The Top DIY Room Divider Ideas for All Styles

Need more privacy in your shared spaces? Here are the top DIY room divider ideas for creating a division in living spaces without remodeling.

Spoak

There are many reasons that we love an open floor plan — they’re great for gatherings and connectivity. However, sometimes we inevitably crave separate spaces. For instance, you may want to avoid your home office in the evening or briefly escape the bustling activity of family life with your favorite bestselling novel.

Our top room divider ideas are user-friendly home improvement projects you can execute in a weekend — without needing to call the city permit office.

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‍Hanging Room Dividers

Suspending a room divider from the ceiling is a smart way to make a barrier with adjustable height and free up floor space, especially in a small space like a studio apartment, but there are other ways to create privacy too.

Vintage Windows

For a physical barrier that allows more light in, use chains to hang a pair of old windows from a beam. Multi-paned windows or anything with stained glass brings interesting geometry and fun colors (if your stained glass includes it).

Window dividers are classic when framed in wood and more industrial in steel casement. Lacquer the wood frames for high gloss sophistication, or leave your cut glass windows slightly distressed for a cottage/farmhouse vibe.

Macrame Curtains

For a little less transparency and a little more boho flair, tap into your crafty side and follow a tutorial for a macrame panel. Macrame is a low-risk experiment — just the cost of rope and your time.

You can make your panel just wide enough to shield your reading nook from the rest of the room. Or, you can go big and stretch it from floor to ceiling in the center of a space to suggest two different areas.

Mid-Century Hanging Dividers

Retro, mobile-style hanging dividers bring in dynamic shapes and are a fun way to create privacy. (Think beaded curtain, but with strips of wood connected by S hooks instead of strings of beads.) The acrylic material is lightweight and comes in mix-and-match patterns that you can tailor to your interior design needs.

To take things up a notch, why not customize your hanging divider? Unexpected and unique decor pieces are the best for personal artistic expression. Order extra of your hardwood flooring and assemble these strips into an entirely custom, handmade room divider. If that’s too matchy-matchy for you, paint wooden boards in a funky, alternating color palette that is all your own.

Room Divider Screen

Screens are the way to go for more privacy and improved airflow in your living areas. The fact that they are moveable and light filtering is a plus in a multi-functional space.

Fabric Art Installation

Fabric screens are having a moment right now because they can double as art installations and be updated on a whim. Hang any style of fabric tapestry, from minimalist to maximalist, from the ceiling, or create an interchangeable PVC frame. Set your frame atop a wheeled base for a movable room separator. When your best friend comes over and says, “That belongs in a Wes Anderson movie,” you’ll know you’ve succeeded.

Nix the art fabric and choose a heavier curtain material for more privacy. Take advantage of the pre-sewn curtain rod sleeve to slide it onto your frame.

Tension Rod

Tension rod screens are another temporary way to designate a space for a different purpose. It’s not a “forever” piece, so have fun with it. You can stretch any material you want between the two floor-to-ceiling rods: frosted acrylic for modernists, velvet for luxe enthusiasts, or bamboo for the bohemian in you.

Folding Screen

Don’t forget the classic folding screen. Pick up a used screen at a thrift store and replace the material with a bold new fabric. Stretch a roll of cane webbing across it for an up-to-date screen that crosses design style barriers.

Wooden Room Divider

Let’s up our craftsman skills and create a more substantial free-standing folding screen with wood. Build a basic frame and attach pallet wood slats to each panel for partial seclusion. Mixed and matched pallet wood tones lend a farmhouse-style feel to the space, while lighter wood works well with Scandinavian and Boho decor.

Love it, but need a twist? Run long dowels or thin wood slats vertically along your homemade frame for a room divider that adds vertical height and works with both Scandinavian and Asian-inspired styles.

Sliding Doors

Most room dividers are used in rooms without doorways, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use doors of some kind in the space. Create a mock-up of your home in Spoak’s design tool to figure out which idea works for you. You have enough on your to-do list without having to scrap a project halfway through, and this will save you time in the end.

Closet Doors

Frosted glass closet doors that run on a track are excellent for allowing light to filter through the room while adding more separation between spaces. You can install a couple as static room dividers or make the track a bit longer so that the partition slides to different sides of the room, depending on your privacy needs.

Barn Doors

Still not sick of barn doors? Go for it! They are an easy privacy fix for an open entryway. If your furnishings aren’t modern farmhouse-inspired, accentuate the industrial look of the track mechanism by pairing it with delicate doors.

Shoji screen doors made of paper pressed between wooden frames are a soothing, light-filtering substitute for heavy barn doors. You can fake the look of paned screens by painting builder-grade track doors a parchment color and using darker trim for the grid overlay.

(Rolling) Door Room Divider

Not into flexing your woodworking muscles? Scour the antique markets for tri-folding closet doors (or concertina shutters). They will extend like a screen and pivot to various angles.

You don’t have to worry about the cat tipping this one over, and it can be folded up against the wall when not in use. If you’re feeling more HGTV, you can center the doors on a wooden board attached to a dolly so it can roll.

How you finish your doors depends on your home decor. Strip them to bare wood for a boho look, distress them for antique/cottagecore essence, or paint them high gloss for a more traditional style. A lacquer in a dramatic color will give it grand-millennial flair.

Free Standing Garden Wall

Why not let your room divider double as a breath of fresh air? Greenery complements any decor type and adds a sense of ever-changing beauty to your space.

Long Planters

Build a green wall by bringing in a long rectangular planter and using rebar or wire trellis to form a cage for fast-growing, vining plants. As the vines grow, so will your sense of seclusion. If you don’t want to bother with trellis support, use tall plants like bamboo.

Patio Planter Trellis

Why don’t you bring in that patio garden screen from your backyard to create an extra living space that reduces stress? Fill the pots with plants that don’t require much natural light, like snake plants or pothos.

Sit back and let the light streaming through the leaves add natural balance to your space — and while you’re sitting, pull out your phone and set a reminder to water your new home furnishings.

Garment Rack Green Wall

Even setting pots on the base of a garment rack with plant vines trained to the top via string produces an industrial-looking garden wall. Garment racks often roll, which makes repositioning your divider easy.

Bookcase Room Divider

Last but not least is the ever-popular bookshelf room divider. You can fill your shelves with books for complete opacity or artfully arrange your shelves with negative space that allows for more connected interiors.

Use adjustable shelves at staggered heights for a visually dynamic room divider. For a more built-in effect, apply wood paneling at least halfway up the back of your bookcase.

Create the Space You Need

With these ideas — ranging from completely DIY to just a touch crafty (for you less homespun types) — it looks like you’ll have weekend plans after all. Spoak’s design community is a great way to source materials and brands for your project. So, are you ready to create the perfect spot for finishing that book?

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^{Photo Credit:}^{(Left) Suburban Pop}

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^Sources:

^{The return of the wall: How the pandemic is transforming home layouts | The Star}

^{Shoji | Japanese architecture | Britannica}

^{Greenery In Your Home Reduces Stress, Improves Health | Forbes}

^{When Do You Need a Permit for Your Remodeling Project? | The Spruce}

^{How to Make DIY Macrame Curtains | The Spruce}

Visualize what these DIY room divider ideas could look like in your space with Spoak’s online design tools.

Date Posted

February 17, 2023

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