Partition to Perfection: What are the Different Types of Room Dividers

Room dividers in houses and other residences serve multiple functions, including space division, privacy creation, clutter concealment, and decorative enhancement. They come in various materials such as fabric, acrylic, wood, and glass to suit different preferences and needs. Consideration of space dimensions, layout, and specific needs is vital when selecting room dividers to maximize functionality. Let’s take a look at the different types of room dividers that can be used to create private zones.

Designer: André Fu Living

1. Foldable Screens

Folding screens are ideal for separating spaces in rented homes since they are free-standing and require no installation. These screens simply need to be opened and folded away when not in use. Available in various styles, such as Shoji, fabric, lacquered, or lattice screens, they add depth and interest to any room. Additionally, folding screens are perfect for creating private areas like a hidden workspace or a changing nook.

Architect André Fu’s latest creation, the Art Deco Collection, merges the intricate silhouettes of Art Deco with the serene ambiance of traditional Japanese Zen Gardens. Inspired by the opulence of Art Deco and the tranquility of Kyoto’s Zen gardens, Fu introduces his comprehensive Art Deco Garden Collection. Fu’s room divider designs are informed by meticulous research on historical Japanese gardens, particularly the Tofukuji Temple Garden.

2. Suspended Room Dividers

Hanging or suspended room dividers are semi-permanent solutions perfect for dividing spaces a large open space into smaller areas. They can be fixed or adjustable, allowing them to be rolled up, slid, or pulled back, and unlike foldable screens, they can span an entire room. Available as beaded curtains, fabric curtains, bamboo blinds, or stacked louvered doors, it’s recommended to attach a weight at the bottom for stability.

Designer: Jihyun (xjabier)

Silhuous is a nature-inspired room divider crafted with acrylic ‘branches’ and tracing paper leaves. This visually appealing barrier effortlessly divides spaces, creating zones in an alluring and efficient manner. Its expandable design adapts to any space size, and it doubles as a beautiful light diffuser.

Designer: Eunsang Lee

As room dividers are versatile pieces of furniture, they often serve multiple functions such as changing rooms, photo backdrops, or private meeting spaces. Eunsang Lee’s 5A1 challenges traditional designs with its modular, infinity concept, promoting sustainability and versatility. Constructed from responsibly sourced wood and steel, it offers endless configurations, allowing for hanging clothes, mirrors, or plants. Inspired by communication, its modular design encourages interaction and creativity, aiming to foster meaningful connections between users and their belongings.

3. Sliding Room Divider

A sliding room divider provides ample opportunity to split the space into two distinct zones and can also function as a door. Acoustic panels can be installed on the divider to enhance sound insulation.

Designer: Claudio Bellini

Open office spaces might have replaced cubicles, but privacy remains essential. While wooden partitions and pipe-and-drape screens can visually separate spaces, they don’t address sound privacy. To solve this, Milan-based Claudio Bellini design studio created FP7, a collection of acoustic panels that double as room dividers and noise absorbers. Designed for open offices, FP7 panels absorb soundwaves without entirely blocking background noise and visually delineate private areas. Available in various colors and sizes, these panels resemble visual soundwaves when arranged together and can be organized as needed. Ideal for busy areas like lobbies and group workstations, FP7 ensures privacy without compromising the openness of modern offices.

Designers: Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen

Molo’s paper softwall, designed by Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen, offers flexibility with its folding and bending capabilities, shaping into curved or linear formations. Lightweight and expandable, it can define private spaces or create dramatic backdrops for performances. Made from responsibly sourced wood and coated with a non-toxic fire retardant, the softwall’s honeycomb latticework effectively absorbs sound. Available in three heights and colors, the softwall can be affixed to surfaces using steel strips and emulates sliding doors through felt handles, offering endless creative configuration possibilities when multiple units are connected.

4. Permanent Room Divider

This divider, supported by both the ceiling and floor, creates a fixed partition between two zones and can be made of glass, battens, wood, or metal.

5. Modular Partition

Modular partitions or room dividers are small to medium-sized, reconfigurable walls that can be easily moved to provide quick and versatile partitioning solutions without the need for installation. These pre-assembled walls can be arranged into your desired design and quickly set up to create private offices, meeting rooms, or conference rooms as needed.

Designer: Else-Rikke Bruun

Veneer, a flexible room partition by Copenhagen-based designer Else-Rikke Bruun, seamlessly blends traditional Mexican weaving techniques with advanced CNC milling methods. This interlaced screen wall, crafted from birch plywood planks, forms a wave-like pattern without the need for additional tools or screws. Coated with black oil for a classic marbled finish, Veneer offers both visual appeal and acoustic benefits, making it an elegant and functional addition to any space.

6. Eco-friendly Room Dividers

Designer: Crafting Plastics and Office MMK

When it comes to room dividers, the usual options are functional but lack flair and BreaZea changes that. This modular 3D-printed divider is made from eco-friendly bioplastics, offering both artistic design and sustainability. Inspired by organic shapes, it resembles artwork rather than furniture. What sets it apart is its pleasant aroma, reminiscent of fresh wood. And when its lifecycle ends, BreaZea can be composted, fully biodegrading within 60-120 days.

Designer: Patrycja Gorzela

Nook is a collection of desk and room dividers made from repurposed cardboard shipping containers. Designed by Patrycja Gorzela for a Just Booth competition, Nook provides privacy in busy environments. Available in two sizes, the lightweight dividers can create personal work zones on desks or section off larger rooms. Nook offers a sustainable, practical solution for maintaining focus and privacy at work.

Designer: Interesting Times Gang and OBOS

The Veggro collection, created by Interesting Times Gang and OBOS, offers sustainable room partitions made from mycelium and orange peel. The Loom design features a mushroom-inspired pattern from mycelium, while Jugoso uses 3D-printed orange rinds to form geometric patterns. These eco-friendly panels, mounted on ash wood frames, provide acoustic insulation and decorative appeal. Veggro exemplifies biophilic design and aims to reduce carbon emissions in house building.

Designer: Sarunphon Boonto

The Bilid room divider blends traditional rattan craftsmanship with modern design, featuring straight lines that evoke peace and harmony and wavy lines that symbolize conflict and dynamism. Made from locally sourced, undyed beige rattan, it uses color and texture to convey its message. The vertical lines represent strength and order, while the wavy lines suggest movement and social conflict. Combining smooth and wavy patterns with tinted pastel colors, Bilid creates a balance of warm and cool tones, symbolizing unity through contrast. Meticulously designed, it evokes focus and calm, representing the harmonious coexistence of life’s diverse elements.

7. Geometric Room Divider

A geometric room divider is a great way to infuse texture and pattern into the room décor.

Designer: Mia Cullin

The Ro room divider blends minimalism with warm tones and natural materials, adding character to any space. Inspired by a honeycomb structure, it features rotating columns of hexagons on painted aluminum poles, allowing for customizable patterns and space openness. Covered in leather or wood with various finishes, the subdued tones provide a calming effect and a touch of luxury. Ro combines visual appeal and functionality, making it perfect for living rooms, hotels, or offices, creating a warm and comforting atmosphere without being overly flashy.

When choosing a room divider, ensure it fits your space by measuring both height and length, considering stability and safety with anchors or stands. Consider installation complexity, light diffusion preferences, and desired functionality before making a purchase.

The post Partition to Perfection: What are the Different Types of Room Dividers first appeared on Yanko Design.

Ro room divider uses geometric shapes and warm tones to give character to any space

A room can tell a lot about its owner just by the things you find in the space and how they come together. Sometimes rooms are neat and minimalist, while other times they can be busy but expressive. Whether by conscious decision or subconscious inclination, almost anything we put in a space has a story to tell, whether about the person living in that space or the object itself. People have become more acutely aware of their living spaces lately, especially after having spent months stuck indoors, and have come to be more discerning in the furniture and decor they buy, especially when it comes to the message that each piece tries to convey. A room divider, for example, might visually and functionally split a space, but it can also bring a comforting atmosphere thanks to its design.

Designer: Mia Cullin

Room dividers don’t have to be fancy. In fact, it is probably best that they don’t call attention to themselves since they’re supposed to blend into the background to make it seem like the space is really divided into distinct sections. At the same time, however, they also don’t have to be plain and boring, and they can affect the overall atmosphere of an area. An extravagant divider could make a room look posh or busy, while a nondescript sheet of wood could make it look clean or drab. Ro takes somewhat of a middle ground, espousing minimalism while still embracing warm tones and natural materials that give a distinct personality and atmosphere to any space.

Structurally, the Ro room divider looks like a honeycomb with columns of alternating hexagons attached to painted aluminum poles. Each column can rotate independently of others, allowing the owner to create different patterns that become a visual point of interest in the room. More importantly, however, it gives owners the freedom to close or open a space just by changing the orientation of the panels.

Each piece or module of the panel can be covered in either leather or wood, with different finishes and colors. Whichever style is chosen, the subdued and muted tones give the divider a warm appearance that provides a calming visual. The natural materials themselves also exude a certain image of luxury you’d come to expect from products made with full grain leather and fine wood. Despite its eye-catching and beautiful appearance, the Ro’s minimalist aesthetics prevents it from being too flashy or gaudy. It is simply there, marrying visual appeal and functionality in a simple package.

The Ro room divider is a fine example of furniture that brings character without forcing its presence in the room. With choices of wood and leather, it will be at home in any setting, whether in a living room, a hotel, or even an office. It’s a perfect example of how a design doesn’t need to be too sophisticated, too complex, or even too functional to be attractive and useful. With the right choice of materials, colors, and shapes, one can imbue any room with feelings of warmth and comfort to help people relax or, at the very least, reduce their stress.

The post Ro room divider uses geometric shapes and warm tones to give character to any space first appeared on Yanko Design.

Organic-shaped room divider is designed to smell like caramel, doubling as a aroma diffuser

When it comes to room dividers, we usually think of bamboo screens, cloth curtains, shell curtains, accordion or folding portable doors, etc. Most of the time they’re just solid and not that imaginative. But what if you could make these dividers more decorative and artistic? Even better, what if the dividers are made from eco-friendly materials? That’s the idea behind this unique, sustainable, well-designed, and apparently aromatic room divider.

Designer: Crafting Plastics and Office MMK

BreaZea is a modular 3D printed room divider made from bioplastics which in turn are from a combination of cornstarch and sugar. Its shape is an organic design inspired by things like corals and leaves. There are two different designs that can be combined according to the user’s preferences. You get a curtain-like divider that looks more like a piece of artwork than just simple furniture.

But what makes it truly unique is that they wanted it to “smell”. Normally, bioplastics are odorless but they wanted people to associate it with a certain, pleasant smell just like what do with fresh wood. They worked with a scientist to come up with a smell that’s close to the materials that the bioplastics are made from, which is a sugary and caramel-y aroma.

They are experimenting with oil-based and water-based scents that they can add to the bioplastic before it is 3D printed or add it to the finished product. Even that smell is also something connected to the organic design as it doesn’t have a “regular shape” but comes “from very tiny places and spreads around.”

And since this is a sustainable product after all, the BreaZea can be placed in an industrial compost when it reaches the end of its lifecycle. It will become biodegradable in 60-120 days just like most things made from bioplastics.

The post Organic-shaped room divider is designed to smell like caramel, doubling as a aroma diffuser first appeared on Yanko Design.

Flatpack cardboard room dividers made from repurposed shipping containers are the easy-to-store furniture you need!

Nook is a collection of desk and room dividers made from repurposed cardboard shipping containers.

It’s said that it takes a little over twenty minutes to get back to work after a distraction. Whether you’re working from home, your local coffee shop, or a busy office–distractions are everywhere. Designing a means for privacy, Just Booth is a Polish acoustic pod brand that develops sound booths where you can retreat for privacy during the workday. Following a competition held by Just Booth and the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź where designers were asked to repurpose Just Booth cardboard boxes, Patrycja Gorzela designed Nook.

Designed in two different sizes, Nook is a collection of desk and room dividers made from disused Just Booth cardboard shipping containers. Amidst busy offices, distractions can come at any moment. Conceptualized as a means for workers to get quiet concentration time, the collection of smaller dividers can be configured on desks to create a small working zone. Then, to divide larger rooms into working sections, Nook comes in a fuller size to create a sense of privacy. Super lightweight and slim by nature, the collection of desk and room dividers can easily be rearranged to fit various needs.

No matter where we work, private zones help get the job done. When we’re in need of a little extra privacy during the workday, Nook is able to provide just that. Initially designed for a competition hosted by Just Booth and the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, Nook is a sustainable and practical means to provide quiet working zones in busy places.

Designer: Patrycja Gorzela

The post Flatpack cardboard room dividers made from repurposed shipping containers are the easy-to-store furniture you need! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Japanese Zen Gardens + Art Deco are the inspiration behind this furniture and tableware collection!

Architect André Fu’s new Art Deco Collection features handcrafted homeware and furnishings inspired by ornate Art Deco silhouettes and the serenity of traditional Japanese Zen Gardens.

Inspired by the opulent style of Art Deco and the Zen gardens of Kyoto, modern architect André Fu designed a new collection of homeware he calls the Art Deco Garden Collection. Comprised of cabinets, armchairs, dining chairs, tables, room dividers, porcelain tableware, and wallcoverings, the Art Deco Garden Collection was designed following an involved research period that looked at many historical Japanese gardens, with an acute focus on the Tofukuji Temple Garden.

In close collaboration with De Gournay, a hand-painted wallpaper and fabric brand, each item that makes up the collection features a variety of formal Art Deco pattern work stylized to evoke the symmetrical and meditative qualities of raked sand found in Japanese Zen Gardens. The porcelain tableware gleam in white and are adorned with gilded gold line patterns hand-painted on each piece–the paintwork is so delicate, each brushstroke is visible and unique to the tableware. The room dividers and wallcoverings made from silk paper also feature silver and gold, hand-painted line patterns whose glittering finishes and laborious tracing pay homage to the gilded age of Art Deco and the sensuous fluidity of Japanese gardens.

Fu felt compelled to curate this collection of porcelain tableware, room dividers, and furniture in part as a means to incorporate the visual composition of nature into handcrafted homeware and furnishings. Reflecting on the collection’s original inspiration, Fu says, “My personal design approach is not just about combining styles together. Rather, it rests on an ability to navigate different cultures and reflect contemporary culture based on the inherent qualities of beauty itself, as opposed to just based on any one style.”

Designer: André Fu Living

The delicate handpainted patterns hearken the serene, laborious quality of raked Zen Gardens and the gleaming-in-gold personality of Art Deco.

Room dividers and wall coverings made from silk paper feature painted patterns from De Gournay.

Each piece of the Art Deco Garden Collection is inspired by Japanese Zen Gardens and the age of Art Deco. 

The porcelain tableware shimmers in white and is lined with hand-painted golden patterns reminiscent of the Art Deco movement.

Brass accents enhance each piece’s ode to Art Deco.

This detailed rattan room divider fuses traditional crafts with modern furniture design





This double-sided rattan room divider is the designer’s interpretation of unity – between the harmonious lines and the color palette ranging from warm to cool tones.

Rattan is a locally sourced material – one in fact we have seen our grandparents use in their day-to-day life with ease, and we have disregarded it in our modern adaptation of plastics. Truly, I often feel, sustainable design has roots in our past; if only we can find the discipline to research, revise and adapt these practices on an everyday basis. Rattan is the material derived from dried vines that is weaved into a usable pattern we call wicker – next time you lounge on those IKEA outdoor wicker chairs, be the one to identify these differences!

The divider here, named Bilid, uses 2 contrasting lines designs – straight and wavy to depict 2 opposite reactions. The straight lines create a harmonious texture to evoke peace, whereas the wavy lines reflect the conflict one might see over the contrasting/undulating waveform. Each divider is held in place with an undyed beige rattan design, allowing the colors to do the talking.

Speaking of the lines, the designer explains, “the vertical line implies orderly and strong structure, strength, higher, rigid while conveying a lack of movement. I used it to refer to an ideal orderly place, peace, decency, and harmony.” On the other hand, the wavy lines depict,” the serpentine Line implies energy, sense of movement and dynamism from social conflict, conflict movement and inequality that inspired from domestic society.”

Using rattan, a locally sourced material, the designer emphasizes the story of different perspectives, portraying how the dissimilarities could co-exist through the materials, colors, and two opposite variances. Different rattan patterns express meaning through the material and colors to create a colorful emotion and represent a new mood of rattan furniture with tinted/pastel color combinations—the two blends to provide a contrast of “warm & cool” tones.

The overall theme of Unity is inspired and represented with these 2 different patterns of rattan.  The rattan pattern on one side is smooth conveys calm and peaceful in the same way to create a calming emotion for space. In contrast, the other side uses wavy weave rattan to reflect on the conflict to create a movement emotion to the home space.

Each line of this divider is designed with care, giving you a sense of focus and calm, the same way the designer must have invested himself while designing this metaphorical representation of life as we know it – full of ups and downs, warm and cools but presenting a harmonious front when we look back from the perspective provided by the passage of time.

Designer: Sarunphon Boonto

Click Here to Buy Now!

This sustainable room divider extends its life cycle by using multifunctional steel modules to customize infinite configurations!





Room dividers are multifunctional by nature– they can be changing rooms, photoshoot backdrops, private meeting places, home cubicles– these days they can even be all of that all at once. While they leave a lot of room for us to get creative with their uses, room dividers typically have kept a pretty lowkey, conventional design through the years. Turning the room divider into a conversation about sustainability and versatility, Eunsang Lee has designed 5A1, a modular, infinity room divider that can be endlessly reconfigured to extend the product’s life cycle.

Feeling a sense of responsibility as a designer to create more sustainable products, Eunsang Lee turned to room dividers to reinterpret the classic piece of furniture. Today, new products are typically made from materials with short life cycles, leading to more consumption and waste. Constructed from responsibly sourced and sustainable materials like wood and steel, 5A1 is a minimal room divider, formed by hanging steel cables where steel and wooden modules can be attached and configured to hang clothes, mirrors, or even plants. Inspired by the act of communication between people, the 5A1 room divider comes with modules that can be attached, forming infinite configurations and a multifunctional piece of home decor.

In creating 5A1, Eunsang Lee hopes to continue the conversation around multifunctional pieces of furniture and her aim for sustainability as a designer. Speaking to this, Eunsang Lee says, “I imagined the process of meeting and communicating between objects and communication between objects and people. We observed that attachment is formed when the user directly assigns an [object’s use.]”

Designer: Eunsang Lee

From steel cables, wooden and steel modules can be attached and linked together to form a room divider.

5A1’s steel modules have different links and shapes that can be linked together to form multifunctional configurations.

By using such a sustainable material like stainless steel to configure 5A1, the product’s life cycle is much longer than other room dividers.

Through magnetic linkage, the steel modules can be linked together without additional tools or hardware.

When linked together, the steel modules create a space where clothes or room decor can be hung.

Wooden beams provide each steel cable with enough weight to hang from the ceiling or 5A1’s main beam.

The different shapes of steel modules are congruent in size and orientation so they can easily be linked.

These fabric acoustic panels absorbs sound and double as a room divider for a great open office space!

Open office spaces might have replaced cubicles, but we still need some privacy. Products like wooden partitions and pipe-and-drape screens can do a good job of visually separating space, but sound travels and the issue of privacy remains. To provide a means for sound isolation and visual privacy without compromising the inclusive aspect of open office spaces, Milan-based Claudio Bellini design studio created FP7, a collection of acoustic panels that double as room dividers and noise absorbers.

Designed specifically for the open office space, FP7 functions as an acoustic panel to absorb soundwaves without entirely blocking out background noise and as a room divider to visually delineate areas of privacy throughout any given office. The panels that make up the collection come in various colors, all giving off either a bright and exuberant or a subtler, toned-down display which can be chosen depending on the office’s design scheme. Designed to form a set, each panel comes in varying sizes, properly resembling a sort of visual soundwave when positioned together. The panels, which are made from embedded cushioning that’s overlaid with soft fabric, can be organized however the office sees fit.

Privacy is non-negotiable in office settings, and in public spaces, a space for more intimate conversations should always be accessible. Ideal for busy locations like the lobby, group workstations, or even the library, the FP7 acoustic panels can be grouped wherever extra privacy is needed. Qualifying for 2021’s Final Jury at iF Design Awards, FP7 embraces today’s office culture’s openness while creating a way for workers to access private areas for conversing or brainstorming.

Designer: Claudio Bellini

Available in an array of different colors and patterns, FP7 is designed to form a set.

Areas with heavy foot traffic, like lobbies and recreation areas, can form private spaces for conversing through the use of FP7.

The simple, refined fabric and options for additional color schemes enhance FP7’s design versatility.

Acoustic panels can surround smaller conversations or larger group meeting spaces to absorb sound and define private areas.

This modular room partition was built using Mexican weaving methods and CNC-milling techniques!

When time-honored building methods from the past get woven into the design world of today, magic happens. The modern-day commitment to precision and technology sets the stage for more traditional designs to take on new heights. Else-Rikke Bruun, a Copenhagen-based designer, felt inspired in part by the classic weaving techniques of Mexico and looked to the advanced building method of CNC milling to create her interlaced, flexible room partition, Veneer.

Bruun introduces Veneer as, “a fusion of textile and wood, where the wood veneer is transformed into enlarged fibers in a textile weave.” The screen wall amounts to a cross-linked, wavelike pattern made up of interwoven birch plywood planks that were CNC milled, enhancing their flexibility. CNC milling essentially uses a computer-automated machine to control the cutting and rotating of construction material such as wood to ensure precisely cut and even building pieces.

Bruun’s screen wall is entirely made from birch wood– the interwoven planks forge their way between standing, vertical beams of birch wood, in a similar fashion to that of traditional Mexican weaving methods, to provide the partition with its wave-like pattern. Applying the same weaving methods as that of Mexican weaving to her screen wall, Veneer does not require any additional tools or screws.

To give Veneer its classic marbled finish, Bruun coated each plank with black oil, highlighting the grain of the wood to give it a naturally warm and smooth finish. While the screen walls seem small in width, they can be used as modules to join together with additional woven screen walls to span the length of any given room. The woven form of Veneer also provides an acoustic effect, giving the screen wall a sensuous and robust presence in any room.

Designer: Else-Rikke Bruun

Veneer is a fusion of textile and birch wood.

Requiring no tools or screws, Veneer relies on traditional weaving methods for construction.

Each plank of birch wood is coated in black oil for a marble-like finish.

After the planks are milled from CNC milling machines, the divider’s wavelike pattern is achieved through weaving.

The birch planks weave in between upright birch beams.

Bruun coats each plank in black oil before putting Veneer together.

Veneer has a modular structure to increase its width and span the length of a room.

These flexible wooden room partitions expand up to 15 feet while folding down to the thickness of a book!

Room dividers are more than just extra walls – they’re changing rooms, and private meeting spaces, interior statement pieces, or just a means to block out some sun. There are so many ways to enjoy room dividers, yet most room dividers on the market are rigid and cold, or mass-produced and made from inefficient material. Bringing new life to the room divider, the designers at Molo, a design and production studio led by Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen, created their own rendition, calling it a paper softwall or folding partition, one that folds and bends, with the flexibility to be shaped in any curved or linear formation, and expands and contracts, like breathing.

When expanded, the paper softwall is like a monolithic accordion paper organizer that is surprisingly lightweight and can easily change direction to define private spaces or supply dramatic backdrops for performances. Each paper softwall expands to a total of 15 feet when fully extended and positioned in a straight line, but can reach any length in between for shorter, or more curved lines. When the soft paperwall is properly compressed, it recoils and achieves the thickness of a book. Molo’s paper softwall is structured in wooden layers, that are collected from responsible sources certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and then coated with a non-toxic fire retardant. For room dividers, this is a new building material. The honeycomb latticework gives the softwall shape and flexibility to bend and create shapes, while also providing intricately layered barriers to absorb sound with a soft and distinguishable thickness.

The softwalls come in three different choices for height, five, six, or eight feet, with an additional three options for color. The ochre brown brings an earthy warmth, while the bright indigo softwalls were, “dyed to create rhythms of radiant blues and inky, dark shadows,” and the saturated black attained its darkness from bamboo charcoal ink dyes. Steel strips attach to the magnetic end of the softwall, in order to latch onto hard surfaces, like walls or fences, and then with a corresponding felt handle, Molo’s softwall can mimic a sliding door, evocative of shōji, a room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture. By fastening additional softwalls to the magnetic strips that line the ends of each partition, they can double in size, or triple even. If inspiration hits, you might even be able to create a small home constructed entirely out of Molo’s softwalls.

Designers: Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen