DIY Room Divider Upgrade
DIY Room Divider Hides the Ugly Stuff
The downstairs needs a screen to hide the stack of projects waiting to be done, its such a mess. It took convincing but Hubs tagged along to some garage sales. We found a very dirty and smoke covered room divider. A privacy screen was on my hope to find list and the $10 was much less than the cost of making one from lumber.
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The Before
The divider was still solid but very dirty, the hinges and outside frame were fine.
First thing was to remove the dirty covering. It was really fibrous stuff that had been glued on to the entire back of the screen panels. The fabric came off in bits. Once that was removed the whole divider was sanded to remove the last of the fibers and the glue residue. Finally the divider was then washed off really well in preparation for painting.
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Refinishing the Room Divider
This DIY room divider is for my craft room, so I chose pink for the casing, and white for the cross pieces. Paint the divider frame with three three coats of chalk paint. Make sure that each coat of paint is dry before adding the next. This room divider was espresso and then painted white, depending on the colours you choose, yours may be fine with two coats.
Alternatively you could refinish the divider with spray paint. Unfortunately for me its very cold and I had to paint indoors. Painting the three coats with a brush took a day allowing for plenty of time for drying between coats.
Creating the Panels
As my blog is named Of Faeries and Fauna and the screen is in my office, I added two fairies and sunflowers to add whims and fun. This idea works very well for a craft room or a little girls room. You can use the same method with any pattern or figure that you like. Comic book characters, Disney princesses, art from colouring books. children’s favorite animals. Funny sayings like move at your own risk, junk this way, shhh genius at work would also work..
The figures are not drawn, I took pictures to Staples and had them enlarged to size. Then using rolls of craft paper I traced the outline lightly.
Tracing the outline gives you the proportions you need and takes away the need to be an artist. Doing it this way provides the outside proportions and all you need to do is colour in the sections and contours. These ones were done with water colour crayons, but pencil crayons work the same.
Once drawn attach the paper to the room divider using double sided tape around the outside edges and some of the cross pieces.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I am thrilled with how it turned out. Its pretty and whimsical, its related to the blog and much nicer than a pile of projects sitting in the corner of my craft room.
Close up of Left Screen Panel
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Closeup of Right Screen Panel
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Dual Purpose DIY Room Divider
Although I love the artwork side I thought the divider could serve a second purpose as a photo backdrop.
We took three small lightweight curtain rods and installed them on the top of the divider. I then made some very light curtains out of Ikea lace panels. The rods and panels need to be light so that the room divider isn’t too top heavy. The white lace works well for some of my photographs but I am hopeful I can pin other backdrops to it.
Please comment below and let you know your thoughts. What other ideas you could come up with panels? I would love to hear from you.
DIY Room Dividers shown are fantastic. One can easily have one customized as needed. These can be used as Privacy Screens or a replacement for brick walls. we also have a range of designs available that can be shipped anywhere in the world. have a look: Aarsun Wooden Room Dividers. 🙂
Beautiful room divider/screen. Your artwork is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing at Vintage Charm.
I have always wanted a room divider! So cool that you found one at a yard sale. I do love a bargain. I think it is perfect.
🙂 gwingal
Leanna, You did such a beautiful job on your room divider! Your drawings are lovely! Great job!
A wonderful makeover! I love how you tied in the theme with your brand, and I adore the hand drawn look it adds such a nice touch of whimsy to the space! Thanks for sharing your project at #FridaysFurnitureFix Leanna.
The room divider looks amazing. I have always liked the idea of a room divider but I have not gone there yet. Good inspiration.
Kathleen
Blogger’s Pit Stop
Hi Kathleen. A room divider takes up lots of room but it certainly adds decor or in this case purpose.
Thank you for commenting.
That’s so beautiful! I love the idea of getting large prints at Staples and tracing them!
Hi Cassie: To me it takes real artwork and turns it into a craft project that I am able to do. Thank you very much for the positive feedback.
This turned out beautiful! I love how you drew the artwork and how perfectly is matches your blog’s theme. The colors are stunning too! Great work and what a bargain as well.
Hi Carolann. Thank you, the blog theme was my inspiration. I appreciate you taking the time to comment and provide feedback. It took awhile to draw out but it wasn’t hard to do.
You did a fantastic job Leanna, wow, it looks amazing, you are such a talented artist! What a great find and so useful to hide stuff behind it!
Hi Katrin: It is going to be really handy for hiding things behind. Its a great way to handle clutter that you can’t avoid. Thank you for commenting.
You seriously amaze me!! This is just awesome! I am so inspired by your talent! I LOVE sunflowers and the faeries are adorable! Martha has nothing on you!
Your comment made my week Michelle. I am really excited about how the room divider turned out. My favorite flowers are peonies, sunflowers and pansies. Hopefully over the summer I manage to make something with each.
Again I really appreciate your comment, it put me on clouds.
Oh my gosh! I just love how you have hand drawn the screen backing Leanna! Such a beautiful and special touch! Bet there’s some cool projects behind there too!
Hi Sam. Thank you for comment. I knew I wanted a room divider to tidy up my crafting area, but they drawing idea just sort of happened when I was thinking of the least expensive materials I could use to encase it. I am excited about how it turned out. Have a great week.
It`s bo beautiful! I`m imagining how many things I could hide behind it 🙂
Hi Cristina. Its always good to have a big stash and even better to have somewhere to Hide it lol. Thank you for the comment.
Very clever using the divider for both it’s intended purpose and as a photo backdrop! Love how you incorporated faeries into your screen and how the look of your office/craft room echoes your blog. It must be a very inspiring space to work in.
Hi Marie: It is starting to come together. I just need to figure out the lighting and of course its Finally beginning to warm up so I can wait on buying a heater. I am really looking forward to have the messes all contained, or at least that is the hope.
The craft room is shaping up so nicely. I love how you created the screen to go with your theme.
Thank you Debra. The drawn panels can be made into anything you like , but of course the fairies really suited my craft room.