The house is typical of those built on Cape Cod during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; it is unusual in that it has a gambrel roof, a type that was rare on the Cape in those early days. Early Cape houses were an adaptation of the English cottages of Cornwall and Devon, the areas from which the first Cape settlers had come. There are three variations of the typical Cape Cod house: the half house, the three-quarter house, and the full house. The Atwood House is the latter type; its typical first floor consists of a sinkroom, a kitchen or keeping room, a parlor, a sitting room, two bedrooms, and a buttery. The second floor also is typical, having a large open attic and one finished bedroom. The finished bedroom in this house is larger than in many houses of the type and is unique in having a fireplace and the remnants of the original stenciling around the top of the walls.

There are three fireplaces on the first floor: in the parlor, in the sitting room, and in the kitchen, (or keeping room) whose large fireplace is designed for cooking. Next to this large fireplace with its iron crane for holding pots, is the brick oven, sometimes called a beehive oven because of its shape. This shape is clearly displayed in a small closet off the sitting room which backs up to the kitchen fireplace and oven, making an ideal place for drying herbs and storing items such as salt and sugar.

Another unusual feature in The Atwood House is the built-in corner cupboard in the parlor. In 1833 John Atwood, the grandson of the builder of the house, added a wing for his second wife. This room served as a new kitchen complete with cast iron stove, certainly a great improvement over the cooking facilities in the old kitchen.