Sliding Room Dividers
Buy the best sliding room dividers selected and recommended by interior designers. By Chloe Hughes.
Sometimes a big room is just too big, the space impractical to fill. WIth a sliding hanging room divider, you can cut that space in half, dedicating a different purpose to each side. Great for putting a home office in your bedroom, but keeping both concepts mutually exclusive, or for closing off a special space from prying eyes, these simple to install room dividers can replace any swinging door.
Sliding Room Dividers
Buying Guide
Chloe Hughes
Interior Design Expert
Chloe is a highly-regarded expert in all things vintage and antique. She’s excited to share her vast knowledge with readers and clients wishing to infuse their homes with a mixture of old-time warmth and modern comfort. In addition to her design work, Chloe regularly volunteers at her local community center, teaching DIY projects to adults and kids.
Sliding hanging room dividers can be a solution for breaking up a large space or can be used to provide privacy in a small space. The panels move easily across a hanging track, much as a curtain would move on a long curtain rod. The panels can be made of almost any lightweight material, or – if the traverse rod is sufficiently sturdy – even heavier materials.
The most common uses of sliding hanging room dividers include privacy protection, decoration and heat control.
- The use of sliding hanging room dividers for privacy
A common use of sliding hanging room dividers is to provide privacy. They can be used to mask a bathroom, dividing it from a bedroom, or they can be used to mark off the bedroom portion of a bed/sitting room. They can be pushed aside during the day, especially if the bed is a foldaway sofa or chair bed, or even a daybed. This allows the family or guests to use the room as if it were not a bedroom at all. When sleep time comes, the panels can be pulled across, creating a sleep space.
- Decorative use of hanging room dividers
Not all spaces need to be divided off for privacy. Sometimes all that’s needed is to mark off a section of a room, showing that its purpose is separate from the rest of the space, such as creating a small office or setting aside a dining area. While privacy might sometimes be desired, it is not essential. In these cases, the hanging divider might be a panel of lacey macramé, strands of decorative beads, or chains of pearlescent plastic circles.
- Preventing drafts and heat loss for halls or doorways
Sliding hanging room dividers can be used to conserve heat or air conditioning, depending upon the season. Frosted plexiglass panels, such as might be used for a bathroom shower, make an elegant way to create a hall entrance that will control drafts from an open door. Heavy fabric on a frame can serve the same purpose.
Curtains are probably one of the easiest sliding hanging room dividers. They are lighter than framed hanging panels yet can provide both a privacy screen and a barrier against drafts. More than that, the wide variety of fabrics that are available make them a shoo-in for designer choices. You can use solid colors as backdrops or select large print or brocade for a brighter backdrop for more furniture that has dark or neutral colors.
Room dividers can be installed in a variety of ways. One of the easiest is to install wires using ceiling hooks. These are the least expensive and the least invasive for existing architecture. Wire hangers, however, are only effective for curtains, beads or very light framed panels. Traverse curtain rods are the next best choice, followed by installing more permanent supports using a permanent frame that supports tracks such as those used for shower doors. Most of the materials are available at local hardware stores or home supply locations. Fabrics are available anywhere yard goods are sold, and panels can be purchased or created using fabric or paper over light wooden frames. The only limit is your imagination.