When James Charles announced he’d bought his first home, the internet paid attention. The beauty mogul’s Encino, California mansion, valued at around $7 million, isn’t just a place to sleep — it’s a fully realized vision of who he is. Purchased in 2020 at age 21, the property underwent nine months of renovations before move-in day. A professional interior design team and James’s own obsessive eye for detail turned a blank canvas into one of the most photographed celebrity homes in recent memory.
For someone who grew up in Bethlehem, New York, teaching himself makeup techniques, the purchase represented more than a real estate transaction — it was the physical proof of a career built entirely from scratch. Here’s a closer look inside the James Charles house, from the curved staircase in the foyer to the basement studio where his content empire runs.
- Location: Encino, San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California
- Purchase Price: $7 million (2020)
- Estimated Current Value: $9M–$12M (as of 2025)
- Size: 9,800 square feet across three levels
- Lot: Half an acre
- Bedrooms: 6
- Bathrooms: 10
- Renovation Duration: 9 months
- Interior Design: LeClair Decor (Meredith Marshall and Grace)
The Entrance That Sets the Tone
Walk through the front door, and the geometry does the talking. Geometric black chandeliers hang overhead, casting sharp lines of light across the marble flooring. Tall windows on either side flood the space with natural brightness, keeping the foyer from feeling heavy despite its dark palette.
The architectural centrepiece is a curved staircase — warm wooden steps paired with black spindle railings that sweep upward to the upper levels. Below, a built-in cushioned bench sits tucked beside the entry window, offering an unexpected pocket of comfort in an otherwise formal space.
A black console table topped with curated vases and greenery anchors one wall. Custom art pieces chosen to reflect James’s personal journey fill the remaining sightlines. The foyer doesn’t hint at what’s coming — it tells you outright: bold materials, deliberate choices, and a refusal to play it safe.
Formal Living Room
The formal living room is where the house makes its strongest design statement. A floor-to-ceiling black marble fireplace dominates one wall — the kind of feature that anchors a room without competing with anything else. Above the seating area, a candelabra-style chandelier adds another layer of visual drama. James has singled out both the fireplace and the chandelier as his favourite features in the entire home.
A grand piano sits within reach, and it sees real use. James and his friends gather here for casual jam sessions — spontaneous singing that turns a polished room into something more relaxed. The space is designed for moments like that: large enough for a group, intimate enough to feel personal rather than performative.
A modern chaise lounge and curated seating complete the room. The proportions were chosen with care — everything fills the space without crowding it, leaving room for both quiet evenings and full-house entertaining.
The Kitchen — His Favourite Room
James doesn’t cook. He orders nearly every meal through delivery apps, a habit he’s been open about since moving in. And yet the kitchen is the room that sealed the deal on the purchase.
“When I walked into this house and saw this kitchen, it was almost a guarantee in my heart that I needed to buy this house,” he’s said. In his words, the kitchen is the heart of the home — and the design makes a strong case for that description.
Navy blue and black cabinetry pairs with a white marble backsplash. A double island anchors the room — large enough for casual dining, content staging, or just gathering with friends over delivered food. Oversized pendant lights hang from above, and warm wood barstools add texture against the dark palette. A floor-to-ceiling window along one wall frames a curtain of greenery outside, softening the room’s intensity.
The kitchen’s value has nothing to do with cooking and everything to do with gathering. It gets more daily use than any other room in the house, and its design reflects that reality: built for people, not for appliances.
The Dining Room Nobody Uses
Adjacent to the kitchen sits a formal dining room — sunlit, well-proportioned, and almost entirely unused. James has been direct about it: the chances of sitting down for a formal meal in this room are, in his own words, “virtually very, very slim.”
It was the same story at his previous home. There, the dining room went untouched for the entire time he lived there. In the Encino mansion, it’s become a landing zone for incoming packages more than a dining space. The room looks the part, but daily life in the house routes everything through the kitchen instead.
One personal detail stands out: a large scenic photograph James took himself during a trip to South Africa, displayed prominently on one wall. It’s among the few spaces in the house where his own creative work — not a professional design team’s — takes the visual lead.
The Master Bedroom
The master suite was designed as a retreat, and the details reflect that intention. A four-poster bed dressed in crisp white bedding sits beneath a chandelier — one James shouldn’t have liked, by his own admission. “Personally, I hate chandeliers,” he’s said, but this particular one was the exception that earned his approval. A fireplace mounted below the wall TV adds warmth to the room’s otherwise clean colour scheme.
Floor-to-ceiling windows line the space, and sliding glass doors open directly onto a private outdoor patio. The patio is furnished with cabana-style lounging that wouldn’t look out of place at a resort — a deliberate extension of the bedroom into the California climate. James has described it as a luxurious indoor-outdoor space, and the layout earns that description.
A mini-fridge sits within arm’s reach of the bed, stocked with bottled water and the occasional soda. It’s a small convenience, but in a house approaching 10,000 square feet, eliminating trips to the kitchen at night makes practical sense.
The mansion includes six bedrooms in total. Each guest room was given its own design identity during the renovation — styled to feel like individual boutique suites rather than afterthoughts. For someone who hosts frequently and films content at home, that level of guest-room detail is a functional decision as much as an aesthetic one.
The Master Bathroom
The master bath was originally designed with a his-and-hers layout, giving James double of nearly everything: two sinks, two toilets, separate vanity areas. A shared soaking tub occupies the centre of the room, and one oversized marble shower — framed in white marble walls and black fixtures — fills the far end.
His favourite feature is the heated towel rack positioned next to the shower. He’s called it one of those upgrades that sounds minor until you actually use it on a cold morning and wonder how you ever lived without it.
The material language stays consistent with the rest of the house: marble surfaces, black hardware, warm wood accents. James has the double layout entirely to himself for now, though he’s noted that the configuration will eventually make more sense shared.
Every guest bathroom in the mansion follows the same refined palette, maintaining visual continuity from the private suites to the common areas.
The Fitting Room and Two Closets
One of the six bedrooms was converted entirely into a fashion fitting room. Multiple clothing racks line the walls, and a floor-to-ceiling mirror dominates one side of the space. James and his stylist use the room to assemble looks for red carpet events, content shoots, and public appearances — turning a bedroom into a professional styling workspace.
The conversion reflects a broader shift in James’s personal style. He’s spoken about pushing toward more elevated, high-fashion choices, and the fitting room gives that ambition a dedicated home. The room also doubles as a casual space for picking up TikTok trends between fittings — a small detail that captures how blurred the line between work and personal life becomes when your house is also your office.
The master suite includes two separate walk-in closets, originally built as a couple’s configuration. After renovations, James divided them by purpose: one stores red carpet and costume pieces, the other holds everyday wear. Designer sneakers, handbags, jewellery, jackets, and hoodies all have their own designated zones.
After living in a downtown apartment and a previous home with limited closet space, this was a meaningful upgrade. James has described the closets as a dream realized — the kind of practical luxury that changes a daily routine rather than just impressing visitors.
The Wine Cellar
The wine cellar is one of the most recognizable rooms in the James Charles house, and it has nothing to do with wine. James doesn’t drink, so the temperature-controlled space that could hold hundreds of bottles is stocked entirely with Coca-Cola — rows upon rows of it.
“For somebody like me who doesn’t drink wine, it’s pretty pointless,” he’s said. At his previous home, the wine cellar sat empty for the entire time he lived there. When the Encino mansion came with the same feature, he decided emptiness wasn’t an option. Coca-Cola — one of his favourite drinks — became the natural replacement.
It reads like a novelty, but it actually reflects how James approaches design across the whole house: take the conventional setup, keep what works, and replace what doesn’t with something that fits your actual life.
Sisters Studios — The Basement Headquarters
The basement is the most functionally important space on the property. James transformed the entire lower level into Sisters Studios — a professional production headquarters purpose-built around his brand and creative output.
The space includes a fully equipped production studio with professional cameras, lighting rigs, and a filming area where he shoots the majority of his YouTube content. Beyond the studio floor, the basement holds a conference room for brand meetings, a beauty salon fitted with styling chairs and wig displays, a private home theater, and a display area for Sisters Apparel merchandise.
James called the finished basement “a message from heaven above” and his favourite room in the entire house. That reaction wasn’t about the finishes — it was about what the space represented. From his earliest days making YouTube videos, he’d wanted a dedicated production facility. The Encino basement turned that vision into something physical.
The studio is also where the business side of his career converges with the creative. His role as CoverGirl’s first male brand ambassador in 2016, his ongoing partnership with Morphe Cosmetics, and the growth of Sisters Apparel all feed through this space. Content produced here generates the revenue that sustains the property — a feedback loop between home and career that the house was specifically redesigned to support.
Outdoor Living on Half an Acre
The property sits on roughly half an acre, and the outdoor space underwent significant renovation after purchase. James has called the backyard the part of the property he’s “most excited about” — a strong statement for a house with a Coca-Cola cellar and a professional studio downstairs.
A large swimming pool with an inset spa anchors the yard, surrounded by resort-style cabana seating and dense landscaping that provides privacy without making the space feel closed off. The result is a genuine outdoor retreat — one that extends the house’s usable footprint well beyond its walls.
The backyard also serves a practical need: room for James’s two dogs, Finn and Theodore, to move freely. The half-acre lot gives them space that a standard Los Angeles property simply can’t offer.
At the front of the property, a three-car garage and a large motorcourt provide parking for the steady stream of collaborators, friends, and visitors who cycle through. For a property designed to function as both a home and a workplace, access and parking aren’t afterthoughts — they’re infrastructure.
The Renovation Story
James didn’t buy a finished product and move in. The renovation took nine months from start to finish, and his involvement in the process was hands-on throughout.
Interior designer Meredith Marshall of LeClair Decor, along with her colleague Grace, handled the décor across every room. Professional organizer RiOrganize and her team built out custom organization systems throughout the house — closets, pantry, storage areas, and studio equipment all received the same attention. Photographer and filmmaker Chad Mellon documented the finished result.
The transformation is well documented. James released a two-part house tour on YouTube in 2020, walking through every major space from the kitchen and master suite to the Sisters Studios basement and the backyard. The videos remain the most detailed public look inside the property — and the best way to see how each room connects to the next.
On Instagram, James called buying a home his biggest personal goal since entering the public eye. The renovation made clear that the investment extended far beyond the purchase price: every square foot was designed with intention, not just furnished.
What You Can Take from This Home
You don’t need a $7 million budget to apply the design principles at work here. A few ideas worth borrowing:
- Design for how you actually live. James filled a wine cellar with soda and let a dining room collect packages. The best rooms serve real habits, not imagined ones.
- Make rooms work double duty. A bedroom became a fitting room. A basement became a production studio. Multipurpose design is especially powerful when you work from home.
- Invest in lighting. How a room is lit changes how it feels more than almost any other single element — natural light through oversized windows, statement fixtures like the foyer’s geometric chandeliers, or production-ready studio lighting in the basement.
- Commit to a colour palette. The marble, black hardware, navy cabinetry, and warm wood that run throughout this house create cohesion without becoming repetitive. Pick a system and apply it across connected spaces.
- Function and beauty aren’t opposing forces. The heated towel rack, the double island kitchen, the sliding bedroom doors that open to a private patio — the most memorable details in this house are the ones that look good and work hard at the same time.
The James Charles house demonstrates that thoughtful design isn’t about unlimited spending — it’s about knowing what each room needs to do and hiring the right people to execute that vision. Whether you’re planning a full renovation or collecting ideas for a single room, this mansion offers a clear lesson: the spaces that feel the most personal are the ones designed around actual life, not convention.
FAQs
Where is James Charles’s house?
James Charles lives in Encino, a neighbourhood in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California. Encino is known for its large lots, estate-style homes, and the privacy it offers compared to other parts of the city.
How much did James Charles pay for his house?
He paid approximately $7 million in 2020, which covered both the property purchase and the nine-month renovation that followed.
What is James Charles’s house worth now?
As of 2025, the property has not been publicly listed for sale. Based on comparable Encino estates, its estimated value falls between $9 million and $12 million. James Charles’s overall net worth is estimated at approximately $22 million.
Is James Charles still living in his Encino house?
Yes. As of the latest available information, he continues to live in the Encino mansion and uses it as both his primary residence and his professional production base.
How many bedrooms and bathrooms are in the house?
The mansion has six bedrooms and ten bathrooms, spread across three levels totalling 9,800 square feet.
Where can I watch the James Charles house tour?
James released a two-part house tour on his YouTube channel in 2020. Both videos are available by searching “James Charles house tour” on YouTube. They cover the kitchen, master bedroom, master bathroom, formal living room, wine cellar, fitting room, backyard, and the full Sisters Studios basement.
What is the most unique feature of James Charles’s house?
The most talked-about feature is the wine cellar, which is stocked entirely with Coca-Cola instead of wine — James doesn’t drink, so he replaced the traditional bottles with his favourite soft drink. The Sisters Studios basement, a full production headquarters with a studio, theater, salon, and conference room, is another defining element of the property.
