Well, Spring has sprung and if you cleaned your clutter and made things neat and tidy after the New Years, bravo you are amazing. Better than me, who only got the clutter closet and the kid’s bathroom done. But time has come to revamp the house again and I have an interesting dilemma. I still have plans for my closet and dreams of bagging up half of our unused things and sending them to a thrift store to make room for the new cool stuff I envision buying. But, here’s the problem. I have kids that want their own space, they are starting to stretch their creative (and decorative) wings and like most siblings their tastes are clashing, which means they are too.
So, we don’t have space in the house to give them each a room and in this economy, they will have to work things out and co-exist until they are at least…well, in college. Which got me thinking of ways to help solve their problems. Now, we also don’t have the money to knock down or add walls, which means a lot of creativity on our part as parents. Here are some of the awesome ideas I found…
CURTAINS
The least expensive and easiest way to divide a room is with curtains. You can either use a tension rod like the ones used in the bathroom for shower curtains or a clothes line, or hang the curtain from the ceiling by individual hangers.
Think hospital ward, but cuter. Here Martha Stewart shows you how to make the perfect curtain divider for any room.
The next idea is…
SCREEN DIVIDERS
You can also buy an upright room divider, this option can also be inexpensive, and it can look really nice, but if you have young kids, this may not be the right choice as the room dividers can fall over. But if you position them well in the room, they let light filter in and give a sense of separate space.
Ikea has some great room divider ideas for around $99, which is an amazing price for peace between siblings.
Oriental Furniture also has some incredible room dividers with really cool designs at reasonable prices. The great thing about these dividers is the fact that they can be moved, if the kids want to switch up their space as they get older and can be removed if they need use of the entire room.
These cool canvas covered room dividers are amazing and you can either have your kids pain their side or pin artwork , fabric or other decorative additions to it.
This six panel set up is $190 and sold at The Room Divider store, this online shopping site has just about every type of room divider you may ever hope to find, which is a fun place to go to get redecorating ideas.
Overstock.com also has fantastic deals on dividers.
SHELVES AS DIVIDERS
Another common way to divide a room is to use a tall shelf or set of wardrobe closets. Again Ikea has a great product that would make an excellent room divider, buy two and cover one with fabric on one side and let one child use the shelfs on the other side and then do the same for the other child with the second shelf. At $129.00 a piece, it really wouldn’t be too expensive to do.
Also these shelves let in light and provide extra storage space for your children. You might also want to consider using two wardrobe closets to add extra space.
These Ikea Pax wardrobes with two doors have a bare particle board back that can either be covered in cloth, painted a color or painted in chalk board paint to make a fun way to divide rooms and provide private clothes storage space.
If space is really limited, you may want to use loft beds to give each child their own personal space, you can either enclose it with beaded or shear curtains or leave it open with the idea that each child has privacy in their own space.
Walmart has a great selection of loft beds at reasonable prices. College loft beds has some fun ideas and good pricing. Like this cute little set up below.
Finally if you have the money and want something more permanent, try a room divider.
SLIDING DOOR ROOM DIVIDER
A more expensive solution for bigger spaces actually creates the illusion of having two rooms and since these sliding door dividers are often made of sturdy transparent material they can diffuse light and also provide a private wall and a door. The Sliding Door Co has amazing room dividing options that may be very pricey, but much less expensive than buying a new house, knocking out a wall or adding a room.
and again Oriental Furniture has these beautiful Shoji sliding room dividers for about $500 each.
