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    Eight retro interiors that capture the mood of a Wes Anderson film

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    Following the release of American filmmaker Wes Anderson’s eleventh motion picture Asteroid City, we have collected eight interiors that embody his distinctive cinematic style for our latest lookbook.

    Anderson is known for his retro pastel colour palettes and use of symmetry, as seen in the sets from his latest feature film that are currently the subject of an exhibition at London’s 180 the Strand.
    From a Milanese cafe designed by the director himself to a quirky makeup store in China that was styled to mimic 1970s offices, here are eight interiors that were either directly influenced by Anderson or look as if they are taken straight out of one of his films.
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides curated visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring bedrooms with bathtubs, Parisian apartments and striking art gallery interiors.
    Photo is by Ye Rin MokBoisson, USA, by Studio Paul Chan

    Local firm Studio Paul Chan took cues from the opening scene of Anderson’s 2021 film The French Dispatch when designing the interiors for this bottle shop by non-alcoholic drinks brand Boisson in Los Angeles.
    Elements of mid-century Hollywood design and art deco were combined in a space that includes walnut-stained wooden wall panelling, dusty green accents and a bespoke glass-block counter.
    Find out more about Boisson ›
    Image is courtesy of AIM ArchitectureHarmay store, China, by AIM Architecture
    A colour palette of muted yellow, orange and brown characterises this shop by makeup brand Harmay, which is set across the renovated second floor of a business park in Hangzhou.
    Chinese studio AIM Architecture designed the space to mimic a 1970s office by using rows of yellow desks to display stock and incorporating a retro woollen carpet and frosted-glass sliding “meeting room” doors.
    “Creating an ‘old fashioned’ physical retail experience in an actual office space just seemed a fun way to translate this duality of space and time,” the studio’s founder Wendy Saunders told Dezeen.
    Find out more about this Harmay store ›
    Photo is by Alex LysakowskiThe Annex, Canada, by Superette
    The vivid colour palettes and geometric shapes often associated with Anderson’s cinematography also feature at The Annex, a marijuana dispensary in Toronto that was modelled on Italian delis.
    Green and beige checkerboard flooring was paired with deli props, tomato-red stools and hanging pendant lights while various cannabis paraphernalia was laid out like groceries.
    Find out more about The Annex ›
    Photo is by Roland HalbeBar Luce, Italy, by Wes Anderson
    Created by Anderson himself, Bar Luce is located within the OMA-designed Fondazione Prada in Milan.
    Pastel colours and veneered wood panelling were applied to the space, which was designed to reference iconic city landmarks and cafes – particularly those dating back to the 1950s and 60s.
    “I tried to make it a bar I would want to spend my own non-fictional afternoons in,” said the filmmaker, who stressed that the bar was not designed as a set but rather as a “real” place.
    Find out more about Bar Luce ›
    Photo is by Mikael LundbladCafe Banacado, Sweden, by ASKA
    Cafe Banacado is an all-day breakfast cafe in Stockholm designed by local architecture studio ASKA.
    ASKA followed “a strong symmetry” when creating the interiors, which feature checkerboard flooring, arched mirrors and a sunny colour palette that was specifically chosen to evoke the dreamlike atmosphere of Anderson’s films.
    Find out more about Cafe Banacado ›
    Photo is by Derek SwalwellThe Budapest Cafe, Australia, by Biasol
    Local studio Biasol designed this salmon-hued cafe in Carlton, Melbourne, to reference Anderson’s 2014 feature film The Grand Budapest Hotel – in particular its symmetrical compositions and “nostalgic” colour palettes.
    Stylised steps to nowhere decorate the walls, while a curved archway frames a glossy point-of-sale counter with a tubular base finished in terracotta.
    Find out more about The Budapest Cafe in Melbourne ›
    Photo is by James MorganThe Budapest Cafe, China, by Biasol
    Biasol also designed another outpost for The Budapest Cafe in Chengdu, China, that references the titular film.
    Here, Biasol combined pastel shades and marble surfaces with similar chunky elevations to those found in the Melbourne cafe. The centrepiece of the room is a tiered terrazzo seating area topped with a pink ball pit and an original Eero Aarnio Bubble chair.
    Find out more about The Budapest Cafe in Chengdu ›
    Photo is by Romain LapradeHotel Palace restaurant, Finland, by Note Design Studio
    When Note Design Studio renovated a restaurant within Helsinki’s Hotel Palace, the Swedish firm set out to honour the history of the modernist building, which was opened in time for the city’s 1952 Summer Olympics.
    Teak panelling, luxurious teal carpet and expansive windows lend themselves to a cinematic atmosphere, while white tablecloths add a touch of glamour to the space, where visitors can imagine Anderson’s characters dining.
    This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring bedrooms with bathtubs, Parisian apartments and striking art gallery interiors.

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      Asteroid City exhibition immerses visitors in Wes Anderson’s Americana film sets

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      An exhibition of the 1950s sets, props, miniature models, costumes and artwork used in Wes Anderson’s latest film Asteroid City has opened at 180 The Strand in London.

      The exhibition was designed to immerse visitors in the film’s fictitious world – a desert town in 1950s America famous for its meteor crater and celestial observatory.
      The exhibition is on display at London’s 180 The StrandIts aim was to give visitors insight into the “1950s Americana world the film is set in”, said Asteroid City associate producer Ben Alder.
      Asteroid City was filmed on flat farmland in Spain, with the buildings made for the film set up to appear like a town.
      The exhibition features large sets”Everything you see in the film was physically built and laid out in a way that gave the actors and crew the sense of living in this real town,” Alder told Dezeen.

      “The exhibition is a great way for people to see how much work went into all the elements of the film, like the costumes, because you can spend more time looking at how they are made and how much care went into them.”
      Film sets used in the Asteroid City movie are on displayPieces in the exhibition are spread across three main spaces, with audio clips and parts of the film projected onto walls referencing scenes relevant to the nearby displays.
      “The idea was to use the largest open space for the sets to give people the sense of how big they were on the film, and you can imagine how massive our Asteroid City town was,” said Alder.
      Costumes and props are on display”Then there’s another space that’s a more traditional gallery-type curation where you can see smaller objects and props, going into the details of the characters,” Alder continued.
      Mimicking the exterior of the cafe featured in the film, a temporary wooden structure decorated with menu lettering and a desert scene spans the entrance of 180 The Strand.

      Ten cinematic interiors that could be in a Wes Anderson film

      Sets displayed in the exhibition include white wooden residential shacks, a train carriage and a bathroom scene.
      Other life-sized scenery props include telephone booths, billboard posters and humourous vending machines that dispense martinis and bullets in the film.
      The exhibition provides a close-up view of the Asteroid City film props”There are moments where visitors are invited to be in the sets and interact with them,” said Alder.
      “Not only can visitors see all the pieces from the film really closely but they can go inside some of the sets – they can sit inside the train compartment, recreate the scene with [actor] Scarlett [Johansson] in the window, or go into the telephone booth – which is something really special that not a lot of exhibitions have.”
      Visitors can explore a desert setSome of the character costumes are arranged together with set pieces to recreate scenes from the film.
      Also on display are puppets made by Andy Gent, who previously created puppets for Anderson’s films Isle of Dogs and Fantastic Mr Fox, and a series of glass flowers used in a stop-motion animation sequence where they transition from blooming to wilting.
      The Asteroid City exhibition showcases many details from the filmThe exhibition ends with a recreation of a luncheonette featured in the movie, where visitors can order food and drink.
      It has a 1950s-style decor, with stools lined up along the service bar, pastel-coloured blinds and the image of a desert landscape framed inside fake windows.
      A 1950s-style cafe is at the end of the exhibitionAsteroid City is out in cinemas now.
      Anderson is known for his distinctive film aesthetic, typified by retro influences and pastel colours. Interiors that have been informed by the director’s style include a pastel-yellow breakfast cafe in Sweden and a bottle shop in Los Angeles with mid-century influences.
      The photography is courtesy of Universal Pictures and 180 Studios.
      The Asteroid City exhibition is on display at 180 The Strand in London from 17 June to 8 July 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Studio Paul Chan references Wes Anderson at Boisson bottle shop in LA

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      The opening scene from a Wes Anderson film provided a starting point for the interior of this bottle shop in Los Angeles, by locally based Studio Paul Chan.

      The first LA location for Boisson combines elements of mid-century Hollywood design and art deco in a 1,160-square-foot (108-square-metre) space to showcase a selection of non-alcoholic beverages.
      Studio Paul Chan has designed the first Boisson store in Los Angeles”Inspired by great storytelling and glassware in Wes Anderson’s French Dispatch opening scene, where a server scales five flights of stairs to deliver a tray of aperitifs, absinthe, dry white wine, a coke, and an affogato to a meeting of editors, we endeavoured to create a space for the aesthete,” said studio founder Paul Chan.
      The studio installed walnut-stained wooden wall panelling with areas of “calming” dusty green lime wash spaced evenly in between.
      A lamp by Gae Aulenti sits atop a custom glass block counterThese materials are contrasted by thin stainless steel shelves upon which the products are displayed along both side walls.

      “The layered narrative mixes artisanal materials with machine-made elements, creating a conceptual parallel between non-alcoholic drinks and traditional wine,” Chan said.
      A central rack displays and stores bottles of non-alcoholic wineA long narrow wooden table runs through the centre of the space, creating another spot for presenting the bottles on top, and adding storage in the form of open racks below.
      Chan also took cues from Maison de Verre, a modernist house completed by Pierre Chareau and Bernard Bijvoet in 1932, for elements of his design.
      Stainless steel shelves are mounted onto dusty green lime-washed wallsAt the back, illuminated glass bricks are stacked within a steel structure to form a curved counter, upon which a curvaceous Pipistrello Table Lamp by Italian architect Gae Aulenti is placed.
      Sconces that echo the shapes of the glass blocks are positioned on the walls, together creating a warm glow within the space.

      Ten cinematic interiors that could be in a Wes Anderson film

      “There is delight in using the ordinary in extraordinary ways, and I like the element of surprise,” said Chan.
      “Light and shadow can become materials too and as if by magic, heavy things can become unexpectedly weightless.”
      The shapes of the glass blocks are echoed in the wall sconces. Photo by Avery J KleinThe popularity of non-alcoholic wines, beers and spirits has risen significantly over the past few years, and designers have been tapped to imagine both spaces and packaging to market these goods.
      For example, Barber Osgerby created the packaging for a non-alcoholic drink invented by wine writer Matthew Jukes in 2020, while University of Huddersfield graduate Holly Thomas imagined a venue for the consumption of these beverages.
      The glass block counter was influenced by the modernist Maison de Verre. Photo by Avery J KleinThe pastel colours and symmetry in films by visionary director Wes Anderson have influenced many interiors around the world, from a restaurant in Moscow to cafes in Melbourne and Stockholm.
      The director himself also designed a bar inside the Fondazione Prada in Milan, based on old landmarks and cafes in the city.
      The photography is by Ye Rin Mok unless stated otherwise.

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      Biasol plays off Wes Anderson's whimsical style with The Budapest Cafe in Melbourne

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      Melbourne-based interior design studio Biasol used earthy hues and stylised architectural motifs to create a destination inspired by Wes Anderson’s symmetry and nostalgic colour palette.The Budapest Cafe in Carlton, Melbourne is Biasol’s second edition of its Wes Anderson-informed concept, following a first location in Chengdu, China, that featured marble surfaces and pale pastel greens.
      The 94 square-metre cafe has similar pastel shades, but in earthy colours that have been adapted to its Carlton setting and audience. 

      Top image: counter sits within focal archway. Above image: the studio cover walls with earthy shades

      “Our design draws on Anderson’s meticulous, memorable and magical worlds to create an inviting destination with whimsical character and mythical scenes,” Biasol founder Jean-Pierre Biasol told Dezeen.
      “We were also inspired by his symmetry and quirky set designs; vivid and nostalgic colour palettes; and the sentiment that infuses his films,” Biasol continued. 

      Caned chairs and banquette seating fill the space
      The studio played with depth by applying dark tones like terracotta and orange to the walls, while softer beige and sand hues blanket the fanciful elements in the foreground – including focal archways reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s 2014 feature film, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
      “We evolved the design and experience to an earthy colour palette reflecting our local sensibilities,” Biasol explained.
      Rust-red upholstered banquettes wrap around the space, adding texture and warmth to the double-height space, and envelop a bar table that functions as the centre of the seating area. 

      Architectural motifs decorate the walls
      A large sand-textured archway frames a glossy, tubular point-of-sale counter in terracotta, both of which draw customers through the space. Subtle silver hardware, meanwhile, provides a bright, metallic contrast to the softer tones. 
      The studio’s fondness for modern abstract art, design, and hospitality informed its decision to create “an immersive gallery-like experience,” Biasol said.
      This led to an exploration of form and colour, with the aim of designing a place where art meets architecture.

      Danielle Brustman decorates children’s centre in Melbourne with pastel hues and rainbow murals

      By reducing the interior’s built form, the studio created a dramatic visual aesthetic. Stylised steps to nowhere embellish the venue’s walls, rising behind the tubular counter framed within arched alcoves and encouraging patrons to engage with and capture the “imaginative and evocative” design.

      Appliances contrast the earthy setting
      “With a richer palette and bolder design, the new cafe is timeless and contemporary for its Melbourne patrons, while still offering a relaxed and indulgent atmosphere and hospitality experience,” Biasol said.
      The Budapest Cafe is one of many projects the studio have completed globally. In 2019 Biasol completed contemporary dining spaces for Grind in southeast London, as well the interiors for this east London townhouse.
      Photography is by Derek Swalwell.

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