help! how do i divide our L-shaped living room?
(We had two similar questions this week so thought we’d answer them both in one post!)
First Beverly asked: Any ideas for making the L part of an L-shaped living room into a guest bedroom? We don’t want to close off the L permanently.
Then, Michelle wrote: I am sharing a 2 BR apt with a roommate, but our common space is pretty much a kitchen/dining/living room area. It is basically a square with half a wall of sink and counter and cabinet space, and two small windows to the right. We want to make it into a nice comfortable room, but we’re not sure how to break up the space without blocking light or space that we need to move around, or to cook. We also don’t know if we want to face the kitchen while were watching tv or eating. It seems too small to really separate it into two distinct rooms. Any ideas?
New York City dwellers are often trying to figure out how to make one room feel like two, so a couple of ideas immediately spring to mind. The first would be create a division with a storage unit. You could try a rolling unit like this one from West Elm. These Cubits shelving units from DWR are great because they allow light through. You can stack and arrange as them as you like. Another idea is to create a temporary wall with a cloth divider. Check out these from Dvider.com. They are made from sailcloth and can be adjusted to the height of your ceiling. Plus, you can decorate them with cute stickers. They’re pricey (starting at $629) but a lot less hassle than building a wall. Another more D.I.Y. idea would be to create some curtains using a track on the ceiling. Maxwell over at Apartment Therapy has these heavy felt curtains in his home that are pretty genius. You can slide them to the side to open up the space!
Does anyone else have ideas for our space-challenged readers? Let them know!
July 10th, 2007 at 8:30 am
I was inspired to use something like the Dvider.com to separate the sleeping and living areas in my tiny apartment, but was put off by the price. Last weekend I installed two Ikea Stolmen posts ($30 each) 80″ apart and hung some gorgeous velvet drapes ($39 for a pair at Overstock.com).
I’m very happy with the results — it looks great open or closed off.
July 10th, 2007 at 9:23 am
wow, I love the idea of a cheaper version of the Dvider one.. How do the Stolman posts work? are they adjustable?
July 10th, 2007 at 11:08 am
The posts mainly stay in place via tension, but the tops screw into the ceiling as well. I was afraid of that because of my popcorn, but it works just fine — very sturdy, but they won’t work as dance poles! We used those little plastic anchors to keep the screws in tight. The posts look better than I expected.
There is a screw at the bottom for tightening the tension, and you can adjust the post itself the way you would adjust a curtain rod: turn unlock, pull up or down, turn lock.
The Stolmen line also includes some accessories you can add: mirror, cd rack, shelves. I considered using the cd rack as a bedside table, putting my phone, earplugs, books, into the little cubbies. I think that would look too Ikeaphilic, though. Too much!
I used two fixtures and two hooks from the Stolmen line, and stretched a clothes rod I found in Ikea’s draperies section across the hooks. Unfortunately the clothes rod is flimsy and will bow soon, I’m sure. I’m going to replace it with either a stronger rod (bamboo?) or tightly-strung wire — need to figure out how to cinch up the wire very tightly, though.
I had considered stretching canvas or fabric in the same manner that Dvider does; that looks very sleek to me. But ultimately I chose drapes because I want the option of opening/closing them at a moment’s notice. I’m very delighted with the beautiful velvet set I found on Overstock.com — what a great bargain.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
My place is relatively small and in order to separate different areas I have used FLOR — they are carpet tiles that allow you to customize your space…and also separate areas. Because they are tiles not only can you customize your design with color, texture & pattern and you can also create unique scalable configurations to separate various living areas.