Dybdahl Project: Servants’ Kitchen Redo Designer: Paul Dybdahl Designer’s Note: A burgeoning young family was quickly outgrowing this stately home’s servants’ kitchen. We created more space by removing the servants’ staircase and short hallway leading to the kitchen. We reoriented the mudroom entry from the garage and re-purposed a portion of the ample front closet, creating a sweet first floor powder room. We moved existing radiators to create two new 4’ wide openings into the kitchen. The original kitchen was quite cold in the winter, as was expected from a home built in 1913. We completely stripped the walls, ceilings and flooring to the original framing and added foam insulation, then tied a heated kitchen floor into the home’s hydronic heating system. I called the homeowner a couple days into a cold winter (0 degree day) to ask if she was comfortable in her new kitchen, which she replied, “Oh my goodness, I’m barefoot in the middle of winter!”. Cabinets: Ovation Cabinetry, Countertops: Carrara Marble, Location: Vilas Neighborhood – Madison, WI Photographer: Michael Conway