Want a really cool wall but don’t want to build one? Conventional curtains and traditional shoji screens aren’t the only ways to visually break up interior spaces. These 15 innovative and artistic room dividers – including colorful plastic panels, strange plant-like modular screens, real green and growing separators and flexible walls made of wood – also function as works of art, lighting and even furniture.


This modular partition system called ‘Cell’ by the Edelweiss Industrial Design studio allows you to custom-create a room divider in the shape, size and density that you need for that particular space. Thin boomerang-shaped strips of wood connect together and are easily arranged into regular or irregular patterns, giving you control over the transparency and look of the divider.
Plant-Like Plastic Room Divider


The ‘Algues’ room divider by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Vitra is a flexible yet strong plant-like plastic creation that have 19 ring-like eyes at the ends of their branches. When viewed alone, the Algues looks like a decorative design element, but when multiple units are combined into one structure with plastic pegs, they act as an organic-looking room divider or privacy screen. This approach allows consumers to get involved in the design process.
Natural Tree Branch Divider


Simple, sleek and natural: this folding room screen by Natsiq Outdoor features towering tree branches attached to a lacquered stainless steel base. It acts much the same way a natural privacy screen of trees would, allowing in just the right amount of light and breaking up the space without closing it off.
Fiberglass Bars


Room divider or modern art sculpture? It’s difficult to tell. Fiberglass bars mounted on a plank of wood catch the light and just barely provide a glimpse of the other side.
Illuminated Room Divider


Why shouldn’t a room divider serve more than one purpose? This one by Superieur is also a light source, providing subtle, diffused illumination that would be perfect for mood lighting or to supplement reading light behind a seating area.
Nola Star Colorful Plastic Panel


The colorful Nola Star room divider can also be used as a curtain or wall panel. 20×20 cm transparent plastic panels are joined together with metal rings, allowing you to control the shape and size of the room divider as a whole. The columns can then be hung from conventional curtain tracks.
Vertical Wave Divider


The ‘Vertical Wave’ room divider is a work of art in itself, made from bent poplar plywood in various wood tones. The wavy shape makes it more visually interesting than a solid sheet of wood.
Recycled Modular Cardboard Divider


Nomad is a modular architectural room screen made of recycled double-wall cardboard in a rainbow of colors including a range of greens, grays, yellow, orange, red and white. The cardboard forms are assembled into free-standing, sculptural screens, temporary partitions or displays without hardware, tools or damage to existing structures.
Space Articulator Screen


If you prefer the modern aesthetic to traditional décor, hanging curtains as room dividers probably isn’t your style. With the ‘space articulator screen’ by Studio Lilica, you can get the same effect but in a way that’s crisp, minimalist and visually interesting.
Monica Forster Forest Room Divider


Like the natural tree branch divider featured above, this room divider takes a cue from nature to break up space while still allowing light to shine through. Stainless steel poles attached to a lacquered MDF base are covered in little circles of wool felt, giving the impression of leaves or blossoms on delicate stems.
Designer’s Eye Wall


This flexible and sound-absorbing screen system consists of felted wool with magnetic ends that make it possible to connect one Wall to another. When not in use, these walls can easily be rolled up for storage.
Abraxas Poseidon Room Screen


The Poseidon Room Screen by designer Glendon Good is a xylophone-like structure composed of 60 hand-cut aluminum tubes. The screen, which acts as a modern art sculpture as well as a divider, has been made a part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt Museum.
Water Bottle Privacy Screen


Crafts made from recycled water bottles aren’t generally the prettiest things ever, but this installation of water bottles as room dividers is certainly an exception. Fittingly, this transparent room screen was created by Klein Dytham Architecture for the Danone company, which manufactures Evian and Volvic bottled water.
Toilet Paper Room Divider


You’ve got to store toilet paper somewhere, so why not create a wall of it to screen your toilet from the rest of the bathroom? One thing’s for sure: you’ll never run out, because you’ll always know exactly how many rolls you’ve got left. This example was designed by Gary Hutton and Timothy Gemmill for art collector Chara Schreyer’s pied-a-terre at Four Seasons Residences in San Francisco.
Fluid, Artistic Concept Room Divider


This futuristic-looking room divider by Sang Hoon Kim is more like a three-in-one: it’s also art and furniture. The unique curved shape allows users to perch among its nooks and crannies. Pictured is the prototype scale model; the designer is planning to make a full-sized version soon.