Cape Cod-Style Home Ideas

Dormers punctuate the steep rooflines of many Cape Cod-style homes, adding floor space to the modest area tucked under the roof. The most common design is a gabled dormer, which features a simple pitched roof with two sloping sides.

Holding true to its Cape Cod roots, this home is covered in clapboard shingles. Two dormers flank a gabled entryway, providing an attractive and unified exterior look.

Shutters--a common feature of traditional, Colonial-Era Cape Cod houses--dress up the exterior of this home, as do flowers and a white picket fence.

This Cape Cod has many traditional features: familiar lines adorned with wood-shake siding and roofing, wide white window trim, front door pilasters, and a series of doghouse dormers.

Traditionally, Cape Cod-style houses have a symmetrical appearance with the door in the center. This home's double chimneys accentuate the symmetry, as do the broad porch and dramatic front steps.

A stone walkway leads to the front door of this simple yet charming Cape Cod. A single, hefty dormer adds architectural interest and more interior floor space on the upper level.

This Cape Cod-style home boasts curb appeal with its deep front porch and beautiful landscaping.

This home, with its symmetrical layout, steep roofline, shutters, and big front porch, mixes Cape Cod-style architecture with Victorian Era charms.

A reconfigured arched entryway and new flagstone facade adorned with climbing vines give this Cape Cod-style home a European cottage spin.

Colonial Era Cape Cod houses featured a large, central chimney linked to a fireplace in each room. The chimney in twentieth-century Cape Cod homes is usually found anchoring the house at one end, as seen here.

A portico flanked by columns and topped with a pediment adds visual interest to this home's facade. The angles of the pediment repeat those of the dormers.

This yellow playhouse, with its porch, dormer windows, and shutters, resembles a traditional Cape Cod-style home.

Cape Cod homes are known to be small, economical, and practical. Traditional Cape Cod-style homes had steep roofs and little exterior ornamentation, much like this house.

A row of windows on the back of this Cape Cod-style home allows for scenic views of the backyard and lots of natural light inside.

This home has ties to both Cape Cod and Greek Revival styles. In the early 19th century, the Greek Revival style made accentuated gables fashionable, as seen on this home's gabled dormers.

Latticed columns make this home's front porch appear larger than it is. Above, the gabled dormer and round window lend architectural interest to the facade and allow additional light into the upstairs bedroom.

The front porch--an addition to the original home--gives this 1940s Cape Cod true cottage charm.