How to Make a Privacy Screen or Room Divider

Divide the room with a beaded curtain design with birds.

Maintain your privacy while putting your imagination to work as you make a room divider or a privacy screen. A privacy screen blocks out the view into the room from the prying eyes of others, but allows you to see out of the room, while a room divider merely divides a room into sections. A room divider may be floor-to-ceiling or less than that, and can be as creative as your imagination allows. Consider the room divider as a piece of sculptural art that will be viewed from multiple angles as you create it.

Things You'll Need

• Drill
• 2 "S" hooks
• Rod
• Curtain
• 3 shutter doors
• Hinges
• Paint
• Photographs
• Plants
• Beads
• Large vintage window

Instructions

1. Install a rod along the ceiling. First, drill two holes in the ceiling and hang an "S" hook in each hole. Slide a graphic, floor-to-ceiling curtain over the metal tubing of the rod and arrange the material evenly. Place the rod on the "S" hooks. Allow the material to hang to the floor for your privacy screen.

2. Repurpose items from your home. Hinge three shutter closet doors together. Paint the doors to match the room colors. Stick family and vacation photos in the slats of the doors and update the pictures as needed. Unfold the doors to make a privacy screen and room divider when needed, but close them when you want a larger room.

3. Create a room divider of plants. Place large palm and elephant plants into huge containers in the area where you want the screen. Hang bountiful plants with draping leaves, such as ivy and philodendron, from the ceiling. This allows you privacy and keeps the room divided, but allows light into both room sections.

4. Return to the 1970s for a retro room divider. Hang strands of beads from the ceiling to the floor. Pick a beaded curtain with a 1970 design, such as a smiley face or a psychedelic print, or use one with animals between the beads.

5. Hang a large, vintage, stain-glass window from your ceiling.

Tips & Warnings

• Several large plant vases filled with colorful sticks can become a room divider.

• Bookshelves placed side by side in the middle of the room with art objects viewable from both sides can become a room divider.

References

• Web Urbanist: Room Dividers: 15 Free-Standing Walls & Folding Screens
• Everything Simple:Try a Room Screen Divider for Privacy
• Apartment Therapy; Using Plants For Privacy; Anne Reagan; June 2010