13 DIY Room Divider Ideas

A room divider is an indispensable and versatile piece of furniture. It’s often a large and noticeable piece, so it gives you a prime opportunity to express your style. Solid dividers offer more privacy, and open dividers suggest boundaries while continuing to allow light to flow into the separated spaces. From wood panels to hanging tiles and flowing fabric, you’ll find easy DIY room divider ideas and here to make and install.

Tall doors make ideal room dividers. The beauty of making a room divider from doors is that you can make it longer. Hinge two doors or 10 doors together. Add locking casters to the bottom of each door for mobility.

This DIY Bifold Door Room Divider from H2O Bungalow has three matching doors attached. Depending on your decor, consider using unmatched door styles, each a different color for an eclectic look. Here, chalk paint bypasses the challenge of painting bifold doors and the paint’s intentional uneven finish helps hide an imperfect paint job in those tough to reach places.

Big and bulky barn doors might overwhelm a room, but not this slimmed-down version. This DIY Sliding Barn Door from Pretty Providence is large enough to divide a space without distracting the eye. Sturdy and inexpensive cedar fence slats make the door’s façade. It easily slides on a barn door track. Besides simple slats, the key to this unobtrusive, yet large, sliding room divider is the molding that hides the track’s top and bottom mechanisms. If you prefer an authentic barn door, you may find that you need to add casters to stabilize the door as it slides back and forth from the top track.

Even a room divider can become a lasting piece of furniture. Craft a durable wood room divider for indoors and outdoors using factory-made lattice panels from a home improvement store. Then fit the panels within a frame and connect them. This Outdoor Privacy Screen from This Old House has three panels, but you can add another one for length. Though heavy enough to stand on its own when folded a bit, anchor it with spikes outdoors and add L-shaped brackets indoors on both sides of the divider (a total of four brackets on each panel) to better balance the load. If preferred, make the braces out of wood, stained to match the panels.

Room dividers don’t always have to block light. This DIY room partition idea from Ikea Hackers diffuses light from a nearby window while separating the sleeping and living areas of a rental studio. To replicate DIY room divider ideas involving slats, it’s recommended to hang a twin Ikea Luröy slatted bed base from the ceiling joists with screws. Or create your own slat wall panel room divider by buying pre-built panels from a home improvement store, then finish it off with trim and hang it from the ceiling. Add short metal legs or levelers for stability. 

If you prefer softer and possibly quicker DIY room divider ideas that go from floor to ceiling, hang a wall of drapery fabric. The trick is in the ceiling track kit that holds the fabric and allows it to glide smoothly back and forth. This soft wall from Room Dividers Now separates a sleeping area from other zones in a home or apartment. This solution works for separating spaces in a shared kids’ room as well. Measure twice before buying drapery panels for your wall. For example, if you hang draperies from an 8-foot wall, you’ll likely need a length of between 91 inches and 96 inches (which may pool a bit).

When you need a small DIY room divider idea that truly hides a necessary but menacing space, a curtain comes to the rescue once again. That’s the case with this gathered curtain panel from Dans le Lakehouse. A ceiling-mounted drapery track will make or break a project like this. Happily, the homeowner is able to simply nudge the curtain out of the way with her elbow when her hands are full. The high-quality ceiling track is designed to help the fabric glide out of the way.

A folding screen made with taut fabric on electrical conduit (piping) fits in perfectly in contemporary or vintage interiors. This six-panel option from Homemade Modern is one of our favorite DIY room divider ideas. Fabric is stretched over an electrical conduit frame. Old curtains, old sheets, or about eight to 10 yards of 45-inch or 46-inch wide muslin or another inexpensive fabric work well to make all six panels.

If you want your room divider to bring a bit of magic to your interiors, make this twinkling folding screen from Instructables using real branches. It’s a DIY room divider idea with a lighting component. After creating the frames, you’ll attach branches to some little wires. Wrap wires with twinkling white lights, plug in, and enjoy the romantic atmosphere.

It’s worth having the patience for this DIY room divider idea for indoors or outdoors. Made entirely from PVC pipe, this privacy screen from Mother Daughter Projects looks like a piece of modern art. All you need is plenty of PVC and power tools, plus abundant construction adhesive to build this bubbly room divider.

When in need, make an inexpensive shoji screen as a room divider using cardboard and plain translucent paper. This solution from Instructables is an elegant way to use ordinary material. Once done, place a light behind the screen to illuminate the artistry. Though homemade room dividers like this one are a temporary fix, it works well for dorms, playrooms, and kids' rooms without worries about damaging the divider. 

The right piece of furniture in the right spot can effortlessly create a room divider. Tall bookcases and desks with hutches make the ideal room divider. With tall bookcases that jut out perpendicularly from the wall to create the division, fill the shelves in with plants and opaque objects for a sense of privacy. This room divider from Ikea Hackers integrates three units of an Ikea bookcase to create a tall floor-to-ceiling workstation with a desk. It’s attached to the wall for stability.

Stacked crates may feel like dorm living but designing a wall of crates elevates the look. This DIY crate room divider idea comes from The Girl Refined as an affordable and quick solution to studio apartment living. The natural crates look lovely in an all-white interior. Buy crates online or at a craft store, then glue or nail them together in your one-of-a-kind design.

S-hooks are the unsung heroes of DIY projects. For example, S-hooks connect lightweight tile elements together to create this modular room divider by Home Art Stickers on Etsy. Or, install a wire grid, a piece of lattice, or pegboard from ceiling to floor as a room divider. Then use S-hooks to suspend items off the grid for privacy. Hang planters, tools, clothing, or artwork on either or both sides.