'Wednesday' Production Designer Shares Secrets Behind Wednesday and Enid's Fantastical Attic Dorm Room

Natalia Senanayake
·5 min read
Wednesday
Wednesday

Vlad Cioplea/Netflix

Don't wolf out, but it turns out there's more to Wednesday and Enid's Nevermore Academy dorm room than just a clash of rainbows and black monochromatic gloom.

PEOPLE caught up with Mark Scruton, the production designer behind the incredible sets of Netflix's Wednesday, which was directed and produced by Tim Burton. In the new fan-favorite show, viewers watch a teenage Wednesday Addams transfer to Nevermore Academy, a boarding school for outcasts, set in the surrounding area of Jericho, Vermont (though filming took place in Romania).

As Wednesday navigates transferring to a new school and learning to live with a "fur," aka her bubbly werewolf roommate named Enid, she also takes on Jericho's newest mystery — a shapeshifting monster who has been murdering townspeople and her fellow classmates.

Much of Wednesday's sleuthing takes place in her and Enid's dorm room, which is set in the eerie attic of the academy, and PEOPLE uncovered all the secrets behind the curation of their unique space.

RELATED: Will There Be a 'Wednesday' Season 2? What We Know So Far

Wednesday Set Design
Wednesday Set Design

Courtesy of Netflix

PEOPLE: Based on their first encounter, we see immediately that Enid and Wednesday are complete opposites. How did you capture that stark contrast in their dorm?

Mark Scruton: Literally and design-wise, we split the room in half. It was the first space I designed with Tim [Burton] back in London before we decided where we were going to film. We knew it had to have these two opposite characters in it. When Wednesday first comes into that room, Enid is almost the outcast herself, and she's living up there on her own in this colorful isolation when Wednesday imposes herself on it. We needed to find a way of showing that in a very graphic stylized way with bright color and black and white.

PEOPLE: We see this massive stained glass window in every scene in the room. How did that become an integral design element in their space?

Scruton: There was always this idea that a window would dominate the room as a centerpiece. We decided that the window should open and pivot so they can climb through rather than having a door. It became very metaphorical for their whole relationship — which side of the window they came out of and how they interacted with it all. We tried different ways of getting light through the window so that all the color would just wash onto Enid's side, and there would be nothing on Wednesday's.

Wednesday Set Design
Wednesday Set Design

Courtesy of Netflix

PEOPLE: What was it like to collaborate with Tim Burton on the spaces?

Scruton: Tim is brilliant, and this is what he does. It was just great working with him and trying to get inside his head with his style and look. When we first started, that was what we focused on. It was just him and I looking at the set and trying certain things, which led to the very specific side for Wednesday. Everything is very intentional in his framing — everything is there for a reason.

PEOPLE: Were there any hidden design elements that fans may not have picked up on?

Scruton: One thing that you see, but no one really realizes, is that the carrying case for Wednesday's crystal ball is designed to look like one of the turrets from the Addams Family mansion. It has that feel of the rooftop and then it opens up and falls back to reveal the crystal ball inside, which we all really liked.

RELATED: 'Wednesday' Ending Explained: The Hyde's Identity and Wednesday Addams' Fate Revealed

Wednesday Set Design
Wednesday Set Design

Courtesy of Netflix

PEOPLE: What was the inspiration behind Wednesday's side of the room?

Scruton: We looked at a lot of the Chas Addams cartoons as our main source of inspiration. The world they inhabit is very timeless. Although the show is very modern in many respects, we wanted Wednesday to exist in her own time period. She's not any time period — she's her own time period.

PEOPLE: How do you find the wonderfully unique pieces in Wednesday's space?

Scruton: Wednesday's was such an interesting side, because there's nothing in it except for these incredibly specific objects. We sat down and went through the key elements that she needed, like a bed and a desk, and then we went out and hunted globally to find the most perfect items for Wednesday. Her desk was brought in from London and the typewriter was imported from America. We looked at lots of different chandeliers to find one that was the most jagged and the most sharp, and we found a little vintage nixie tube antique clock. So even when she's got something modern, it's not really modern.

Wednesday Set Design
Wednesday Set Design

Courtesy of Netflix

PEOPLE: What was the inspiration behind Enid's side of the room?

Scruton: We just went after every possible color and texture. She's into K-pop and that world, so that was a driving force behind it. But then she's into anything that's colorful, anything that's amazing, unicorns and rainbows. We had so much fun getting stuff for that. We had this huge pile on all these trestle tables outside the set with just heaps of colorful, incredible objects. We'd try them all and rearrange them, and then just keep adding on. You just couldn't add enough stuff to that side.

RELATED: Fred Armisen Revealed as Uncle Fester in 'Wednesday' Trailer — Featuring Christina Ricci's Return

Wednesday Set Design
Wednesday Set Design

Courtesy of Netflix

PEOPLE: What's an element viewers might not notice that played an important role when creating the two contrasting sides of the room? 

Scruton: In total, between both sides, there were nearly 90 practical lights in that set alone — from fairy lights to desk lights to hidden lights under things. You could take all the brightness out of Wednesday's side and really amp up the color on Enid's, or bring them closer together if their characters were bonding more.

Stream Wednesday on Netflix now.

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