I looked into the nana wall and several other options as well --- They are really cool, but in the end, we determined that our house location and set up didn't warrant the expense of these. Now, if we had an awesome view, we might have done this. My recollection of this in terms of pricing for Nana Wall and some of the other brands: I believe it was about $800 a foot for this --- so for a 12' opening, it worked out to about $9600 --- I looked at several manufacturers and the pricing was all in that ballpark. Will your doors open to a patio, a screened porch? This was a concern for us in this decision. We ended up putting a screened porch, so the Nana concept would have been great, because opening the doors wide would still be within the screen.... thus no bugs, etc invading the house. If not, you might want to consider with lights on in the house and the doors wide open, you might get every moth in town visiting! Another consideration is how to stack the panels. In our plan it was working out to be awkward --- and the "stack" would have been in the way. Just make sure that if you go with these, you have that planned carefully... some of them can stack inside a wall, which is pretty neat. Another consideration to think about..... look back at your pictures linked.... the transition from inside to outside.... if you are trying to make a very open space, be careful of that little half step transition.... it looks like a tripping hazard to me. I would want either a full step down, or preferably a level transition there to open up the space. The top picture has a small step, which can be an ankle breaker! Finally, if you are trying to maximize your view through the house straight out the back, maybe consider an odd number of doors so the exact center is glass, not the door frames meeting in the middle (your bottom picture does this glass in the middle way). If you think about your set of 4 doors concept, the dead center part will be about 8" of door frame, vs. glass. If you use 3 or 5 panels, the center view would be glass. This is why in the first few pictures they show the doors open, because it looks way better open than closed. But in the last picture, the view is great regardless. And.... while I think the standard is to have the center 2 panels open on french doors, it makes furniture placement more difficult, so just make sure you've thought about it! Good luck would love to see pics of the view, etc! Rachel

The old-time way of stopping double pocket doors was a flippable toggle screwed into the embedded edge of the doors. If the toggle was out, it would catch the jamb and the door would move no further; for working on the door (and getting a lost item out of the pocket) the toggle would be turned with a thin tool (yardstick, putty knife) and the door would be free. They once sold patented cast iron versions, but a simple wood toggle will do. You can buy complete sets of vintage sliding door locks/pulls on ebay. oy vey! Casey

The closed doors tell the world it is a place that is never used. That would inspire me to re-purpose that room. Great place for a home office. My sister did this and also removed the doors. It was amazing how open and updated just doing that made the entry feel. I would never actually eat in there with the doors closed, and the vision of running children while adults eat..well I see a head or arm going right through that glass. How big is that room? Imagine it full of eating guests...can the doors open easily w/o chairs being sucked in? Pocket doors and actually using the room seem to give you more space, or find a way for the doors to open out into the hall.

I'm going to say none of above (if pocket doors not an option).... I see french doors in new construction offices all the time and all I can attribute it to is "what everyone is doing" because from a practicality issue it makes no sense to me. Most people's offices are for working in and are functional and private and often times, messy! Why would people want that to be "open" to everyone? You certainly don't want your guests to see it and it is even unappealing and even stressful to look at a space covered in piles and clutter. I know everyone's office is not this way but trust me :), most are not the tidiest rooms in the house! Put solid doors that offer noise control and privacy. Also gives you other options if for some reason it needs to serve another function at any time- i.e. guest room.