26 Best Room Divider Ideas to Separate Your Space

Transform a Space With Glass Partitions

A sleek and contemporary glass partition with a top or bottom rolling track system gives a room a modern, clean feel. For more privacy, consider using frosted glass for opacity that also allows in some light. Another benefit of glass is its good soundproofing and insulating qualities. Some unique designs include multi-paned window walls or mirror panels.

Splurge on a Ceiling Track Room Divider Kit

A premium heavyweight ceiling track room divider kit is a creative and stylish way to divide a space in minutes. Most of these systems use a curtain, giving you many patterns, colors, and fabric options. A ceiling track and rollers allow this kit to open and close easily.

Erect a Freestanding Room Divider

Tall and wide privacy screens that may have initially served to divide hospital patient beds have been reimagined. You can find these dividers online and in home department stores. They appear like framed panels of fabric or other materials, supported by stabilizing legs or flat feet. They are thin and can fit easily between two items or into small spaces.

Add a Hanging Panel

Hanging panel systems are made of acrylic, resin, or other materials and are designed to work as modular partitioning systems. They are handy for dividing rooms; some have cutouts and designs that create pleasant decorative elements. They hang from the ceiling from eye-hole hooks or top-mounted track systems. Some can slide open or closed to give you varying degrees of privacy and light.

Use a Japanese Shoji Screen

A common room divider is the Japanese-inspired shoji screen, made from translucent material, such as rice paper, inserted into panels to allow diffused light into a room. You'll find shoji screens in many forms, from freestanding floor dividers to hanging panels.

Install a Sliding Barn Door

A rustic barn door room divider is solid and wonderful for providing privacy. Most operate along a sliding wrought iron track system. Pricing for these systems spans the gamut from $300 to $5,000. Barn door partitions work beautifully in homes with a country farmhouse style or with rustic design elements. A downside is most are made of dark wood and are heavy, giving the room a moody, intense feeling. Use them in a room with many windows and natural light to offset dark wood colors or stain them with a whitewash finish.

Divide a Room With Folding Panels

Folding or accordion dividers are made with multiple tall panels made of fabric or other materials connected by hinges that allow them to fold to varying degrees. These premade dividers require no installation. Unfold them and stand them up. If you have limited space, you may be unable to fit a folding divider. Another disadvantage is a bump, or strong draft can tip a folding divider.

Separate a Space With a Bookcase

A room divider bookcase is a freestanding bookshelf or a cubby shelving unit used to create visual or physical separation. You pick bookcases with open backs as small peek-a-boo windows to the other side or to allow light to pass through.

This divider can serve as storage for books, decor, and knick-knacks. Bookcases with drawers, doors, or pull-out cubes also keep clutter out of sight. Top-heavy bookshelves can be wobbly, so anchor tall bookshelves to an adjacent wall.

Slide Doors to Make a Divider

Sliding doors come in many styles and materials, allowing you to make a private space using unique rolling track systems. These dividers can separate entire areas, such as a dining space from a living room, or give privacy to a sleeping area.

Move Sliding Bookcases Into Place

A bookcase with locking wheels can create a large room out of the corner of an open loft or basement. A versatile bookcase on wheels can separate dining from living spaces and more. Roll and lock your way to total room transformations in minutes.

Wall Off a Space With Wood Slats

Wooden slats are a unique way to separate spaces without fully committing to closing off the area from another part of the home. Slats allow light to pass through, and depending on the space between slats, you can see what's on the other side if you want to know. The slat effect makes a room feel open while allowing you to separate one space from another.

Deafen Sound With Acoustic Panels

Acoustic panels and screens are uniquely designed with noise-canceling features; some are made of heavy foam cores and acoustic-ribbed fabric. They absorb unwanted sound waves that bounce off and disturb the room's acoustics, like the room's mid- and high-frequency sound waves. These panels are handy for people with hearing difficulties and can wall off a home office from an otherwise lively or noisy home.

Get a Durable Metal Partition

Metal room dividers are made of brass, copper, and aluminum and are the most durable and long-lasting room divider materials. Brass looks elegant and sophisticated but can turn blackish from oxidation. Copper is gorgeous and resists high temperatures and UV damage but it is costly. Aluminum is rustproof, lightweight, inexpensive, and usually easy to install, but it gets dings and dents quickly. Some are painted and finished so unsightly dents aren't as noticeable.

Consider Different Types of Wood Partitions

Wood is a standard partition material that can be carved, painted, slatted, and solid. Wood tones vary in color from red, yellow, brown, orange, and black, depending on the wood used, and range in price from inexpensive to costly. It can be used as a sliding wall, mounted on a track system, hung on hangers, and folded accordion-style. The disadvantages of wood partitions are they are not soundproof or fireproof and are prone to damage from moisture, warping, and insect activity.

Infuse Rustic Feel With Rattan Dividers

Rattan and wicker furniture pieces are lightweight, usually inexpensive, with a natural, rustic look that makes a space feel cozy. Similarly, rattan privacy screens are handwoven designs made into foldable panels that are easy to install, move around, and effortlessly add to a space.

Shut Out a Space With Shutter Partitions

Movable window or louvered shutter panels are an affordable alternative to building a wall, allowing you to wall off a space the way you want. Shutter-style partitions allow light and sound to travel through them. Soundproofing might be preferred for some, but others need to be able to listen for a baby or child crying or have to check in with others who might be in that section of the house.

Shift Around Modular Block Walls

A modular wall kit allows you to make modular block walls and panels. Build the space using stackable blocks designed to wall off areas. Companies like EverBlock make these Lego-like wall-building systems to construct offices, children's rooms, display areas, and more.

Roll Around Whiteboard Panels

Portable whiteboard partitions on wheels work well in offices, children's rooms, classrooms, labs, and homeschools. They divide a space when you want and serve a purpose for doing homework, calculations, and brainstorming.

Get Artsy With a Divider

Rope walls, glass blocks, or hanging canvases can add an artistic flare to your space while dividing a room. Some offer privacy; others add texture to a bland space; they're a design element that elevates a room.

Get Lush With a Living Plant Room Divider

Plant stands come in multiple tiers and sizes, allowing you to divide a room using your living greenery. You can line up several plant stands with multi-level plant shelves to fabricate an entire living wall, separating a space in two. Similarly, if you use vining plants, give them a trellis or wires to grow up and create a living wall.

Hang a Beaded Strand Wall

Beaded curtains were all the rage in the 1960s and 1970s, replacing doors and forming transparent walls between spaces. These curtain walls still exist today, made of bamboo, wood or glass beads, shells, macrame, and tassels, allowing light to stream into a room while visually splitting a space in two. These playful curtain walls mesh well with a Bohemian chic aesthetic, an homage to the retro Flower Child style, or a fun, sensory-rich area,

Brighten a Room With a Light Divider

LED lighting is inexpensive, versatile, and easy to replace. These lightbulbs last long and have transformed how you can use light. Whether you try an acrylic LED-lit panel or a wall of hanging strands of LEDs to separate a space, this look can give a room an ultra-modern, Art Deco, or retro 80s look while lighting up an area any way you want.

Divide a Room With an Aquarium Wall

Tall, narrow aquariums are attractive, contemporary room dividers that uniquely create privacy and add beauty to your home. Aquarium walls can separate a kitchen from a dining area or living room, give visual interest to an entryway, or divide a large interior into smaller spaces. Wall-dividing aquariums house the equipment in cabinets above or below the aquarium. This option can become a cherished hobby or an enduring chore because the aquarium maintenance must be incorporated into your daily routine.

Install Pocket Doors

Pocket doors are lovely, out-of-sight room dividers that pop out only when you want to make private spaces out of your open floor plan. These hidden doors recess into a wall, follow a track and pop out with the touch of a button or slide out with a door pull when you need them.

Use Room Dividing Furniture

Furniture pieces, like a media console or a long credenza with open shelves and decorative elements, can be an eye-catching alternative to a wall panel separating a space in two. Couches typically rest against a wall, but if you use a long couch perpendicular to a wall, it serves as a room divider and frames out an entertaining space. Adding a long table along the backside of the couch and placing tall planters or items helps give the illusion of room separation.

Go Green With a Faux Plant Wall

Breathe life into a room with an artificial bamboo plant wall or moss greenery wall made from freestanding panels or planters lined up to form a wall facade. If greenery is your thing, but your space doesn't get ample natural light, go the faux plant route.