When Ryan and Tracy Flanagan purchased a nearly 100-year-old Tudor-style home in Maplewood, they knew the kitchen wouldn't make it for even another five. "The floor tiles were cracked, the cabinets were chipped, and it was this drab yellowish-beige color," Ryan recalls. There was also asbestos in the walls, a fact they didn't realize until after demolition had begun.

Though their motivation for embarking on a proper refurbishment was to maximize the ease and convenience of modern life, there was also a visual component. "The rest of the house feels very true to the Tudor style," says designer Carly Gockeler of KraftMaster Renovations, in Chatham. "The kitchen just wasn't up to the standard of the rest of the home."

"We wanted to preserve that English country house kind of feel to make the kitchen look like it belonged there with the rest of the rooms," adds Tracy.

Guided by that desire—and Tracy's love of British kitchen designers DeVol—Gockeler began to research the style and plot out changes. Here's how she delivered that high-end, old-world style on a real-world budget.