26 Creative DIY Room Divider Ideas

Ikea Pax Door Room Divider

Where there is a home decor need, there is an IKEA hack. Jules Yap, founder of the blog Ikea Hackers, offers a solution to create a bedroom space in a studio apartment. She divided the apartment into two parts with a sliding wall made of IKEA Pax wardrobe doors. These doors with frosted glass come large enough to stretch from ceiling to floor and slide effortlessly on tracks.

Ikea Pax Door Room Divider from Ikea Hackers

IKEA Bookshelf Room Divider

Bookcases are popular as room dividers offering separation of space and additional storage. For this Ikea room divider hack, all you have to do is rotate a shelving unit so that it is perpendicular to the wall. Then, secure the unit, so it can't tip. Use solid restraints, such as metal L brackets attached to a wall stud and the top of the unit. Supplement this with screws driven through the side of the unit directly into the same stud.

Ikea Shelving Unit Room Divider Hack from Homedit

Tie-Back Curtains

Divide a bed alcove from the main living space in a studio apartment with affordable tie-back curtains. Keep them open to frame the entrance, or close them for privacy.

Wood Pallet Room Divider

Shocked that a Boston retailer was charging a fortune for a reclaimed wood room divider, Staci and her husband Doug made their own. After sourcing free wood pallets, they quickly put together this divider to separate one big room into an office/bedroom combination.

The divider does double duty as a kind of vertical scrapbook: Finish nails pounded into various spots act as hooks for binder clips to display mementos.

Wood Pallet Room Divider from My Friend Staci

Salvaged Window Room Divider

Emily at the craft blog Jones Design Company spent very little on this gorgeous salvaged antique window sash. After mounting it to the ceiling with a barn door track, she and her family had an instant DIY room divider. As Emily notes, she wanted to define the space yet "keep things bright and open."

Hanging Window Room Divider from Jones Design Company

Simple Jute Rope Room Divider

Morgan Satterfield, who loves remodeling her midcentury modern home near Palm Springs, has a friend who offers upholstery classes in a giant warehouse, and that warehouse was just too big. Adding a divider near the door was the perfect way to soften this cavernous space.

This DIY room divider is simple and budget-friendly, costing between $50 to $100 to make.

Jute Rope Room Divider from The Brick House

Salvaged Lath Room Divider

In traditional construction, lath was nailed to the studs and acted as a base for the wet plaster coating. However, these have been used to create a room divider in a living room.

The family-run collective The Brooklyn Home Company created a unique room divider out of the lath boards from a plaster-and-lath wall. This room divider wall pays homage to the roots of this old Brooklyn, New York duplex. The rough surface of the lath boards is a perfect complement to the smooth, light-colored walls.

Curtain Room Divider

Working with a small living space? Instead of going with a pricey and permanent renovation project, try a simple and more temporary solution: curtains. These are a fantastic option for renters too.

High-Gloss Bifold Doors

Diane at In My Own Style needed a divider between her office and living room. And thrift store bifold doors made the perfect inexpensive DIY solution, costing only $5.00.

She painted them a glossy white to match the rest of her home. Then, she attached them on one side to the wall with hinges and put a handle on the other side to easily pull the doors open and closed. 

High-Gloss Bifold Doors from In My Own Style

Macrame Room Divider

Macrame doesn’t just make great wall art. It also can serve as a room divider with tons of texture. Rachel from A Beautiful Mess made a hanging macrame divider that was roughly 7 feet high to give her desk space some privacy. She even added some little air plants into the holes of the divider for a touch of greenery.

Macrame Room Divider from A Beautiful Mess

Barn Door Room Divider

If you like the farmhouse style, a barn door room divider might be just what your space needs. Many barn door kits should suit most spaces. But Amber from Amber Interior Design made her own barn door room divider, tailored to create a walk-in closet space.

Barn Door Room Divider from Amber Interior Design

Vertical Garden Room Divider

Vertical gardens help to save space and are especially ideal for plant lovers in small homes. A DIY room divider idea you can build comes from Urban Gardens and is super simple to put together. It uses roughly 70-inch tall Ikea plant stands placed next to one another with three plants per stand. These planters are free-standing, so they can be moved around as needed.

Hanging Divider

Nicole from Making It Lovely wanted a bit of separation on her front porch. So she created a visually appealing hanging divider out of painted pieces of hardboard, wooden dowels, s-hooks, and chains. She first mapped out the pattern she wanted for her boards, cut them to size, and then attached them with the hooks. You can easily customize this divider using different colors and shapes for the wood.  

Hanging Divider from Making It Lovely

DIY Tropical Room Divider

If your design style embraces the natural vibe of the tropics, consider reed fencing as a room divider material. This DIY divider idea from Very Irie uses inexpensive fencing trimmed with wood and hung from the ceiling. It’s quick and easy to put together, yet it has a luxurious, spa-like feel. 

DIY Tropical Divider from Very Irie

DIY Geometric Fretwork Screen

If you’re looking for a divider that creates some separation while maintaining airiness in a space, look no further than this DIY fretwork screen from Remodelaholic. Similar screens can sell for hundreds of dollars, but this DIY design uses just a few inexpensive materials—namely wood, hinges, and nails. This project requires careful measurements to get the fretwork just right, but otherwise, it comes together easily.

DIY Geometric Fretwork Screen from Remodelaholic

DIY Multifunctional Room Divider

This DIY room divider from Effortless Style Interiors is perfect for partitioning off an office space. On one side, the freestanding wood trifold divider is padded and upholstered. The other side is painted in chalkboard paint, making it the perfect spot to jot down notes as you work. You can even use the upholstered side as a headboard when you don’t need the divider.

DIY Multifunctional Room Divider from Effortless Style Interiors

Beaded Curtain DIY Room Divider

This room divider idea from Design Love Fest isn’t meant so much for privacy as it is to add some fun and visual separation to a space. It’s a DIY room divider nod to the retro beaded curtains of the 1960s and 1970s. It uses 2-inch styrofoam balls as the “beads” hung on natural cotton cord. You can make as many strands as you like to fit your space. 

Beaded Curtain DIY from Design Love Fest

Hanging Succulent Garden

Consider hanging plants to create separation in a room without taking up any floor space. Succulents are a great option because they stay fairly small, so you can hang lots of little pots to form a room divider. This DIY room divider idea from Skinny LaMinx hangs several potted succulents in a row using macrame plant hangers. It creates designated spaces and visual interest while still maintaining an airy, natural vibe.

Hanging Succulent Garden from Skinny LaMinx

Pony Wall Divider

Building a pony wall is simpler than it looks. We love this option if you're feeling handy. It adds separation without sacrificing light since it doesn't extend to the ceiling.

Metal Bookshelf Room Divider

What could be simpler than using furniture, like a bookshelf, as a natural room divider? Here, Alvin Wayne used a sleek black metal bookshelf with minimalist decor accents to create separation.

Stencil Screen Room Divider

Try crafting a unique hanging divider from painted pieces of plywood or rigid foam board. Map out the patterns, stencil them, paint, and hang them. You can easily customize this divider by using different patterns.

Screen Room Divider

Similar to the hanging window screen divider mentioned above, this option starts on the ground up, so you can move it around if necessary.

Budget-Friendly PVC Room Divider

Design blogger Susan wasn't eager to trash her outdated but fully functional trifold room divider. So she punched out the flimsy pressboard inserts in the divider, retaining the wood frame. Shabby chic and elegant country are her preferred styles, so she purchased chicken wire and stapled it to each of the three sections. After adding curios and photos, she now has a personalized DIY room divider that separates her kitchen from the dining room.

Chicken Wire Divider from Home Road

Coiled Wire Fabric Divider

This room divider looks like fabric—except it isn't. Instead, this coiled wire mesh drapes and hangs just like fabric. Oregon's Cascade Coil made this room divider for a Hyatt Hotel. However, you can purchase metal coil products directly from the company and DIY a custom room divider for your space.

Coiled Wire Fabric Divider from Cascade Coil

Adjustable Fabric Room Divider

Jennifer Eckert of the design blog Fresh Crush dreamed up this fabric-covered room divider idea that's inexpensive and easy to create. The connectors attached to the ceiling allow for easy vertical adjustment. The fabric is stretched over artist canvases, each measuring 30 by 50 inches.

Fabric Screen Rack

There's no need to spend a lot of money on a DIY room divider. For an inexpensive room divider that’s more functional than stylish, you can’t beat this DIY idea from Instructables. It makes a 5-foot-by-5-foot divider out of PVC tubing and canvas for just $25. The divider offers privacy but still doesn’t feel too bulky in a space. And if you want to add some design flair, you always can decorate the canvas. 

Cheap Room Divider from Cheap Office / Instructables