutting/removing studs, what's between them can be open space, basically. Just enclose the gas, electrical, etc lines, for safety, and be sure to use metal plating to protect the electrical lines if they're within 1.5" of drywall, just so you don't later put a nail through the drywall and right into the electrical line.

Me, I'd open the wall up as much as I could up to the soffit, figure out a regular pattern for enclosing the studs so they look like a series of columns, and then put shelving on the kitchen side that "extends" into the dining room side. Put lights on the underside of the shelves, like little Ikea puck lights, and it'd not only open the kitchen up, it'd also mean you could use the studs themselves as support for the shelves, without having to also deal with brackets. The shelves would look like they're floating, especially if the wall/enclosed-studs are a different/darker color than the shelves.

For that matter, if you're really going whole-hog (AND have nice stuff you want to show off), I'd put in glass shelves instead, getting them cut with 2" tabs on the back so they slot between the studs and meet the room-facing shelves on the backside. Put the puck lights along the underside of the soffit, and it'll downlight the entire thing.

One other suggestion: if you have at least 30" of clearance between the right-hand cabinets and the fridge (preferably 42" but 36" is usually standard), remove the cabinets on right and replace with pull-out pantry shelves. (Example: Ikea's Akurum cabinet, listed as "high cabinet with pull-out storage and two doors".) Drawers are a far more efficient use of a deep 24" space than doors, and being able to pull out what's essentially an entire cabinet lets you store twice as much, because you aren't "losing" anything in the depths. A'course, Ikea's version has two top-most shelves behind doors, while a better version has the entire thing, all 80"-plus, rolling on out.

In the same vein, don't be afraid to use your kitchen sink cabinet as deep drawer-storage. It's best for all the non-food things, but that at least frees up space elsewhere. The sink cabinet is almost always a flat bottom because of the potential for a plumber needing to get under there, but if you're using wire-basket drawers or free-standing insert drawers, those can be removed quickly and easily for the plumbing access, and then returned when work is done. IOW: no need to waste half a space that's 24" deep by 30" wide by 30", which is a lot of room when every inch counts.

Good luck!