8575 Cape Cod Home Ideas
A style borne out of simplicity and function, the original Cape Cod design was all about dealing with rough weather on the New England coast. The practicality of this style has endured over three centuries since the early 1700s and is today one of the prime examples of American folk architecture.
A Cape Cod home is characterized by its attention to symmetry – a front door, flanked by windows on the left and right. The Colonial-era homes were simple, rectangular, one or one-and-a-half storey houses with a central chimney rising out of the steep roof pitch often made with cedar shingles. The exterior was clad in clapboard.
Features of what we would consider be typical Cape Cod style, such as doghouse dormers and window shutters came later when the style was adapted to specific weather and landscape variations in different regions. Front porches, which we find in many Cape Cod homes, was a variation of style from the Southeast with its warmer summers.