Experience Preppy-Chic Style in the Kennebunks
Big-name collabs and stylish new spots to shop and social distance have anchored here.
TEXT BY JEN DEROSE
SEACRAFT
The Official Preppy Handbook meets Wes Anderson retro-eccentricity at Seacraft Vintage, which opened last summer in a 200-square-foot former art gallery. Owners/Instagram phenoms Jackie Greaney and Paul Havel gave the bitty place presence with a bright white finish on the interior shiplap, providing a clean canvas for vintage seascapes, yacht club china, and nautical kitsch the couple unearths at estate sales and junk shops around the country. Styled red, white, and blue vignettes that translate seamlessly to Instagram squares are updated weekly. Parting with their handpicked finds is tough: “We get attached to pieces,” Greaney says. “But then we realized the more we sell, the more we’re able to buy.”
2 Morning Walk Lane #4, Kennebunk. seacraftvintage.com
Photographed by Jeff Roberts & Douglas Merriam
HIDDEN POND
Ten new aerial “treetop lodges” take social distancing to the next level (sorry) at this 60-acre resort managed by the Kennebunk Resort Collection. Local designers Krista Stokes and Hurlbutt Designs outfitted nine with furnishings such as built-in daybeds topped with floral pillows and nautical rope. New York menswear designer Todd Snyder collaborated on the tenth, opening in September. Inspired by his fall collection with L.L.Bean, the space combines camo wallpaper, plaid seating, and a headboard in Benjamin Moore’s Kennebunkport Green. Hotel guests have access to six new private dining spaces — from rustic “sheds” to pond- and poolside cabanas — at on-site restaurant Earth, as well as existing dining cabins anyone can book.
Lodges from $1,175/night. 354 Goose Rocks Rd., Kennebunkport. 888-967- 9050. hiddenpondmaine.com
SPACES
A basketweave grass-and-paver path leads to designer Nicki Bongiorno’s 1,000-square-foot, white-clapboard Spaces, which opened last fall after 11 years on Ocean Avenue. Closer to downtown and double the size of the old spot, the new shop features custom shelving and bleached-wood Parsons tables displaying beachy-chic décor, such as awning-striped linen pillows and bottleneck vases with woven bamboo wrappings. More square footage means an expanded collection of furniture and work by local artists, like Portland painter Sarah Madeira Day and Kennebunkport photographer Stephanie Stellwagen. “It’s my take on modern coastal cottage,” Bongiorno says. “Airy, bright, and spacious.”
184 Port Rd., Kennebunk. 207-967-0040. spacesnb.com
YACHTSMAN HOTEL & MARINA CLUB
Stop by the riverfront bar at the KRC-managed Yachtsman and you might notice the staff looking a bit spiffier in blue-and-white-striped t-shirts and leather boat shoes and the décor looking a bit, er, lobster-ier. Rebranded the Yacht Rock Bar by Sperry in a seasonal collab with the Massachusetts heritage shoe brand, the bar’s patio now mixes nautical flotsam and jetsam — lobster traps and buoys, a vintage sea captain’s portrait — and craft cocktails like the “1935,” named for the year Paul Sperry invented his deck shoe, with the existing aqua- and canary-yellow-striped seating. For a cool $1,295, you can also book a resort package that comprises a two-night stay, two pairs of Sperry shoes, a kayak or canoe rental, and some of those cocktails, including — what else? — the “Official Prep.”
59 Ocean Ave., Kennebunkport. 207-967- 2511. yachtsmanlodge.com
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