Using Room dividers is an excellent way to decorate your home while also creating functional living spaces.
Permanent Dividers
Permanent dividers make sense if you can commit yourself to a fixed room arrangement for the foreseeable future. Low walls are relatively simple to construct and you can finish and decorate them to match the rest of the room. Alternatively, you can fit one side of the divider with built-in shelving or cupboard space to provide additional storage. Counters to screen the cooking and preparation areas of a kitchen may need to be slightly higher to provide effective concealment.
Half-width, as opposed to half-height, partitioning is also a possibility. In a bedroom, a narrow partition at right angles to the wall can separate a bed from a study alcove. On the study side, you can add shelves for books and files.
Display shelves make effective dividers when you want to make a visual distinction between areas but don’t necessarily want to block views. Sturdy storage units, open on both sides, are good for separating living from dining areas and provide extra storage space for books and knickknacks. Bear in mind that units must be sturdy enough to withstand being toppled over if you accidentally knock into them. Alternatively, you can construct an open wall of shelving that is fixed securely to both the floor and ceiling.
Improvised Dividers
One of the simplest ways of dividing space is to position a dominant piece of freestanding furniture, such as a sofa, cabinet, sideboard, or chest, strategically across a room. If you place a table or console behind a sofa that has its back to a portion of the room, the effect will look more considered.
Plants make good improvised dividers, too. You can mass together groups of large plants, such as croton, coffee plant, schefflera, or podocarpus, or use a freestanding weeping fig tree or palm to divide the area. Plants trained on wooden trellises, stakes, or canes, such as philodendron, creeping fig, or grape ivy, grow over time to create a wall of green between two areas.
For a subtler effect, construct a trellis by running lengths of string or wire from the plant pots or floor to the ceiling and train the plants to grow up the framework.
Hanging baskets can also be used to divide the space. Suspend two or three from strong ceiling hooks. House plants such as hoyas, Swedish and grape ivies, and spider plants make good hanging displays and are easy to look after.
Flexible Dividers
In some circumstances, permanent dividers are too restrictive. If you want to retain the option of changing the focus of the room at a moment’s notice, movable dividers make better sense. Display units on castors provide one solution; standing screens are equally versatile.
Folding screens can offer just enough privacy for a reading corner or dressing area, without committing you to a fixed arrangement. The advantage of screens, aside from their flexibility, is that you can buy them or decorate them yourself to suit the character of the room.
Choose Japanese-style screens paneled in opaque paper and framed in black wood molding for a contemporary setting; fabric-covered screens – either upholstered or with tied or ruched-on fabric panels – for a countrified look; or cover a plain screen with a collage of decoupage images to create a Victorian-style accessory.
Sliding panels or folding screens that retract into a door or window jamb or special housing or open accordian-style flat against the wall allow you to partition a room in an instant. This solution makes good sense for children’s shared rooms, for example, where you may wish to provide a degree of privacy for each child at night, without sacrificing the use of the entire space during the day.
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Kathy Burns-Millyard.
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