Celebrating Cape Cod HOME’s 20th anniversary (1996-2016)

On the shore of Nantucket’s Sesachacha Pond, just a few hundred yards from the ocean, sits a 1,500 square-foot beachside cottage that is tucked away in its own private world, under a dune next to conservation land. Featured in Cape Cod HOME’s inaugural 1996 issue, this island hideaway has withstood the test of time says Danielle DeBenedictis, who, along with her husband, Peter Karlson, has called this summer retreat home since construction was completed in 1980. Little about the three-bedroom, three-bath cottage—with the exception of a few furnishings here and there—has changed in the years since then. That, DeBenedictis says, is because the home is just perfect.

“It’s a classic house in a beautiful location,” she says. “Everything about it is very unique. It’s irreplaceable.” Throughout the interior there are specialty pieces—including doors, armoires, mantels, and kitchen cabinetry—built by craftsmen in England. DeBenedictis says it was a three-year effort going back and forth to the British countryside with architectural plans for the home (Mickey Rowland of Milton Rowland and Associates was the architect), searching for just the right pieces. (At the time, Karlson was working in London.) “Everything in the home was highly researched and special,” she adds, “and it just uniquely fits.” – Haley Cote