Do-It-Yourself Room Divider Screens

Wood screen dividers provide an inexpensive way to deal with space issues in home decorating.

Folding room dividers solve numerous home-decorating challenges. Use them to finish off a bare corner, hide a storage area, add privacy, make a dramatic statement or divide a larger room into two or more separate areas. Manufactured decorative room dividers are often quite expensive. Creating your own screen dividers is an inexpensive option. Folding room dividers made from wood screen doors and fabrics are light and easy to move.

Things You'll Need

• Screen doors
• Double action hinges
• Fabric
• Binding tape
• Fabric glue
• Screws
• Staple gun
• Acrylic craft paint
• Paintbrush
• Measuring Tape

Instructions

1. Acquire three wooden screen doors of the same height and width. New doors or panels are available at local home improvement stores. Less expensive used doors are found at used furniture stores, garage sales, junkyards and in classified ads. Often these used doors add an appealing rustic look to the design of the folding screen room dividers.

2. Purchase fabric from a local fabric store. Design and color choices of available materials are endless. You need 2 yards of material for each door panel.

3. Pull out the old screening material from the door-frame. Use scissors or wire clippers to cut any rough edges. Paint the doors or panels in a color that complements the fabric design. Another alternative is to stain the wood panels in a wood finish. Allow the paint or stain to dry.

4. Set the doors, front sides facing down, on a clean, flat surface. Using the staple gun, staple the material along one side of the door panel opening, where the screen has been removed. Stretch the fabric across the opening and staple it along the opposite side. Staple the fabric along the top edge of the opening. Stretch the fabric downward and staple the fabric to the bottom edge of the opening. Cut excess fabric from the stapled edges. Cover the edges of the attached fabric with binding tape, using fabric glue.

5. Measure the length of the door panel and divide this figure by three. You are determining the spots to attach the hinges. Fasten the double-action hinges, in each of the two designated areas, on each panel, per the manufacturer's instructions, joining all three panels into one unit. Attach hinges on both sides of the middle panel. You need four hinges, since each double action hinge connects two panels together.

6. Stand the doors upright with the fronts facing out. Bend the doors slightly until they are steady and stable.

Tips & Warnings

• The same principles provided can apply to making your own folding screens from other materials.

References

• Room Dividers Screens: Making Room Dividers, How to Make/Build Folding Screens
• Oriental Furniture: 6ft. Tall Do It Yourself Canvas Room Divider
• Screens Room Dividers: Modern Room Divider with Rolling Door do-it-yourself kit system

Resources

• Oddee: 12 Coolest Room Dividers