Large glass doors will be a major heat leaker... depending on your aspect and the time of the year, leaking heat into the house or out of it. Nothing better than triple block curtains with pelmets (with a top), that go all the way to the floor and extend past the window. Not quite as good thermally but better for adjusting light into the room while maintaining privacy are timber (not plastic) shutters, fitted inside the frame of the window, and again down to the floor... so that the entire window pane is covered when the shutters are closed. The latter would probably best suit your needs, unless your house swings between freezing cold and blisteringly hot.

Who ever is quoting on your windows, get them to run quotes on glass of various thicknesses. We ended up with 11mm glass in our stackers because the price difference between the thinner glass was negligible....we were really surprised.

Hi - we had the same beer bottle glass look in exactly the same layout/space at our front door & also again above it on the 2nd story in our tiny walk in robe. We replaced the beer bottled glass with frosted glass to still allow light and privacy. As for the door - a dark grey colour like monument or ironstone (similar to colour to what's in your brick) might work? Or if you can afford to, consider replacing both the door/window panel to a large timber door to make your entrance stand out :)

If you are having real blackbutt or spotted gum timber floors, which will be a great feature, then I wouldn't go with the imitation wood look plastic windows. The contrast between the real, natural timber floor will accent the fakeness of the imitation timber. You will get a cleaner look by the having the interior and exterior frames the same colour, and with the grey brick/monument cladding I would go with the white window frames inside and out. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls