Tell me about it, the ones across the road were going all day and night in the front yard, including revving up a motor bike they're not allowed to ride! my hubby wears flannie shirts when he's not in work gear. He likes ripping them, that's a trend that should end. of course, all Australian flag thongs (flip flops) are made in China!

While the laser cut screens look amazing they are not particularly good for sound proofing, I like the idea of ether a sliding or pocket door if you can cut the area open to the floor otherwise plantation shutters would be easy simple and able to open or shut depending on use of the room, someone else suggested a solar skylight or even a real skylight if you can afford it as the light is then all natural, to me a curtain looks like a cheap solution and I don't like that idea at all, you need a high end look not a short cut look as I think the curtains would give. Hopefully all the ideas here will help you decide what is right for you.

Hi Dr Retro, Thank you. I really appreciate the input and the time you've taken to explanation your point of view. I really do want to get an understanding of where the issues lie in this design. So I hope you'll forgive me digging a little deeper. I don't quite follow why you think the design would require a 6m lintel. Yes, it does require a 6m track, but the track can simply be attached to the wall. The weight of the door need not be supported by the top track. It could be supported from below. The whole point of putting the configuration on the outside of the wall is to minimize the need to make structural changes to the building. There currently is no capacity to install a 6m wide external sliding door/window unit. Likewise I don't follow why the door should be any draftier than any other external sliding doors. The cavity is on the outside of the wall, so draft is not going to get in via the cavity. Other sliding doors of the unit type have the same draft problems this configuration would and solve it by using an overlapping flange at the front end of the fixed door and the back end of the slider. The same could be applied here, where we treat the wall as the fixed door.The point at which the doors engage each other has also be solved for other door configurations. It is just a matter of having a loose tongue and groove configuration. Again this is exactly the same as a unit providing center opening sliding doors. Finally the same sliding mechanisms are used in other sliding door configurations, so I don't see why that should be any draftier here either.

Hey Creativelychallenged - I just stumbled across your question, and your bathroom is probably finished by now. Sorry but Houzz doesn't seem to flag pros if you include their name in your question. But back to your question. Mid-century covers a lot of decades (depending on who you ask) and there are lots of flavours. A really good resource I have set up for mid-century bathroom inspiration is my Pinterest board with a collection of photos of unrenovated mid-century bathrooms. https://www.pinterest.com.au/secretdesign/bathrooms-original-mid-century-modern/ A lot of those bathrooms from the 1950's and 1960's use the classic gloss Johnsons ceramic tile in a stack bond pattern. Mostly in a square tile measuring 152 x 152 mm. Later bathrooms used a rectangular format tile in a stack bond pattern. I don't think I have ever seen a herringbone pattern mosaic used in an original mid-century bathroom on the wall. The tiny patterned mosaic tiles were generally used on the floor, often in a random looking pattern. In the later decades they did use mosaics on bathroom walls, but in a stack bond pattern, never herringbone. Sorry about the delay to your question, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls/Dr Retro Virtual Visits