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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