Inside RuPaul’s Fabulous Beverly Hills Mansion

[RuPaul laughing]

Hello, AD.

I'm RuPaul and welcome to our crib.

[upbeat music]

Now, this is our disco room.

We love music, we love to dance,

and you know, when I was coming up,

there was always a place that said,

Cocktails, dancing, doesn't happen anymore,

so we decided we needed a disco in our house and this is it.

There are 26 disco balls up there,

and at the end down there

is a Hollywood Regency Dorothy Draper Inspired fireplace.

That is one of my favorite things.

And of course on the walls,

we have many of my favorite disco artists,

some are not so disco but they're all beautiful

and inspire us to dance and move around.

This table here can be moved at any time.

It's on wheels, so the idea is to have people over

for a little nosh and then move the table out of the way

[RuPaul laughing]

and then have a daytime disco right in this very room.

I love, love, love this room.

It may be my favorite, but don't hold me to that.

[upbeat music]

Now this is our kitchen.

Again, it's very bold.

This is a stove that is made by a French company

called La Cornue, and orange is my favorite color.

You're gonna see a lot of orange in this house.

I love these lighting fixtures right here

because they remind me of those underwater scuba gear from,

the 19, I don't know, '30s and '40s,

but they're just beautiful.

I love, love, love the finish on these cabinets

and the black and white.

You'll see a lot of that in the house too.

The floors are painted and stained in black and white

and it just makes me happy,

and if you can't be happy in your own home,

how the hell are you gonna be happy anywhere else?

[RuPaul laughing]

La Cornue!

[upbeat music]

This breakfast nook is so fabulous,

so much light, so much life,

and I tend to gravitate here, you know,

because it's right next to the kitchen.

I love this wallpaper and these chairs.

These are designed by another really important

'30s female designer, Francis Elkins.

This light fixture here actually belonged

to Yves Saint Laurent in the 1970s.

This is such a fabulous room.

I mean, there's so many places to have a meal in this house,

but the whole house is designed around community.

We love game nights, we love playing dirty charades,

just like regular charades, you just replace

one of the words with a dirty word like poop, right?

Poops, I did it again. You get the picture.

[upbeat music]

This is what we call our dining pavilion.

Now it was inspired by a Elizabeth Taylor film

called Boom.

A lot of people may not have seen that film,

but she used a room similar to this

as her card room.

Boom was a adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play.

I love the stripes.

You know, we live in Hollywood, we live in show business,

so we're not afraid of texture

and color and bold statements.

You know, this may not be for everybody,

but it's perfect for us.

In fact, okay, I'm gonna go on record,

this may be my favorite room, but don't hold me to it

'cause we're not finished with the tour.

[RuPaul laughing]

[upbeat music]

Welcome to my office.

It's like living in my own personal Hermes box,

there's lots of orange.

This is where all my Emmy awards are, and it reminds me

of an office that Joan Collins would enjoy.

[RuPaul laughing]

When I was 34,

I realized that orange was my favorite color

because of the way it makes me feel.

So I implore all of you out there watching

to find what your favorite color is based on how you feel

and live in it, and that's what I do in this office.

Love it.

[upbeat music]

Now this is my walk-in men's closet.

We took two bedrooms and turned it into my closet

and I've got everything in here.

It's kind of like a historical artifact.

Every shopping trip I've ever gone on, even Lil Jon's,

are documented right here in this very room.

It's very emotional for me to be in here.

See, I went, Oh, I remember I wore that

on the episode where...

Or Oh, right, I bought that

at this little boutique in France.

It is one of my favorite places because I love color

and I love clothes.

So having this two bedrooms turned into one closet

is just perfection.

So much storage space, so many textures and colors.

It just makes me happy,

and listen, if you're gonna be on this planet,

why not be happy?

Why not live in a place that makes you happy?

And that's what this place does.

Now this piece in particular is special

because it's a sewing box and it was owned

by the one and only Ann-Margaret, which is pretty special.

Now, this centerpiece, this island,

is covered in black agate, which is a Brazilian stone

and it's huge, one piece of black agate.

She sounds familiar.

[RuPaul laughing]

I think I know her.

[upbeat music]

Now, we wanted the back garden area to have space

for people and parties and pool and possibly even do shows.

You know, if we put a little slab up over the jacuzzi,

we could have chairs out here

and have a show up there or project a movie up there.

It's all about being able to stay in one place

and enjoy where we are.

Also, if you see at the very top of this hill,

there is a structure where you could do yoga or meditate

or just welcome the sunshine with a cup of coffee.

Really comfortable, not fussy, easy breezy,

but it's just a pretty decadent, it's very Pompeii.

[RuPaul laughing]

[upbeat music]

Now, this here is the office workspace.

This is the heartbeat of my operation.

I love just the mix between wild energy

and then the classics.

I love that juxtaposition.

What better place to be creative and be inspired

than a room filled with leopard print?

[upbeat music]

This is our living room and we've given our decorator,

Martyn Lawrence Bullard, full rein.

Now Martyn was inspired by great lady designers

of the '30s and '40s,

like Dorothy Draper and Elsie de Wolfe.

Dual tones, which I love.

So much light coming in here,

and of course, you see all of the Hollywood Regency style

that is so much fun.

You know, there's so much of the modern stuff around LA,

we wanted to go more of the classic

and that's why this room is so lovely and so beautiful.

This house is a working house.

You know, I work here in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is a company town,

so this house needed to work for me with clothes,

entertaining, office space.

George and I are very tall,

so we needed some place that had tall ceilings,

and this fits the bill.

[upbeat music]

This is the epicenter right here.

This is the mother lode.

This is the drag archives, jewelry, shoes,

gowns, you name it, it's all right here.

In fact, some things, I'm looking at these cuff bracelets

here that I've had since 1993,

and obviously there are newer things

that I just bought last week, or that Zaldy,

who designs all my costumes, put together just last week.

It's pretty amazing.

It's kind of like a museum, but even better.

As I said earlier, this is a working house,

so I was in drag last night shooting, and you know,

it makes it so easy to just come down here

and find exactly what I'm looking for.

Couldn't be easier.

Now, of course, right next door is the glam room

where I get to get in drag,

mirrors there, makeup, everything is right there.

Jewels in here, shoes, gowns.

Look at these chandeliers.

Look at these beautiful light fixtures.

It makes you want to be as beautiful as they are.

So, you know, you come down here

and you want to make yourself beautiful.

You want to try on everything.

You actually want to lick everything,

but I don't advise that.

[RuPaul laughing]

[upbeat music]

Okay, so listen, we've been throughout the whole house.

I'm gonna say it, this is my favorite room.

You know, the kid in me has always loved color

and shiny and outrageous and texture.

That's what makes drag so important.

That's what makes drag so much fun to do.

For anybody out there who's never done drag,

I am telling you now, get yourself in a pair of pumps,

wig, some very colorful eye makeup,

and wait and see what emerges,

because there's a superhero in you

that is just dying to get out.

It's like these jewels where you shine a light on it

in a different way

and it turns into something completely different.

That's what we're doing here, and that's what this house is.

This house is the manifestation of my drag ideal,

where it's color and expansive and fun,

disco, all the things that make life worth living.

You have to find the joy.

You have to create the joy.

Honestly, the hardest part is focusing on the joy

in your life, 'cause we all know

there are so many awful things that are around.

Why not make your home a beautiful, joyous place to live in?

[upbeat music]

Well, thanks for stopping by.

You're welcome anytime.

Psych.

[upbeat music]