By "real," Pak means the style's early English roots. Emerging on the heels of the Gothic movement, the Tudor style thrived during the reign of the Tudor monarchs, from Henry VII in 1485 to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. As English carpentry came of age, wealthy landowners traded the fortresslike character of Gothic castles for more domesticated homes with brick and timber-and-stucco façades and elegant rooms paneled in linenfold oak. These early examples grew organically down through the generations, sprawling over the English countryside.

In the 19th century, William Morris, a proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement, helped spark a Tudor revival in England that swept this country a few decades later. During the roaring '20s, the style became known as Stockbroker Tudor for its statement of conservative good taste and its popularity among the new-monied set.

Tudor homes tend to be asymmetrical, with façades of dark timbers and stucco, brick, or limestone. Roofs are steeply pitched and complex, with gable ends poking this way and that. Massive chimneys crowned with chimney pots thrust skyward. Bays of casement windows with diamond-paned leaded glass jut out from exterior walls. Inside, the layout is also asymmetrical, with a central great room -- a characteristic carried over from castle architecture -- anchoring a series of smaller, more specifically functional rooms designated for dining, sleeping, and reading.

Today, homeowners are choosing the Tudor style as a backlash against "McMansions." Instead of formal, look-at-me homes with cavernous rooms and soaring ceilings, Tudors tend to be informal and romantic, conjuring associations of aristocracy and unstudied wealth. Just as they did during the early 20th-century Tudor explosion, these houses add a patina of age to new neighborhoods, with a nod to our English past.

Whether they feature a classic half-timbered façade or a limestone façade like the homes of the Cotswolds, the best contemporary homes are about the quality of the experience rather than how they look from the street. "There's a certain sublime feeling you get from a Tudor house," says Pak. "Part of it is the romance of the materials and craftsmanship, and part of it is the coziness."

So he designed a convex wall with floor-to-ceiling divided-lite glass and recessed it under an arched loggia, giving the homeowners views and natural light, while keeping it all within the context and proportion of the Tudor style.

"You can have a sense of quaintness, but you also need a sense of openness," says Pak. "One trick I use to brighten a Tudor home is to make it a thin house -- make it one room wide so you get light from two or three different directions."

As for the patina, he explains, "we create history quickly." It's all about the materials and how they're handled. Pak chooses handmade bricks and has them laid unevenly. To avoid the giveaway of uniform materials (a modern building concept), he'll specify an ivory buff mortar made from river sand, rather than sifted builders sand. Then he'll make sure the mason reinforces the brick using a period-appropriate mortar joint.

The designer doesn't stop there. "We try to integrate the exterior and interior architecture so they make sense," he says, by adding coffered ceilings and stained oak paneling. Good installed an intentionally short mudroom entry door (five-and-a-half feet tall) as a nod to the diminutive stature of a 16th-century squire.

"Those kinds of intricate details tell a story about a house," says Pak.