Chocolate-box places or images are very pretty but in a boring or conventional way.
[British]
...a village of chocolate-box timbered houses.
chocolate-box in British English
noun
(modifier) informal
sentimentally pretty or appealing
chocolate-box in American English
(ˈtʃɔkəlɪtˌbɑks, ˈtʃɑkə-, ˈtʃɔklɪt-, ˈtʃɑk-)
adjective
excessively decorative and sentimental, as the pictures or designs on some boxes of chocolate candy; prettified
decorous, chocolate-box paintings of Victorian garden parties
Word origin
[1900–05]This word is first recorded in the period 1900–05. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: burnout, clone, desensitize, hookup, throwaway
Examples of 'chocolate-box' in a sentence
chocolate-box
The place is chocolate-box pretty.
The Sun (2012)
It's, like, proper chocolate-box country.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
It is a chocolate-box confection, but fun.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Beneath the chocolate-box façade, however, discontent stirs.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
He owned a chocolate-box house that was hopelessly impractical.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Perhaps the biggest draw is the ring of chocolate-box villages that surrounds the town.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
Estimates range from 1,200 to 60,000 apiece while styles vary from chocolate-box to gritty.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
The photography is kitsch picturesque, a chocolate-box vision of bucolic bliss.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
While it is chocolate-box pretty on the outside, it oozes 21st-century style within.