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The first thing you notice at the Ziggurat House in East Nashville isn’t the square footage, or lack thereof. It’s the tile.
In the Ziggurat House, pattern isn’t an accent. It’s part of the architecture. It climbs the walls of a bathroom in a precise, geometric flow. Tile frames a courtyard in saturated greens and terracottas. It wraps areas of the 1930s Spanish bungalow in hand-painted visuals that feel intentional, artistic, Southwestern, and not at all East Nashville.
Moving outside, the home’s colorful, eclectic design stands out in Little Hollywood. It recently sold for $2.9 million, roughly $1,184 per square foot, resetting expectations for what buyers will pay for a design-forward home in East Nashville. Broker Robert Drimmer, also known as Mr. East Nashville, said the price is about double the previous local record per square foot.
But the number isn’t the whole story. It’s buoyed by experience.
“I knew when I walked into the property,” Drimmer says. “It feels more like a boutique hotel, and it’s very private the way they situated the courtyard with the plunge pool, fountains, adobe fireplaces, and grill area. It was genuinely unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
That intentionality shows in the main bathroom. A wall of hand-tattooed tile anchors the room with its repeated pattern. An ornate, sculptural mirror turns the vanity into a focal point. Opposite, smooth poured-concrete walls meet glossy white tile and a freestanding copper-toned tub, creating a layered contrast. Drimmer calls it “beautiful and utilitarian.”
“If people are spending big money, they want something unique and special and rare.”
“I was just building my dream house,” says former owner and designer Lyon Porter. “I kind of look at all my design projects as art, and this is an album.”
This sense of contrast carries through the rest of the house, unifying the overall design. The bathroom and courtyard set expectations for abundant color and texture, but the kitchen pulls back. Light, restrained, and almost Mediterranean in feel, it trades saturation for simplicity. White tile, open shelving, and warm metals define the space.
The room still holds its own moment. Crystal quartz countertops glow from within, lit from beneath.
“They wanted to keep it light, bright, airy,” Drimmer says.
The kitchen’s subtlety almost acts as a palate cleanser. Moving forward, the house opens again into a world rich with Southwestern color and texture.
Glass walls and pocket doors separate the interior from a courtyard that feels more like a destination than a backyard. A tiled mermaid mural rises from a wall of saturated green tile above a fountain-style plunge pool finished in red and gold tones. Patterned tile extends underfoot. Adobe-style fireplaces anchor the space, mirrored inside and out.
“The tile was always the central focal point, as was the courtyard,” Porter says. “Every corridor of the house was meant to look at it, to create that kind of oasis in the middle.”
Throughout, the house doesn’t just face the courtyard. It lives in it. Sliding glass walls create uninterrupted sightlines, so the courtyard becomes the view from the primary bedroom.
At night, the experience shifts. Landscape lighting traces the tile, the pool glows, and the colors deepen.
“It’s spectacular day and night,” Drimmer says.
The home began as a 1,200-square-foot bungalow that ultimately fell or was taken down, then rebuilt and expanded into a four-bedroom residence centered on the courtyard, the move that redefined how the house is experienced.
Porter worked closely with Lindsay Sheets, founder of Red Rock Tileworks, and Jamie Pfeffer of Pfeffer Torode Architecture. He says the team “went down the rabbit hole” together to bring the vision to life.
They approached the project as a composition, layering material, light, and layout to create immersion.
The tile, all custom and hand-crafted, became the connective thread.
“When the installers saw the plans, they thought they were crazy,” Drimmer says. “The level of layers of tile and color was so intricate.”
But that risk is what made it work.
“This is anything but safe,” Porter says. “But it felt really good to see people respond to the art, that it wasn’t like everything else.”
The home went under contract in less than 48 hours and never hit the Multiple Listing Service. It drew interest from across the country, including high-profile buyers in the music and film industries. Ultimately, it was sold to a world-renowned musician who connected with the property instantly.
“It was so obvious when she walked in,” Drimmer says. “This was the property for her.”
That reaction, immediate and instinctive, is what sets the house apart. In a market dominated by neutral palettes, the Ziggurat House stands out by doing the opposite. It’s specific, opinionated, and unapologetically bold.
“You were getting these individuals that, whether they lived in California or Arizona or New York, some pretty high-end markets, and they’re craving some of this architecture,” Drimmer says. “It was brought to East Nashville. And I think that’s what makes it so special.
“If people are spending big money, they want something unique and special and rare.”
In other words, they want a point of view.
The Ziggurat House delivers one in every room through contrast, color, and materials that blur the line between function and art. It doesn’t rely on size or predictable luxury finishes to define its value. It relies on identity.
The takeaway isn’t just that a house sold for nearly $3 million in East Nashville. Drimmer laughs that agents shouldn’t use it as a comp for similarly sized homes. The takeaway is that the market rewarded a home that refused to play it safe and set a new standard in the process.