<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2n6dS7_0qFdKidJ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2n6dS7_0qFdKidJ00" width="1200" height="675" >Wonka introduces fans to Willy Wonka before everyone in the world wants to tour his magical chocolate factory. Naturally, the first step toward the beloved Roald Dahl character’s dream of becoming the best chocolatier in the world is opening a chocolate shop. In the new movie starring Timothée Chalamet, young Wonka’s shop design is inspired by his childhood memories. We spoke with production designer Nathan Crowley for insight into how the playful set was created as an homage to his upbringing while appearing entirely edible. Plus, we’ve laid out all of the can’t-miss details and facts—including how many edible confections were made for the shop and the movie as a whole.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3RN8Eg_0qFdKidJ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3RN8Eg_0qFdKidJ00" width="980" height="409" ><figcaption>Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures</figcaption></figure>Built on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden (where favorites like Barbie and the Harry Potter franchise were also filmed), Wonka’s chocolate shop is an enchanted candyland infused with meaningful motifs and the character’s signature theatrics. Since Wonka grew up on a vessel with his mother, Crowley knew standout elements—the weeping willow tree, the boat, and the river—from that location were essential starting points for the chocolate shop interiors. “You start with the nostalgia of this secret garden of his childhood, then you need to turn that into a sweet shop,” Crowley says.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2mjvX1_0qFdKidJ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2mjvX1_0qFdKidJ00" width="980" height="653" ></figure>The showpiece and Crowley’s favorite part of the set is the rotating tree, which was changed from a weeping willow into a much more edible-looking cherry blossom tree. With its curved chocolate trunk and cotton candy-pink flowers dotted with shiny cherries, the tree exudes romance. "I love mechanical set pieces because I think people are fascinated by motion," Crowley says of the showy display, which is quite on-brand for Wonka. "People love the spectacle."A river spins in the opposite direction of the tree, which is reached via a chocolate bridge. Rather than a chocolate river like in Wonka’s future factory, the shop features a scenic blue-and-white candy river where a chocolate boat floats on top. A road made of pink Turkish Delights winds around the shop. Crowley worked with set decorator Lee Sandales and the art team to ensure everything in the shop—the big roses, meadow flowers, grass, bushes, and clouds—was made to look edible. Doing so involved intense research and development work to find artificial flowers and greenery. It also required sculpting, test painting, sugar coating, glazing, and chocolate dipping decor.As for the truly edible set pieces, real chocolatiers were brought on to handmake every chocolate (with all-natural ingredients!) in the movie, amounting to a total of 1,895 confections. In Wonka’s chocolate shop, there are 15 blue ball flowers (each made of 300 individual petals), 50 purple flowers, 80 red roses, and six chocolate teacups. You can also spot edible versions of purple and orange mushrooms, purple roses, large orange leaves, cherries, cherry blossoms, soil, honeycomb, bees, pears, and tree bark. To top it all off, the shop features edible doughnuts, ice cream, and a sweet version of spaghetti and meatballs.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0LDMP7_0qFdKidJ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0LDMP7_0qFdKidJ00" width="980" height="405" ><figcaption>Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture</figcaption></figure>While Wonka’s childhood fantasy is all about the sweets and how they're displayed in the shop interiors, don’t overlook the location. “It all takes place in the deserted corner of the Galeries Gourmet—in a sort of beautiful ruin, a Great Expectations ruin—and he builds his shop into it,” Crowley says of the chocolate shop location, a building constructed on a studio backlot and inspired by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3G7Wwf_0qFdKidJ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3G7Wwf_0qFdKidJ00" width="980" height="408" ><figcaption>Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures</figcaption></figure>All of the chocolate shops were placed in a luxury gallery to show the gravity of Wonka’s ambition and what he was up against. “This is the town where the great chocolate makers of the world live,” Crowley says of the fictional place. “So you have to then step out of a shopfront and into something else because the cake shops are out there, and the great cheeses, and the delicious things in the town square, like many Belgium town square Christmas markets almost. And then you've got to step it up to something like the Milan fashion houses.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0tpJoF_0qFdKidJ00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0tpJoF_0qFdKidJ00" width="980" height="517" ><figcaption>Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures</figcaption></figure>At the end of the film, Wonka's future materializes through an imagined factory at another ruined location. "The idea was always to do the start of the factory with drawings and illustrations," Crowley says. "But we needed a base."A derelict castle made an excellent setting to visualize Wonka's dream turned into reality, where a glass ceiling allows natural light in and the chocolate river is the star of the show.Love knowing all the latest design trends? We’ve got you covered.Follow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.</div></body>

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Seeing Wonka? Look for These Magical Chocolate Shop Details

Wonka introduces fans to Willy Wonka before everyone in the world wants to tour his magical chocolate factory. Naturally, the first step toward the beloved Roald Dahl character’s dream of becoming the best chocolatier in the world is opening a chocolate shop. In the new movie starring Timothée Chalamet, young Wonka’s shop design is inspired by his childhood memories. We spoke with production designer Nathan Crowley for insight into how the playful set was created as an homage to his upbringing while appearing entirely edible. Plus, we’ve laid out all of the can’t-miss details and facts—including how many edible confections were made for the shop and the movie as a whole.