This makes me laugh because I would love nothing more than a kitchen I could close the door on when guests arrive.

The only thing you can do is blast through that wall like every other apartment renovator does. But once you lose a wall, you lose valuable wall space. Visit Lowe's and they can probably design something for you in their kitchen department.

Ikea kitchens. Check it out.

Additional pictures

If you are able to create an opening in the wall between kitchen and living room, I would wall up the existing door to the kitchen and create a large opening between kitchen and living room.

Leave at least a 27" long wall on the left of the new opening so you can create a long run of base cabinets on the now-doorless hall partition wall. If possible, in hall wall, you could put high transom windows (or an opening?) above shorter wall cabinets so light can travel from kitchen window to hall. Then put another shorter run of cabinets on the south wall (where sink currently is) so kitchen is L shaped. That seems to leave some room for a small table in the kitchen.

If your intent is to make this a one bedroom + closet-less den/second bedroom, in living room, you could also close off the door to the living room closet and put a door in the "back" of the closet so that the long, east-side bedroom gets a very large master bedroom closet (and living room gets rid of awkwardly-placed closet). Or go really crazy and incorporate linen closet into bedroom closet, too.

Thanks everyone! I received a rendering from a local cabinet/tile store, and am looking to gather some additional ideas. For example, we have a garbage chute/column that we are not planning to use, but we do not plan to remove the structure, and somehow try to blend it in with the kitchen. However, you can see that it looks awkward. Any suggestions of what to do with this stubborn column?

Are there two dishwashers? It looks like a good layout to me. What's going on on the wall to the right of the sink?

We plan to put in a washer/dryer unit - that will probably go on the right side of the sink. As far as the far right wall, there is a window. Its not an ideal setup, as the kitchen counter will overlap the window.

Only thing is to remove the door and create an new opening on the partition wall between the kitchen and the living space

Ok. If you provide detailed dimensions for the kitchen, someone can try to draft up a better layout, but that one looks good for the space to me.

I would take the door off...jam/woodwork and all. Unless you want to take a wall down....when neatened up looks good to me. I would suggest new wall paint...maybe a soft green or aqua?

Thanks everyone for the feedback. After some months of planning and work, here is the near-finished product. Appreciate any other tips/ideas or general feedback!

Thank you for the vote of confidence. This building was indeed a challenge b/c it is pre-war (try installing recessed lighting on plaster walls!), but we are delighted in what we were able to do with it. I love the idea on the usb sockets, and we may do that for future units. While we are not in Manhattan, we are 0.3 miles away from the nearest subway station in Queens. We will have the posting up on Craigslist soon.

Hi - it looks nice. Do you have any plans to cover the exposed ductwork for the hood?

@Val B - The ductwork will remain exposed by design.

Great improvement! The only thing that stands out to me is the patch of upper wall near the dishwasher and range. I'd consider either tiling up that portion, getting cover panels that match your cabinets to cover it, or possibly painting it the cabinet color. Really a great space though!

@Kathryn P - Yes, it was one thing I noted before we started the renovation. Believe it or not, that patch of upper wall used to be a garbage chute! I think we may decide to leave it open and allow people to hang a photo, calendar, or other useful kitchen decor (using sticky adhesive of course!). Maybe something like this, since there are no drawers.

https://cdn.makespace.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20151820/kitchen-utensil-jar.jpg