Hooked on Cape Cod

Cape Cod sits in the easternmost corner of the state of Massachusetts and has long been considered a picturesque summer retreat for well-heeled Americans. Its appeal is no doubt enhanced by the fact that it was a regular holiday destination for John and Jackie Kennedy who, along with other members of the Kennedy family, owned several homes in the Hyannis Port area. Photographs from the 1960s show an off-duty JFK on the presidential yacht Honey Fitz and a windswept Jackie, crouching on the sand with John Jr near their home.

There was considerable excitement when furniture from their former Cape Cod house was auctioned by Sotheby's in 2005. As well as antiques such as a Federal walnut and cherry work table and a Queen Anne highboy made of maple (which sold for $19,200), the sale included a selection of white wicker furniture, hooked rugs and folk art, as well as a pair of glass decanters. This mixture of the traditional and comfortable spoke of an informal but well thought out interior, and bore the distinctive hallmarks of the Cape Cod style.

The Cape's unspoilt stretches of beach, cranberry bogs and white clapboard cottages continue to make it a popular weekend and second-home destination for city types. Despite an abundance of multimillion-dollar beachside residences, yacht clubs and golf courses, simplicity is key when it comes to Cape Cod living.

"There is a barefoot comfort about Cape Cod," says Jeffrey Bilhuber, an interior designer based in New York City who has decorated homes throughout the area. "This is not Ibiza or the south of France, where it is all about social interaction and getting dressed up. The essence of Cape Cod is casualness."

This understated approach reflects the relatively humble origins of Cape Cod homes. In the 17th century, English colonists (explorer Bartholomew Gosnold named the area after discovering the sea was full of cod) settled in Massachusetts, designing simple houses that could withstand the formidable seasonal storms. These houses were symmetrical, one-and-a-half-storey structures with upstairs sleeping lofts tucked under the pitch of the roof and brick, shingle or clapboard siding. Meanwhile, interiors were subdued, with door frames and mouldings painted white.

"The Cape Cod house is the quintessential pilgrim home," says Treena Crochet, an interior designer, who warns that the style is not to be confused with American colonial style.

"The colonial style came later and that was as a result of more wealth and prosperity," she says. Nowadays it is common to see Cape-inspired homes throughout the US, not just in New England coastal towns.

"We have adopted it as the perfect beach cottage," adds Crochet.

While some people imagine the Cape aesthetic to be a mixture of nautical stripes, shells and sea hues - and this is true to a point - the style is more about collecting time-worn pieces. "Anything that has run its course in a current house, whether it is in London or Spain or New York City, will find its home in Cape Cod," says Bilhuber. "For example, glazed ceramic Portuguese lamps and English furniture on rush matting suits that environment very well."

To achieve the look Bilhuber recommends wicker furniture, comfortable upholstered sofas, white-washed walls, glossy painted floors and 19th or early 20th-century wallpaper for upstairs bedrooms. But while there is clearly a rustic, cobbled-together feel to the interiors, he says that it "has to be complemented with the polish of brown furniture. Every painted cupboard is dependent on an oak or mahogany chair. It is the hotchpotch that makes these houses so romantic."

This hotch-potch effect is found in the Cape Cod home of designer John Derian, who runs a homeware shop in downtown Manhattan. His weekend home in Provincetown, Cape Cod, was built in 1789 and is filled with a mixture of antique furniture. He regularly hosts groups of friends from New York City and has deliberately decorated the house in a relaxed and accommodating fashion.

"I wanted it to be user-friendly with nothing precious," says Derian. "Almost everything is washable. The only thing I secretly worry about is a table from the early 1800s." Among his 19th-century antiques are quirkier objects, including a round work station in the kitchen, fashioned from a huge butcher's block.

The Cape Cod interiors style can be found as far off as California. "Most Americans like tradition," says Crochet, "Even if the [Cape Cod] style is seen in a new construction, it anchors us to our traditions and the interiors follow suit."

Bilhuber says that attempts at modernising the style have generally been unsuccessful, owing to the fact that Cape Cod interiors are so deeply rooted in history: "About five years ago, there was a great surge of interest in not playing by the rule books," says Bilhuber. "People kept envisaging a much more modern, much cleaner Cape Cod and, not surprisingly, it failed. What we've seen in the last few years is a return to the romantic history of Cape Cod, which I find reassuring."

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