How to Make a Folding Screen

If you have always wanted a folding screen/room divider, but thought they cost too must,or were too hard to make, here is an inexpensive alternative. A room divider can be made as simple or as ornate as your imagination can take you.

Things You'll Need

• 3 old screen doors
• material
• staples
• cording
• piano hinge
• glue gun
• staple gun

Instructions

1. 

   Go to yard/garage sales, thrift stores, or salvage yards looking for either old screen doors or old doors that have two windows, top and bottom in them, or even just one long window. You are going to need 3, and they have to be wood. After you find the first one, the following 2, need to be the same or near to the same height. If they are close, you can trim off the excess with a saw, or have someone do it for you. These will be the basis for your room divider/folding screen.

2. 

   When you have collected all three; clean, sand, paint, and/or refinish in your choice of colors. It doesn't matter if all doors match as to the size of the openings they have. This will just add to the interest.
   Measure the opening and cut your material, adding 4" to the length, and 3 or 4 times the width of the opening, depending upon how much fullness you want.
   Turn up 2" at the top and bottom and make a hem.
   Attach to the opening with a staple gun, hopefully you have an electric one. They make the job a lot easier. Scrunch the material up as you go along to make it pleat and fold.

3. When completed with all openings on all doors/screens, attach the ribbing you have chose with a glue gun to cover the staples.
   Attach the piano hinge, centering an equal amount from the top and bottom of each door, and attach with screws, making the side that you attached the material, the back side, so you won't have the cording show on one and not the other two.

4. 

   There are several ways you could embellish your doors. You could use lace material, silk material, damask, cotton, etc.
   You could criss-cross ribbons to make a place to slip in photos.
   You could add decorative wood molding to make them more elegant.
   Instead of cording, you could use binding or rope or lace, depending on the look you are trying to achieve.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have a sewing machine, you could sew a basting stitch for your hem and pull the thread to scrunch the material to the width of the opening. I love that word, scrunch.

• If you place the screen in a corner, place an uplight behind it for a dramatic effect, and make some kind of montage in front of it, such as a southwestern motif, or oriental, etc. Drape a scarf over a corner.

• These also make a nice room divider. Place something on both sides, so there is no chance of the screen being knocked over.

Resources

• How to Make a Beaded Door Curtain
• How To Hange a Door Mirror
• How to Make a Seating Bench
• How to Build a Tree Bench