Oprah Winfrey's house didn't feel like a home, which is why the TV titan has enlisted designer Rose Tarlow to give her 23,000-square-foot, $85 million mansion a facelift.
The property — located in Montecito, Calif. — has been featured numerous times on Winfrey's various television shows. "I knew my house was impressive," the 59-year-old writes in the March issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. "I mean, just about every guest I ever invited for dinner told me so as they perched on the edge of the opulent sofa, trying not to get fingerprints on anything. I owned a stately home and I poured my heart and soul into making it perfect."
Over time, Winfrey realized the decor didn't suit her lifestyle. "The gilded mirrors, marble urns, the lavish carpets and sherbet palette — it was all very grand, but it wasn't very true to myself," the media mogul explains. "And there you have it: the thing that had been missing from all of the beautiful places I'd ever lived in was me!"
Winfrey shared nine "before" pictures with her eponymous magazine and hopes to have renovations completed within three months. "Maya Angelou once told me you can become either an old female or a wise woman," she says of her famous friend, a celebrated poet. "All I can tell you is that I'm evolving, my taste is, too, and someday soon this room will represent the person I've become."
To see inside Winfrey's palatial home, check out the gallery now.
