Imagine leasing your house to a music legend and coming back to find he’s painted the entire thing purple. The walls. The trim. Even a massive purple rug you can’t miss from the driveway.
That’s not a hypothetical. That’s exactly what happened to NBA star Carlos Boozer.
His Bel Air mansion at 1235 Sierra Alta Way was already a stunning piece of real estate. Ten bedrooms. A ballroom. Sweeping views of the city and the ocean. But none of those features are why people still talk about this house today. They talk about what Prince did to it. The purple paint. The indoor disco. The hair salon. And, of course, the lawsuit that followed.
Here’s the full story behind the Carlos Boozer house—the Bel Air mansion Prince famously turned purple.
How Carlos Boozer Ended Up in Bel Air
2004 was a big year for Carlos Boozer. He’d just signed with the Utah Jazz and had the kind of contract that opens doors in LA’s most exclusive neighborhoods. So he did what a lot of newly-minted NBA stars do—he bought a mansion.
The property he chose sat on Sierra Alta Way, tucked into the hills with those postcard-worthy views Bel Air is known for. It was built in 1953 as an English Tudor, but by the time Boozer got the keys, it had been updated into a sprawling luxury estate. Ten bedrooms. A grand ballroom. A fully equipped weight room (because, you know, NBA player). Beautiful furnishings throughout.
He paid $12.4 million. Not pocket change, but for Bel Air? Fairly reasonable, especially for the size.
What Boozer didn’t know yet was that his house was about to become one of the strangest chapters in LA celebrity real estate history.
Prince Turned Purple: The Transformation Nobody Expected
What Prince did to that mansion was less of a redecoration and more of an artistic occupation. He didn’t just move in. He imprinted himself onto every surface.
Inside, It Got Even Wilder
Step through the front door, and you’d find yourself in Prince’s world. Lush purple carpet stretches through hallways and rooms. Black-and-purple stripes on walls. A massive purple rug anchors the main living space. The interior color palette was essentially “purple, with more purple.”
But the color was just the start.
From Weight Room to Disco
This is my favorite detail in the whole story. Carlos Boozer had a dedicated weight room—completely logical for an NBA power forward who needed to stay in game shape. Prince looked at that room and thought, “You know what this space really needs? A dance floor and a DJ booth.”
So that’s what he did. He ripped out the gym equipment and built a full-on disco. Mirrors, lights, and a proper booth for a DJ to spin records. Can you imagine? The room designed for bench presses and squats suddenly became the spot for late-night dance parties.
If that doesn’t sum up the difference between an NBA star and a music icon, I don’t know what does.
The Rest of the 10 Bedrooms
Before the purple invasion, those 10 bedrooms were decked out with high-end furnishings and big windows framing those Bel Air views. After Prince moved in, several of them got the purple treatment too—either through paint, carpet, or that signature black-and-purple striping.
The $30 Million Price Tag: Was It Worth It?
After Prince’s lease ended and the house was returned (we’ll get to that mess in a second), the property hit the market with a staggering $30 million asking price.
Let’s put that in perspective.
The Legal Drama: When Boozer Threatened to Sue
Okay, here’s where the story gets messy.
Prince’s transformation of the mansion wasn’t exactly approved by the landlord. When Carlos Boozer found out what had happened to his $12.4 million investment, he was not thrilled. Shocking, right?
Boozer threatened to sue.
The specifics of the lease agreement aren’t fully public, but it’s safe to say most rental contracts don’t include a clause allowing tenants to repaint the entire exterior purple and convert the gym into a nightclub.
What happened next? Prince, facing legal pressure, agreed to restore everything to its original condition. The purple paint came down, revealing a disco dance floor underneath. The disco was dismantled. The hair salon? Gone. By the time the dust settled, the mansion looked much like it did before Prince ever set foot inside.
But here’s the thing—you can’t erase a story like that. Even with every trace of purple removed, 1235 Sierra Alta Way will forever be known as the Carlos Boozer house that Prince turned purple.
The Legacy of the Purple Mansion
Prince passed away in 2016, but the stories from his time in Bel Air live on. The mansion itself has faded back into relative normalcy—its purple chapter physically erased, but permanently etched into LA real estate lore.
Any future owner of 1235 Sierra Alta Way inherits more than just 10 bedrooms and a ballroom. They get a dinner party story that nobody can top. “Did you know Prince once painted this whole house purple?” is a significantly better conversation starter than “Check out these crown moldings.”
For Carlos Boozer, the experience was probably stressful and expensive. But looking back, he got something money can’t buy—a permanent footnote in pop culture history. How many retired NBA players can say their house was the canvas for Prince’s artistic vision?
Not many properties can boast a rooftop tennis court and a disco dance floor. Exactly one, in fact.
Would You Live in a Former Purple Palace?
Here’s my question to you.
If you had the money and the mansion hit the market tomorrow—restored to its original glory but forever carrying that purple history—would you buy it?
Knowing that Prince once danced where your living room now sits. Knowing the weight room used to be a disco. Knowing that somewhere beneath the fresh paint, traces of purple might still linger.
I think I would. But I’d also keep one accent wall purple. Just because.
For more wild celebrity real estate stories, check out our deep dives on other iconic LA homes that made headlines for all the wrong (and right) reasons.
