Paradise Valley — Limewash Primary Bath

The site problem

A 1990s Paradise Valley build with a primary bath that had aged into every cliché of its decade — beige tile floor to ceiling, a corner jetted tub no one used, a glass shower box with a curb you stubbed a toe on in the dark, and a bank of fluorescent light that made mornings worse. Nothing was broken. Everything was tired.

What we did

We stripped it to the studs and rebuilt it as one calm room. The corner tub came out; a deep travertine soaking tub went in under the window, where the morning light actually lands. The shower lost its curb and its box — now it is an open, zero-threshold wet room that shares the travertine floor, so the whole room reads as one surface instead of three. Walls are limewash, hand-troweled, warm and slightly uneven the way plaster should be.

Brass fittings, unlacquered, already a year into their patina and better for it. The old fluorescent panel is gone; the room is lit now in warm layers — a hidden cove, two wall sconces, and the window it was always missing.

She told us she wanted the quietest room in the house. It is now the room she starts every day in, and the one she is slowest to leave.

The specs

Scope	Full gut; corner tub removed; curbless wet room built; window enlarged
Materials	Limewash plaster, travertine floor and tub surround, unlacquered brass fittings
Timeline	9 weeks on site
Cost band	$96,000

Next project — McCormick Ranch, a wall removed for a walnut-and-zellige kitchen.