Brandon Shahniani is obsessed with the 1980s sitcom “The Golden Girls,” so much so that he decorated his breezy bedroom in pastel tones that would make Blanche Devereaux, the show’s famously flirtatious character, green with envy.
“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 adult, and occasionally, 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 bedroom, which he calls ’Naynay’s Expo Beach Resort, looks and feels like a hotel, with a soothing scent reminiscent of Coppertone sunscreen coming from a specialized scent-delivery machine, a resort activity schedule on the dresser and an emergency evacuation map on the back 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 hotel room sign 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 carefully curated immersive moments, each filled 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 offers a tour. “The future is bleak for us,” he adds, even though his upbeat attitude and warm energy make you feel like you’ve known him for years.
To push back against generational anxiety, Shahniani has covered every wall in his house with sentimental items — hundreds in total — many of them from periods he is too young to have experienced. There’s a vintage Disneyland ticket book, a Rubik’s Cube and an old aluminum speaker from a drive-in theater. Some things, including a signed birthday greeting from Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde, are framed. Others, including an Egg McMuffin carton, lunchboxes and food-themed Barbies, are simply mounted on the wall.
Shahniani enjoys screening movies on the wall in his 1950s-style diner and serving TV dinners.
“The Route 66 Cookbook” is within reach of the sparkling vinyl dinette.
When you first walk in the front door, you’ll see ’Naynay’s Drag-In Dine-In Theater centered around a custom-made shiny red-and-white vinyl booth. Across from the booth and above the bar, a pink-and-white television made from an iPad inside a plastic foam cooler plays old 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 movie nights, where he screens films and serves TV dinners. But don’t expect him to sit still for long. “I’m not a big movie person,” he says. “I play movies for ambience.”
His home is visually overwhelming — as colorful, whimsical and jam-packed as Disneyland’s Enchanted Tiki Room (which he prefers over theme park rides such as Space Mountain) — with license plates and custom-made signs by artists Reimi Mosses and Dan Rocky as big as movie posters.
“It’s clear that he, like me, was educated at theme parks,” says friend Charles Phoenix, a midcentury pop-culture and design expert. His home “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 in the ’80s & ’90s Food Culture Hall of Fame dining room.
Using sensory theme park tricks he picked up during his time as a storyteller at Disneyland, Shahniani, who grew up in South Pasadena, has filled his town house with sound effects from hidden speakers he controls with his iPhone. In the diner, for example, the speakers play outdoor sounds including crickets to create a real drive-in movie atmosphere. Upstairs in his bedroom, tropical sounds and steelpan music add to the feeling of sleeping in a seaside resort.
Other rooms downstairs include the B-Movie Bathroom, ’Naynay’s Kitchen of Progress and the ’80s & ’90s Food Culture Hall of Fame dining room, which is illuminated by a Pizza Hut pendant. In the ’80s Palm Common Room, a vintage keyboard, a computer mouse and touch-tone phone hang on the walls.
This spring, just outside the dining room, Shahniani will add the Expoterrace, a relaxing patio with a fountain, waterfalls and lush plants inspired by Living with the Land at Epcot in Florida.
‘Naynay, Brandon Shahniani’s drag alter ego, uses the powder room for dressing and makeup.
Upstairs, in the bubble gum-pink Powder Room, Shahniani keeps his drag costumes, made by his favorite dressmaker, Kelsey Swarthout, who uses upcycled Disney sheets in her designs. He stores his makeup, wigs, earrings, eyelashes and purses in sleek cabinets and organizes them in a digital closet he built from an iPad and a plastic foam cooler.
When he’s not getting ready as ’Naynay, he likes to watch “chick flicks” such as “Clueless,” “Earth Girls are Easy” and “Pretty in Pink.” Shahniani doesn’t perform as a drag queen, but he enjoys dressing up as ’Naynay for different events 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 celebrated in illustrations by artist Brittney Sides, hanging in his hallway.
Past the 1970s-themed mint chocolate chip bathroom, where you can lather up with Native Girl Scouts Cookies Thin Mint Body Wash, and through the Hall of ’Naynay, which displays seven retro portraits of Shahniani in his favorite drag outfits by illustrator Brittney Sides, you’ll find the Disneyland-themed Archive Room. Shahniani calls it a “teenage boy’s dream.” Which tracks for someone who has visited every Disney theme park in the world — Tokyo is his favorite — and was recently featured in AJ Wolfe’s book “Disney Adults: Exploring (And Falling in Love With) A Magical Subculture.”
The Archive Room is painted blue and filled with Disney parks memorabilia he’s collected over the years including his ticket stubs, which are safely stored 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 guest bedroom is Disney-themed.
A bedside lamp is filled with Disney ticket stubs next to a Mickey Mouse telephone.
Shahniani says his home feels special because so many friends helped with the design, the art on the walls and even his clothing.
His friend, 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 email. “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 energy motivates Shahniani every morning when he starts his day by playing Pinar Toprak’s uplifting Epcot theme on the speakers downstairs.
As he puts 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 living room is filled with vintage technology, including chunky phones, old keyboards and portable TVs.
Now he hopes to help others build the dream life they’ve always 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 people may see it as whimsy, he says, adding: “Others call it prioritizing your mental health.”
The B movie-themed bathroom.
