He created an outrageous dwelling from Disneyland and pop-culture moments

Brandon Shahniani is obsessive about the Eighties sitcom “The Golden Girls,” a lot in order that he adorned his breezy bed room in pastel tones that might make Blanche Devereaux, the present’s famously flirtatious character, envious.

“I want to live in 1980s Miami Beach,” says the 28-year-old who’s the co-owner of the Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain in South Pasadena, a Disney grownup, and infrequently, the drag persona known as ’Naynay.

“When I ask myself, ‘Where would I want to wake up?,’ the answer is right here,” he says. “And I sleep really well here.”

His bed room, which he calls ’Naynay’s Expo Beach Resort, seems to be and looks like a lodge, with a soothing scent harking back to Coppertone sunscreen coming from a specialised scent-delivery machine, a resort exercise schedule on the dresser and an emergency evacuation map on the again of the door.

“At ’Naynay’s Expo Beach Resort, there is a light sunscreen scent that, along with the music and the visual queues, makes you actually feel like you’re on vacation in Miami Beach in 1987,” says Shahniani.

A lodge room signal welcomes you to the Expo Beach Resort.

Welcome to ’Naynay’s World Expo, Shahniani’s three-bedroom, three-bathroom 1982 townhome in Montrose, composed of 11 rigorously curated immersive moments, every crammed with the pop-culture sights, sounds and smells of his youth that make him “feel safe, expressed, playful and happy.”

“Whimsy is very important to my generation,” the zillennial says as he presents a tour. “The future is bleak for us,” he provides, regardless that his upbeat perspective and heat vitality make you’re feeling such as you’ve recognized him for years.

To push again in opposition to generational anxiety, Shahniani has coated each wall in his home with sentimental gadgets — a whole bunch in whole — lots of them from durations he’s too younger to have skilled. There’s a classic Disneyland ticket ebook, a Rubik’s Cube and an outdated aluminum speaker from a drive-in theater. Some issues, together with a signed birthday greeting from Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde, are framed. Others, together with an Egg McMuffin carton, lunchboxes and food-themed Barbies, are merely mounted on the wall.

Shahniani enjoys screening films on the wall in his Fifties-style diner and serving TV dinners.

“The Route 66 Cookbook” is inside attain of the glowing vinyl dinette.

When you first stroll within the entrance door, you’ll see ’Naynay’s Drag-In Dine-In Theater centered round a custom-made shiny red-and-white vinyl sales space. Across from the sales space and above the bar, a pink-and-white tv produced from an iPad inside a plastic foam cooler performs outdated cereal commercials and clips from “I Love Lucy” and “Bewitched” on repeat.

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“I love a diner and a drive-in theater,” he says about his film nights, the place he screens movies and serves TV dinners. But don’t anticipate him to take a seat nonetheless for lengthy. “I’m not a big movie person,” he says. “I play movies for ambience.”

His house is visually overwhelming — as colourful, whimsical and jam-packed as Disneyland’s Enchanted Tiki Room (which he prefers over theme park rides reminiscent of Space Mountain) — with license plates and custom-made indicators by artists Reimi Mosses and Dan Rocky as massive as film posters.

“It’s clear that he, like me, was educated at theme parks,” says buddy Charles Phoenix, a midcentury pop-culture and design professional. His dwelling “feels like we are in some sort of exquisite divine design reality. It touches a nerve in me that everybody has their own version of nostalgia. And what Brandon has created is his own nostalgia.”

“In ’Naynay’s Kitchen of Progress, my kitchen monitor plays a loop of the Carousel of Progress attraction preshow while still managing to set up all my kitchen timers and fetch recipes for me,” he says.

A Pizza Hut pendant illuminates McDonald’s collectibles within the ’80s & ’90s Food Culture Hall of Fame eating room.

Using sensory theme park tips he picked up throughout his time as a storyteller at Disneyland, Shahniani, who grew up in South Pasadena, has crammed his city home with sound results from hidden audio system he controls together with his iPhone. In the diner, for instance, the audio system play outside sounds together with crickets to create an actual drive-in film ambiance. Upstairs in his bed room, tropical sounds and steelpan music add to the sensation of sleeping in a seaside resort.

Other rooms downstairs embody the B-Movie Bathroom, ’Naynay’s Kitchen of Progress and the ’80s & ’90s Food Culture Hall of Fame eating room, which is illuminated by a Pizza Hut pendant. In the ’80s Palm Common Room, a classic keyboard, a pc mouse and touch-tone cellphone hold on the partitions.

This spring, simply outdoors the eating room, Shahniani will add the Expoterrace, a soothing patio with a fountain, waterfalls and luxurious vegetation impressed by Living with the Land at Epcot in Florida.

‘Naynay, Brandon Shahniani’s drag alter ego, makes use of the powder room for dressing and make-up.

Upstairs, within the bubble gum-pink Powder Room, Shahniani retains his drag costumes, made by his favourite dressmaker, Kelsey Swarthout, who makes use of upcycled Disney sheets in her designs. He shops his make-up, wigs, earrings, eyelashes and purses in modern cupboards and organizes them in a digital closet he constructed from an iPad and a plastic foam cooler.

When he’s not preparing as ’Naynay, he likes to observe “chick flicks” reminiscent of “Clueless,” “Earth Girls are Easy” and “Pretty in Pink.” Shahniani doesn’t carry out as a drag queen, however he enjoys dressing up as ’Naynay for various occasions and theme park visits. “I treat drag the way other people treat cosplay,” he says.

Says Phoenix: “He’s so original. I’ve never known anyone who self-presents like him.”

Shahniani’s drag alter ego ’Naynay is well known in illustrations by artist Brittney Sides, hanging in his hallway.

Past the Nineteen Seventies-themed mint chocolate chip lavatory, the place you may lather up with Native Girl Scouts Cookies Thin Mint Body Wash, and thru the Hall of ’Naynay, which shows seven retro portraits of Shahniani in his favourite drag outfits by illustrator Brittney Sides, you’ll discover the Disneyland-themed Archive Room. Shahniani calls it a “teenage boy’s dream.” Which tracks for somebody who has visited each Disney theme park on the planet — Tokyo is his favourite — and was not too long ago featured in AJ Wolfe’s ebook “Disney Adults: Exploring (And Falling in Love With) A Magical Subculture.”

The Archive Room is painted blue and crammed with Disney parks memorabilia he’s collected through the years together with his ticket stubs, that are safely saved in a fillable glass lamp. “From scouring through antique malls and online auctions to personal items from my childhood at the parks or things gifted by previous cast members and Imagineers, it’s a holy grail collection of all of my personal hyperfixations from the park,” he says.

The visitor bed room is Disney-themed.

A bedside lamp is crammed with Disney ticket stubs subsequent to a Mickey Mouse phone.

Shahniani says his dwelling feels particular as a result of so many associates helped with the design, the artwork on the partitions and even his clothes.

His buddy, theme park journalist Carlye Wisel, noticed these details too. “Visiting Brandon is glee-inducing not just because of the decor, but also the company,” she says in an electronic mail. “At our annual holiday party, he sets up gingerbread houses for us to decorate, puts presents on the steps, and even bakes enough of his signature cookies that we can bring a box home to our families. Spending time at Brandon’s house during the holidays is the closest I’ll ever feel to being inside a Christmas movie.”

Shahniani agrees: “It’s so fun to be here. There’s something so youthful about it.”

The feeling of being transported by youthful vitality motivates Shahniani each morning when he begins his day by taking part in Pinar Toprak’s uplifting Epcot theme on the audio system downstairs.

As he places it, “I believe that my default way of thinking, feeling and seeing the world is being dictated by the way I was programmed as a young child. When the youngest, most innocent version of you is healed and well, then it’s easy to go out and do amazing things. And when little Brandon feels great inside, then big Brandon can go out and change the world for the better.”

The ’80s-inspired lounge is crammed with classic know-how, together with chunky telephones, outdated keyboards and moveable TVs.

Now he hopes to assist others construct the dream life they’ve at all times imagined. “I’m currently working on an accessible life-coaching resource in the style of an ‘80s TV show, using YouTube videos, to show others they can defy the societal norm of being miserable,” he says. “It’ll be funny, effective, kitschy, nostalgic and change the way we use self-help for the better.”

Some folks may even see it as whimsy, he says, including: “Others call it prioritizing your mental health.”

The B movie-themed lavatory.