I am extremely biased when it comes to my former stomping ground of Pasadena, where I lived for close to 15 years. Though I’ve heard on more than one occasion from L.A. denizens that the city is too suburban and too far removed from the hustle and bustle of urban life, I think it is one of the best places in the world and miss it so much at times it almost breaks my heart. So whenever I hear of a movie or TV show that has done some filming in Crown City, I get a wee bit obsessed with tracking down the exact location or locations used – well, more obsessed than I usually do when it comes to locales. Such was the case with the bungalow where Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) and her son, Ziggy (Iain Armitage), live on the HBO miniseries Big Little Lies, which ends its run next week (oh, say it ain’t so!). I learned the home could be found in Pasadena via this recent Travel + Leisure article and immediately started trying to track it down.
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Though the exterior of Jane’s rental wasn’t featured very much in the first two episodes of Big Little Lies, thankfully, in the third, titled “Living the Dream,” a good view of the property and the street it is located on was shown. While watching, I noticed that Jane’s street not only abutted a one-way road, but also that it formed a “T” with another street two blocks away. Because of my familiarity with the city, I knew straight away that the residence had to be situated somewhere just north of Union Street in East Pasadena. Armed with that knowledge, I began searching aerial views of the area and found Jane’s house within minutes at 161 North Chester Avenue.
In person, Jane’s red and brown bungalow looks exactly as it does onscreen in Big Little Lies.
The only notable difference is the lack of a front yard light post in real life.
Outside of that, nothing was changed for the production. The place so resembles its onscreen self that, while there, I half expected Jane to coming walking outside in full running gear!
I mean, even the skewed address placard remains unaltered!
According to a recent Vulture article, only the exterior of the pad was utilized in Big Little Lies. For interior scenes, a set partially modeled upon the home was built because, as location manager Gregory Alpert stated, the property’s real interior “looked better on film than it actually was.”
The Vulture article also mentions that the residence landed its onscreen role thanks partially to “the canopy of trees on the street.” As you can see in the images below, as well as the other images in this post, the trees situated outside of the house and nearby are absolutely magical.
Per Zillow, the 1917 bungalow boasts 1,075 square feet of living space (though Redfin measures it at 928 square feet), 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, a fireplace, a garden, a 0.17-acre lot, a detached 1-car garage, and a large front porch.
The front porch has been utilized several times on Big Little Lies.
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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Jane’s house from Big Little Lies is located at 161 North Chester Avenue in Pasadena.
