Ah, so your new bench would come from out from wall like the existing one? How about doing something like this (see pic) but using a normal mirror as the back piece. It would reflect the floors and make the island (or return bench?) appear more open then it actually is. I'm not sure if a smoke mirror has been used here or just a high gloss panel. I would actually allow for more storage anyway, even if you don't envision you'll use it at this point. As they say, "you can never have enough storage".

We have the same layout as you in our 90s spec built home. We have Bunnings type cavity sliders so I imagine ours are about as cheap as you can get. They are awful - they are noisy when they slide so if one of us gets up in the night for the bathroom, we have to open the door in slow motion so as not to wake the other one up! We have them on our other wet rooms through the house and I find them not too bad acoustically but they don't screen anything in the ensuite. I would not recommend them at all. As for whether to have 1 or 2 doors, the only time I close the WIR door is when I am at my wits end haha! It's a great space for a private phone conversation but I really couldn't be bothered closing the door any other time

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Hello @User Many thanks for your comments and feedback. I'm pleased to report that our clients were delighted with our work on this project. They were so happy that we nailed their brief and gave them the home that they were dreaming of! Now then Pottsy, had you been the client and you had your heart set on keeping that clunky, old fashioned curved vanity, we would certainly have left it there for you to enjoy - we don't like to "pee anyone off". Our actual clients thought it was old fashioned and a frankly, a little bit ugly. We agreed, so...out she came. I note your comments regarding the before photos, but I'm not sure which ones you were looking at. The ones we included here all have full daylight and no curtains or blinds, you'd surely understand why we don't use professional photography for the before pictures - no client is ever going to pay for that! We just use whatever pictures we can gather from our initial site visit or the Real Estate marketing shots. You might be interested to learn that none of the new joinery is white, so maybe adjust the brightness of your screen when reviewing images online. Anyway, thanks so much for sharing your insight, I'm sure you've got many years of experience up your sleeve. Have a great day and best of luck with future projects!