Go to the nearest wall without a pocket door and place switches as close as possible.
Light switch on wall with pocket door.
Mount the pocket door to the surface of the existing wall then the plumbing won t be an issue.
I installed a motion sensor light switch in my home office due to pocket doors causing the original switch to be at the end of the wall.
The 1x4 on the door frame are running horizontal.
Sometimes it makes more sense to place a light switche outside the door rather than inside.
More about the placement of light and fan switches in one particular bathroom here.
Our switch is in the bathroom on the opposite wall from the one the pocket door slides into.
If you were standing in the bathroom in front of the door you could turn the switch on with your left hand and slide the pocket door open or closed with your right.
In most cases i ve worked out the wiring switch plug locations away from the pocket frame areas.
One downside to the pocket door is that it often leaves little room for anything else in the wall such as plumbing or electrical such as outlets or switches so careful planning is required.
However in two cases the ideal location is in the wall area of the pocket.
More about putting a light switch in a wall with a pocket door here.
Would prefer to not shore out the walls thicker or have an exterior switch box.
You can either use a standard pocket and drywall it in or go with a barn style sliding door and surface mount the hardware to the exterior of the wall and the door stays exposed on the wall.
We have a pocket door between the bathroom and the master bedroom.
You can t cut them to run conduit down from the ceiling.
Not going to work.
The other side of the pocket door is.
We just build the wall a little thicker so that there s room for electrical wiring switches and outlets.
Put a small night light in a plug close by to help with the extra couple of steps to get to the switches when the room is dark.
The bathroom pictured above comes from.
Pocket doors could make it difficult to put a light switch exactly where you want it.
This would be near impossible even in new construction and meet code.
I recently installed 2 pocket door kits together from one room to an adjacent in my house.