Some doors just shouldn't be translucent...no matter how much you need light :-)

In some older houses there are often doors with a glass 'window' in the top half of the door. Perhaps you could do the same with privacy glass in the upper half.

If this toilet is hardly ever used, I'm guessing the short hall way is also hardly used, in which case there will be plenty of privacy with a frosted glass door, it's not like the toilet is off a main living area.

Of course it's a great idea. We do it often in our projects. We have a very similar situation to your design with the bathroom and a laundry room off of a hallwayl.........Our clients love it and no one can see in. Make sure that the glass is really obscure when you hold your hand a few cm away you should be able ot see nothing......I am sure that you will love the results.

Simone, yes, it is hardly ever used, particularly now. It used to be the way out to the backyard, via the "mudroom" of the laundry, but since moving in we've replaced all the windows with double-glazing, and a few floor-to-ceilings were replaced with sliding doors, so now we've better access to the backyard at the other end of the house. It's still used, but mostly just coming in from the car/garage-shed. If we have a guest, it's normally just the one, and this would effectively be their area anyway (the main bedroom is at the other end of the house. So, long-story short, thanks. :)

Thanks to Lampert Dias Architects too - I really appreciate your professional vote of confidence and experience. I remember at a previous house one of our glass doors *didn't* have that "few cm away" thing - it was okay where it was, but it made us aware to watch that in future. I was impressed with the good glass when we first got it on our ensuite there.

A good skylight is your best option. It will provide the light you require and it will cost the same as a translucent glazed door or less and give better light.

A friend has a translucent door on her toilet off of the main hall. It is a well-used room and gets traffic past it. It feels a little weird at first but the toilet is far enough away from the door that nothing can be seen. I say go for it if you need all the light you can get :)

Go for clear glass , Cheaper $ , next time your at Bunnings chase up " Translucent " film , comes in a roll and will stick to glass using water ,like hanging wall paper !

Id have to agree with a previous post, a toilet door should not have any glass in it no matter how frosted it is. Especially if it's not in your own private space (eg. parent's wing). If it's mostly used by guests I'm sure they'd rather turn the light on than be concerned about just how private it is.

I did the same for the same reasons but with the toilet picked up an old door with glass just at the top and had new frosted glass cut, amazed at the extra light even that let in.

Thanks everyone for all your comments, suggestions and opinions, it's been a great help. I'm probably going to go with the full frosted door. Opinions against it are taken on board and my insurance against me (or guests) not liking it is that I'm probably now going to put more frosted doors through my house in two stages, so I'll do this plan first and if the toilet door doesn't work out I'll use it on the next stage. As for now, back to the pantry - I tell you something, Mitre 10 kitchens don't have half the DIY-ease of IKEA kitchens (though they're better than the Mitre 10 wardrobes). :)

Thanks for the self-correction, jajlynn. :D

PS. I either want a G&T and a long, reading-my-book soak in that bathtub of yours, or I could just be inspired to give our own main bathroom a bit of an upgrade - ours definitely wants a claw-foot tub. I might have to frost the window in case the electricity-meter-reader walks past. ;)

It's a lovely window, but I can understand why the replacement. And the new colours on the bath look fab.

Our property has an old, rusted cast iron tub upturned on it just inside the houseyard, but I'm going to cut it in half and make two seats for out on the front verandah. The weight will come in handy during the big blows that come through.

Yeah, we did a big IKEA kitchenn when we lived up in Queensland - it was a trial getting the Brisbane store to get stock in, and we had to drive the 3 hour return trip several times. But the assembly was (with the requisite cursing as a pressure valve) relatively easy and very confidence-giving. It's what has inspired us to do more DIY down here - and it's a bit of a necessity at time, when IKEA is an 11 hour return trip. ;) Our little Mitre10 is good, but their flatpack... well the wardrobes nearly killed me in frustration and occasional collapse during assembly. :D

I remember using a toilet that had translucent glass in the door and although you couldn't see through it, I was uncomfortable because you could see the shadows of people passing.

Why not put in a skylight in the hallway?

Nothing wrong with translucent glass to a toilet in my opinion - in fact, I have just done the exact same thing in an almost identical situation in my home.
Carefeul selection of the glass & lighting is the key - I find acid etched glass better then 'milk' glass for shadowing, but have a look at some samples & do the 'distance from glass' test.
With lighting, remember that a silhouette is just a shadow cast on glass - locate the lighting to prevent shadows being cast on the glass, and you eliminate silhouetting (ie. lighting close to glass)
Good luck!

If you're in a cool climate you may not be heating the bedrooms and hallway to the same degree as living areas. Single glazed doors will allow far more heat loss than semi-solid core doors. Glass will also provide less acoustic separation for the bedrooms, and the toilet!

One decent double glazed skylight in the hallway would be my suggestion, you might be surprised by how little they actually cost.

Once again, thanks everyone for your thoughts. The idea of a skylight is definitely on the cards - the glass doors are something that we just like on all the other doors, with the toilet just being the question. Also, a skylight might be a bit beyond our DIY (sky-tube maybe less so?) and trade work down here takes time (I'm not just in Snowy Mountains rural, but then down a country road 25km, plus another 2km of uphill dirt driveway, and the trades don't always show willing) - things we can't do ourselves take time and frustration.

What Maguire Architects says about heat loss is important to us though (thus the double-glazing, storage heaters, etc.), so I've particularly taken that on-board.

As for IKEA (jajlynn, Belinda)...

jajlynn, that kitchen looks fantastic. I love those overhead lights - they really suit the style. Brisbane IKEA did delivery to Sunshine Coast, but the cost was pretty exorbitant, and they wanted to charge that each time more of the ordered stock came in. It got so frustrating having an incomplete kitchen, waiting for stock, we eventually brow-beat them into sending the stuff from a Sydney store (something they were very unwilling to do, even transfers between stores). They sent whole cupboards by Australia Post, slathered in standard stamps - it was weird. But it got done, and it got put together. Before and afters below

Belinda, I'll be honest with you: as much as the IKEA kitchen is better than the Mitre10 kitchen, instruction-wise, you're gonna swear. You're gonna have to paint over the blue when you're done. ;) Just remember, when you're swearing, and probably at each other (assuming there's an other here - otherwise, at yourself and everything else), but it's just a kitchen - you'll get it done, it'll look great, you'll be justly proud and you'll want to do your next one (maybe not straight away though ;) ). That's why we're doing stuff here straight away in the new house - it gave us confidence to do it or learn trying.

Now if you'll all excuse me I've got to get back to swearing at pantry wall cabinets, at my partner, at Mitre10, at the government, at that thing over there whatever it is, and at cursed fate that placed these suddenly-discovered slightly-wonky walls between me and happiness. ;)