London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 08, 2025

7 Ways to Bring Maine Cottage Style into Your Home

7 Ways to Bring Maine Cottage Style into Your Home

A new design book reveals the Pine Tree State’s most quintessential houses.

From former fishing shacks with harbor views straight out of Winslow Homer to pastoral farmhouses and cliffside retreats filled with board games and 1950s florals (eat your heart out, Wes Anderson), a house in Maine is undeniably romantic. Now three longtime Maine residents—photographer Maura McEvoy, art director Basha Burwell, and writer Kathleen Hackett—have collaborated on a new book with images and stories on some of the Pine Tree State’s most beautiful homes.

The Maine House (Vendome Press) is filled with homes whose decoration, from slamming screen doors to unfinished walls and bric-a-brac kitchens, are as quirky as they are charming. As the book reveals, it’s the details—bookcases crammed with Stephen King thrillers, doors fronted by curtains, and a dose of practical magic—that get to the essence of what a home in Maine is all about.

The Maine House book

Not everyone can move to Maine, but anyone can be inspired by the houses in the book and bring the vibe home (and it travels better than the local delicacy, the lobster roll). So what elements, exactly, give a Maine house its distinctive look? “I came up with the following list to start: clapboard, cedar shingles, painted furniture and floors, open shelves, farm sinks, cast-iron stoves, beadboard,” Hackett says. But then she realized that the essential character of a Maine home goes deeper. “There is a fierce individuality,” she says. “People here care about beauty, but they are practical and not obsessed with stuff.”

Here are some of the basic tenets to decorating, the Maine way.

1. Let Nature Be Your Designer


In Maine, “everything you could want is right outside your door: a view, beautiful light, and colors to inspire design choices,” Hackett notes. Gather a collection of shells, rocks, and feathers and create a tablescape, or frame a group of leaves as Hackett did in her home.

Nature’s artistry is evident in a wall of framed leaves.


2. Create a Story


“Real Maine houses don’t have decorators,” Hackett insists. “The best houses here are ones that have been accumulated over a lifetime. People don’t redo their living rooms—they just add to them. As a result, there is a narrative. It’s how you make a house feel really personal.”

A collection of Maine art and pottery in the Louse Island home of Bob Hiemstra.


3. Embrace the Practical


Yankee thrift—or, let’s say, a commonsense respect for utilitarian things that work—dictates a design sensibility in which function rules over form. “There is no fussiness,” Hackett says. In artist Lois Dodd’s home, featured in the book, she explains that she had trouble removing the dried glue from her kitchen floor after she pulled up the old linoleum. Rather than cover it up, she dripped paint on top of it, Jackson Pollock–style.

Hand-lettered drawers display a sense of humor.


4. Cobble Together a Kitchen


Leave state-of-the-art, custom kitchens for city folk. The quintessential Maine kitchen has a mix-and-match, built-over-time quality that gives it its innate character. “Hang baskets from the ceiling, use an old shopkeeper’s table as a chopping block, or use dish towels as cabinet fronts,” Hackett says. “There is a frugality to these kitchens, which is very Maine.”

The kitchen at Maura McEvoy’s family home in southern Maine.


5. Leave Wood Unfinished


Many home interiors in Maine have walls and surfaces in raw wood. “If you’re building a home out of beautiful wood from the land,” Hackett notes, “you don’t want to cover it up with paint. It’s also connected to that very Maine idea of ‘no excess.’ There is a fierce adherence to understatement.”

Christopher Baker and Odette Heidelman’s summer barn in Brooklin, Maine.


6. Tilt Your Lampshades


“A real Maine house always has tilted lampshades, especially in a summer camp or cottage,” Hackett says. “I think it’s because they probably didn’t buy the light together with the lampshade, and they put one on and it worked fine, even if it wasn’t totally straight.”

A tilted lampshade in a Maine cottage bedroom.


7. Stock the House with Books


A well-stocked bookcase is a staple in a classic Maine home, Hackett observes—whether the shelves are filled with children’s books by the late beloved author E.B. White, horror stories by Mainer Stephen King, or novels by contemporary writers and locals Elizabeth Strout and Jonathan Lethem.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Embarrassment in Britain: Homelessness Minister Evicted Tenants and Forced to Resign
President Trump nominated Stephen Miran, his top economic adviser and a critic of the Federal Reserve, to temporarily fill an open Fed seat
The AI-Powered Education Revolution: Market Potential and Transformative Impact
Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in Southern China: Over 7,000 Hospitalized
French wine makers have seen catastrophic damage to vines that were almost ready to be harvested after the worst fires in more than 70 years burned through the south of the country
US Lawmaker Probes Intel CEO’s China Ties Amid National Security Concerns
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
Trump Open to Meeting Putin as Soon as Next Week, with Possible Trilateral Summit Including Zelenskiy
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau spark dating rumors, joining high stakes world of celeb-politician romances
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
Trump Signals JD Vance as ‘Most Likely’ MAGA Successor for 2028
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
Representative Greene Urges H-1B Visa Cuts Amid U.S.-India Trade Tensions
U.S. House Committee Subpoenas Clintons and Senior Officials in Epstein Investigation
Sydney Sweeney Registered as Republican as Controversial American Eagle Ad Sparks Debate
Trump Accuses Major Banks of Politically Motivated Account Denials and Prepares Executive Order
TikTok Removes Huda Kattan Video Over Anti-Israel Conspiracy Claims
Trump Threatens Tariffs on India Over Russian Oil Imports
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
U.S. Proposes Visa Bond of Up to $15,000 for Some Applicants
U.S. Farmers Increase Lobbying Amid Immigration Crackdown
Elon Musk Receives $23.7 Billion Tesla Stock Award
Texas House Paralyzed After Democrats Walk Out Over Redistricting
Mexican Cartels Complicate Sheinbaum’s U.S. Security Talks
Mark Zuckerberg Declares War on the iPhone
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
Matt Taibbi Slams Media for Role in Russiagate Narrative
Pilots Call for Mental Health Support Without Stigma
All Five Trapped Miners Found Dead After El Teniente Mine Collapse
Ong Beng Seng Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case Linked to Former Singapore Transport Minister
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
Italy Fines Shein One Million Euros for Misleading Sustainability Claims
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
Declassified Annex Links Soros‑Affiliated Officials and Clinton Campaign to ‘Russiagate’ Narrative
×