DIY Room Divider Panels

Make room dividers from old doors.

Room dividers serve as mobile and convenient tools for splitting up large rooms or other spaces. Those with big homes full of large, airy rooms may like them for delineating seating areas or separating recreation spaces from more formal areas. Some may like them simply to divide big bedrooms shared by several siblings or to provide a sound barrier between an open kitchen or laundry room and the living room.
Though commercial room dividers can be quite expensive, you can make your own room divider panels at home. You can even recycle items you already have and personalize them to match your décor.

Things You'll Need

• 3 doors
• 2-way hinges
• Screws
• Electric hand drill
• Measuring tape

Instructions

1. Lay the doors side-by-side on a flat, clean surface. Measure the sides of each door and divide the number by 3, making two marks at intervals matching the resulting number. For instance, if the sides of your doors measure 72 inches, make marks every 24 inches.

2. Line the bottoms of two hinges up with the marks on your left and center doors, making sure that one side of each hinge lies on each door. Screw one side of each hinge down first, then the other. Place each screw in the center of its hole and push down with the hand drill slowly and firmly.

3. Flip the left and center doors over so the hinges from step 2 are under the doors. Slide the right door up next to the current center door (was previously the left door) and screw the hinges into these two doors as you did in step 2. This allows you to fold the screen like an accordion to store it.

4. Stand the doors up, bending the left door back and the right door forward so that your new screen stands up steadily.

Tips & Warnings

• Window treatments or stained glass treatments on door windows offer privacy. You could also attach photos to the door windows.

• If you want to decorate or refinish the doors, do so before attaching the hinges. You can leave them as doors or remove the handles and plug them up, painting the doors or upholstering them with thin foam and fabric.

References

• This Old House: How to Make a Folding Screen
• HGTV: Room Dividers