• Wardrobes and Armoires. I have yet to live in a home with adequate closet space, and in some apartments, rooms abroad, and older homes, I've had no closet at all. I love this idea of using a beautiful piece of furniture to add storage while also providing a separate changing area.
• Bookshelves. There is nothing ground-breaking about this suggestion — if you've been reading Apartment Therapy for a week, you're bound to be well acquainted with the EXPEDIT — but I can't help but think it's genius everytime I see it…which is often. Storage and division without the weightiness of a wall! The shelves need not surround the area, just separate it enough to distinguish it from the rest of the room.
• The Back of a Sofa. A sofa floating in the middle of a room or jutting out from a wall is the perfect place too eek out an extra zone. Sofa tables are a great invention, and in a space-challenged room, the concept can be expanded to include a whole home office. Many of Apartment Therapy studios include some sort of variation on the theme.
• Hanging Decor. Think bead curtain…without the hippie den associations. If it's creative visual separation you want, suspending decorations from the ceiling is a quick fix. For privacy, try curtains on a hospital track, but if it's just the illusion of division, things like picture frames or clusters of air plants (in hanging bubble terrariums or on their own) can divide a space without closing it in.
• Rugs. I've already sung the praises if the area rug earlier this week. Visually they can do wonders in anchoring a seating area or creating a separate feel for each living zone without actually dividing the space with walls.
What other space-dividing tips would you add to the list?
Images: 1: VT Wonen , 2: Apartment Therapy NY: Carl and Laurent's Bright White Live/Work Loft, 3: Apartment Therapy LA: Matthew Mau's Creative Loft in the Chapman Building, 4: Apartment Therapy LA: Dave's Tiny Urban Austin Studio, 5: Coastal Living
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i love that last room. the treatment on the far wall gives it a nice textural feel. and the overall palette is right in my zone. lovely.
I really like the hanging art that acts as a wall, but what's on the other side of the frames? The unfinished backs? Or some sort of decorative paper, or...?
Nice post, but that's "eke out." "Eek" is what people in cartoons say when they see a mouse.
Don't like that hanging art. My body cringes just looking at it. Can't be good feng shui.
Not sure about the bed placement in the wardrobe one, either. I like my bed against something solid (so do feng shui principles.) Would work if there was a more substantial headboard.
I like the ideas of room division shown here, but don't love all of the actual executions.
The last room looks cluttered, not zoned.
Anyone know what kind of tree that is in the last picture?
love it.
Isn't that a fig tree?? (Not sure...)
My tip is to take a floor plan sketch and lightly pencil in pretend walls where you would envision them if the space were not open, including "halls" for traffic flow.
Then use cutouts of major furniture pieces to arrange each pretend room as though it had walls. Obviously, this is only a starting point, and often functions overlap (a dining table for one space might also be the table behind the sofa holding a reading lamp, for example) but it can get you started with getting over that middle of the room mental block.
I would SO run into that hanging art! And I agree, that last room looks cluttered, not zoned.
Can't sleep, wardrobe will come alive and eat me.
I like the first room with the bed behind the wardrobe "wall". If it does come alive to eat me, well then "eek"! ;-)
i like all of these ideas, but i apparently SUCK at putting them into practice with my big, square loft (box). it frustrates me to no end! stupid as it sounds, i'm looking forward to moving to nyc and having a small space to fill with meaningful things.
@LaSimonaDesigns: it's a "money tree"! google "money tree"...