DIY Network

Hanging Room Divider Hang these easy-breezy fabric room dividers. From "B. Original" episode DBOR-146

These room dividers soar with style.

College students and squabbling siblings alike are familiar with hanging a sheet to divide a room. But there's a stylish way to hang cloth to define and beautify a space, with help from Michele Beschen.

The B. Original host shares her techniques for building a hanging room divider made of frames covered with fabric. She builds the frames from furring strips—which she can find for about $1 each—and covers them with whatever fabric she has on hand. It's a handy way to bring more fabrics and textures into a room, and a fun way to B. Original when you're dividing space.

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	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C
	Figure D
	Figure E
	Figure F

Materials:

1"x2" furring strips
flat brackets
fabric
staple gun or air stapler
screws
screwdriver
drill
small eye-bolts
larger eye-bolts
lightweight chain
snips or pliers (for cutting chain)

• Decide on the size of your panels and cut the furring strips for the frame.

• Connect the furring strips at 90-degree angles using flat brackets (figure A). If you use 1"x3" furring strips, you can skip the brackets and just screw the wood together, forming a butt joint (figure B).

• Select your fabric. You can use old curtains, drapery, upholstery fabric or whatever you have. If you've reupholstered any furniture or made any pillows for the room, it can be fun to use those same fabrics in the divider. Or, you can toss something completely new into the mix.

• Place your fabric right-side down on a flat surface and lay your frame on top. Cut the fabric generously enough to wrap all the way around the frame.

• Staple your fabric to the frame using a staple gun or air stapler (figure C). Start at the center of one of the sides, then pull the fabric taut and staple at the center of the opposite side. Repet the process for the other two sides. With all four sides tacked down, work your way out from the center staples, pulling the fabric taut and alternating sides as you go to keep everything even and unwrinkled.

• At the corners, tuck in the fabric and pull it tight while you staple the corners for a nice clean fold (figure D).

• Trim away any excess fabric.

• If your panel will be seen from both sides, cut another piece of fabric to size, fold the edges under to make a tidy edge, and staple it to the frame. You can finish the frames off with some trim if you like.

• Install small eye-bolts in the top of your frame: Measure about 4" in from each of the top two corners, drill a shallow pilot hole with a small bit, and screw in the eye-bolts (figure E).

• Screw two more eye-bolts into your ceiling where you want to hang your panel
  (figure F). It's best if you use larger eye-bolts and screw into a stud; if not, you'll need to use anchoring hardware.

• Use a light chain to hang your panels, and enjoy your swinging room divider!