Decorating For The Cape Cod Home

Decorating your home based on its architectural style is the first step in creating balance and harmony. Learn how to use color and fabric to compliment your Cape Cod home.

The Cape Cod style home is known for it's simple design, and architecture. Originating in the late 17th century in New England, and becoming very popular between the 1930's - 1950's the Cape Cod style home represents America in it's simpler times. It is usually a one to one-and-a-half story home with a chimney in the center, steep roof, symmetrical appearance with the door in the center, and multi-paned windows with shutters. When designing for a Cape Cod home, or giving your present home a Cape Cod feel just keep in mind where and when the design originated and this will make it simpler to design a theme for your home.

You have a lot of freedom with a Cape Cod home; it can be casual or elegant, and does not necessarily need to be nautical. You can use the periods from the 17th century all the way through to the 1950's, and decorate according to the styles used for those periods. From a casual rustic decor, from vintage 1920's with all it's elegance and style, to the primary colors used in the 1950's. You can also, think of the natural surroundings of the home's area. Imagine all the colors of the seaside, with it's peaceful blue water and sky, the subtle shades of the sand, the shells on the beach, seagulls in the air, watching the sunset at the end of a peaceful day. Carry this image with you, and pick five to seven colors with inspirations from these natural surroundings and your on your way to a balanced, peaceful, harmonious theme for your home. Perhaps robin egg blue, sunrise yellow, sunset red, cobalt grey, and creamy sand. Add splashes of these colors throughout your home with paint, accessories, and accent fabrics. The eye is drawn to color and texture. Adding splashes of color, and texture throughout a room creates balance and draws your eye around the room.

The key to creating a Cape Cod feel is in the color of the trim. White trim both inside and out is definitely a Cape Cod tradition. Paint your outside trim, your porch, and perhaps even the shutters white. Paint your inside trim, your mantel, and perhaps even the doors and cabinets white. This creates a clean, crisp look that will compliment most any color of walls and floors. Use a good quality gloss, or semi-gloss paint, to make cleaning your trim a breeze. If you want to go even further with your Cape Cod decor, then wood flooring is also a traditional Cape Cod feature. Wood flooring anchors a home by adding warmth and natural beauty, and modern technology, gives you many pricing and design options.

When it comes to furniture and accessories for your home, keep the more expensive furnishings, such as couches and other big ticket items neutral and accessorize with color. One of the simplest, ways to add color, balance and texture to your home is to experiment with different colored accent fabrics, in your curtains, decorative pillows, throws, runners, and rugs. Try to mix solids, prints, stripes, paisleys, checks, and floral fabrics throughout your home. This adds balance, and draws the eye around the room. Don't get carried away with this, or it could cause a chaotic feel. When deciding how to mix and match your decorative pillows and other accent fabrics, get ideas from manufactures at fabric stores. See how they incorporate large prints with small patterns, and geometrics with solids and do the same with your throw pillows, and other accent pieces. You can change the entire look of a room by simply changing the decorative pillows, runners, throws, curtains, or rugs.

Be proud of your Cape Cod style home; be creative and experiment with different colors, fabrics and styles. Take inspiration from your home's design and natural surroundings and you will be well on your way to creating an inviting, comfortable atmosphere throughout your entire home.

Copyright Valorie Mendiola, 2006. All Rights Reserved.

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