A camera sits in the mid-century modern living room used in Transparent. Photo via Zillow.

Sometimes, the location in a story is described as a character unto itself, helping to guide the narrative just as much as any other character. That’s the case with the family home in Transparent, the Amazon original series that won Emmys and Golden Globes in its inaugural season.

The house is a meeting place for the family, fought over by the siblings and a reminder of how things used to be. But just like Maura is Jeffrey Tambor when not on camera, the house is also just a regular house. Seattle-based real-estate site Zillow recently got the backstory on how Hollywood talent scouts found the house and what drew them to it.

The show doesn't spend a lot of time in this vintage kitchen. Photo via Zillow
The show doesn’t spend a lot of time in this vintage kitchen. Photo via Zillow.

They had to find a house that wasn’t too new, since the family grew up there, but also had a film-friendly layout that could handle big cameras and a full crew. They settled on this mid-century modern home thanks to its great bones.

“Something about the plan of that house is so beautiful, almost like a piece of art. From every angle, it’s spectacular,” production designer Cat Smith told Zillow.

While the pilot was shot in the house and the film crew returns to it for some exterior and pool-side shots, most interior scenes take place on a replica set modeled after the original home. That also allows them to keep set pieces in tact over months of shooting, while also updating elements that the homeowner may not want altered just for a TV shoot.

Head over to Zillow’s blog for more pictures showing the layout of the house and some beautiful rooms you don’t see in the show.

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