If you have a room you want to divide, there’s an incredibly simple, inexpensive way to do it. You make a room divider curtain. It doesn’t involve any drilling, any holes in any walls, any carpentry or even much work on your part. And you can get creative with it.
The Room Divider Curtain
You’ll need:
- A shower curtain tension rod. You can buy rods with beautiful decorative finishes and end pieces. Or you get a cheap white one and paint it funky.
- A tab top style curtain, or a sheet with some curtain clips that go around the rod and clip the sheet into place. You can use any sheet or curtain you want.
Irregular sheets can be found at outlet stores for just a few bucks. You can often make a used sheet work. Even if it’s not in great shape, can you use fabric paint to disguise that? Maybe add a pattern?
You could also make or buy beaded curtains for this project.
All you have to do is mount this curtain on the wall where you want the divider. You do this the same way as you’d mount it in the shower.
- String your curtain or curtain clips along the rod.
- Follow the directions on your curtain rod to mount it to the wall.
- If you used curtain clips, now’s the time to clip your sheet or curtain to them.
If it’s not wide enough
You can buy curtain rods up to around 12 feet wide. That’s plenty to divide most rooms. But what if you’ve got a huge room? Look for a bookshelf or similar piece of furniture to fill the gap.
Does it work?
I’ve used this trick in two different apartments. In the first apartment, all the heat in the living room tended to get sucked down the hallway through an open doorway.
Putting up this curtain in that open doorway blocked a shocking amount of heat and kept it in the living room. Seriously, I was stunned how well it worked.
In the next apartment (pictured below), I used it to transform a weird alcove/vanity thing into a “closet” where I could stuff some belongings out of the way:
This makeshift door would also be a great way to close off an open pantry or open laundry room – it even dampens the sound from the washing machine and dryer a little bit (yes, I’ve got one of those, and I’ve tried it).
Basically, this trick will work in any room or doorway that’s less than twelve feet wide (or see the above trick to extend it even more). A few things you could use it for:
- Make a “closet” out of any weird alcove or architectural niche that could be used as storage. A second tension rod behind the first would make it into an actual clothes closet – just hang your clothes from the tension rod.
- Block an entry foyer for privacy so random people who come to your front door don’t get a good look at your whole home in all its glorious mess.
- Block off a hallway so visitors in the living room don’t get a glimpse into messy bedrooms or workrooms.
- Close off an open breakfast bar in a kitchen.
- Close off an open doorway that leads into a kitchen, if you want some privacy between the kitchen and adjoining room.
