Looking for cheap room divider ideas for your house or apartment? In this post, I’ve listed the best tips and tricks on how to divide a room without building a wall.

Did you know that installing a new wall can cost thousands of dollars? Fortunately, it’s completely possible to divide a space into two rooms without a permanent wall! To save time and money, consider using room dividers to split up a room on a budget!

In this post, I’ve included several clever room divider ideas. Some of these solutions provide ceiling to floor privacy and others help visually section off spaces (and offer semi-privacy). Here are the best affordable and attractive-looking room dividers to use at home!

Let’s get started!

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Cheap Room Divider Ideas

Below, I’ve gathered several cheap room divider ideas to split a room without a permanent wall. Under each idea, I’ve also included a helpful product I felt had the most value for the cost.

Best Room Dividers On A Budget

1. Split A Room With A Curtain Wall Divider

Looking for a cheap and effective idea on how to divide a room without building a wall? Split a room with curtains! A curtain wall divider is a clever way to split a space into two rooms on a budget.

Curtains provide ceiling to floor privacy, making it an ideal solution for dividing a shared room or concealing a private space (like a bedroom or closet space). To divide a room with curtains, simply install a room divider tension rod, or a curtain rod ceiling mount at your preferred location. You can use any curtains you prefer. However, for best results, I highly recommend using wall divider curtains.

Check out these amazing Wall Divider Curtains from Amazon. These curtains are thick, high quality, and come in a variety of beautiful colors. As a bonus, this product can help insulate sections of your room, block off light completely, and muffle out noises. These are the perfect curtains to block off any space in your house or apartment (like your bedroom, office, laundry room, living room, etc.)! For under $30, this is an excellent budget alternative to a permanent wall!

2. Section Off Spaces With Lace Curtains

If privacy isn’t a concern, consider sectioning off spaces with lace curtains. Lace curtains are a beautiful way to decorate an open doorway or visually divide up a room.

Lace curtains are one of my favorite ways to section off rooms and doorways! To divide up spaces with lace curtains, simply install a room divider tension rod or curtain rod ceiling mount at your preferred location.

Note that lace curtains are entirely ornamental and won’t do anything for privacy. However, they can help filter out light, reducing sunlight glare. I recommend using lace curtains to section off kitchen spaces, open doorways, hallways, and living spaces. For safety reasons, I don’t recommend installing lace curtains if you have young children or curious pets at home.

Lace curtains are a beautiful way to section off a room without a permanent wall. If you are looking for cheap room divider ideas, I highly recommend checking out these gorgeous Lace Curtains from Amazon. The lace design looks lovely and the material is absolutely beautiful. For around $13, these curtains are easy to install, have excellent quality, and can be trimmed to fit your space!

3. Use Adjustable Sliding Ceiling Panels To Divide A Room Without Building A Wall

Looking for ideas on how to divide a room without building a wall? Adjustable sliding ceiling panels are clever alternatives to a permanent wall. Sliding ceiling panels brilliantly divide a space into two rooms AND provide ceiling to floor privacy.

Looking for sliding panels to use at home? I recommend checking out these Adjustable Sliding Ceiling Panels from Amazon. This product comes with 4 trim-able panels, as well as, a panel track that can be mounted anywhere on the ceiling. When you no longer need privacy, you can open up your space easily by sliding the panels.

To open the panels, simply move the wand in either direction. This is an excellent multipurpose room divider product that can also be used as a window shade, sliding door, or closet door.

I love how beautiful, minimalist, and expensive the product looks. The woven fabric panels allows light to gently pass through while providing ceiling to floor privacy for your space. For people who want an expensive-looking room divider at an affordable price, I highly recommend checking out this product!

4. Divide A Room With Decorative Ceiling Mounted Panel Screens

Here’s another beautiful way to divide a room: use decorative ceiling mounted panel screens. Decorative panels are a great way to divide up spaces without a permanent wall. The decorative stenciled cutouts provides a little privacy while allowing light to filter through.

I highly recommend checking out these beautiful Decorative Ceiling Mounted Panel Screens from Amazon. This product comes with 12 easy-to-install panel screens in a variety of beautiful designs and colors. The panels can be attached and combined in multiple ways, making it easy to customize and assemble on your own.

If you are looking cheap room divider ideas for your home, I highly recommend trying out decorative panel screens to add a little privacy and split off an entire room. These are excellent ceiling to floor dividers to separate kitchen, living, and office spaces on a budget! This is a great alternative to building an interior wall at home!

5. Use Foldable Panel Privacy Screens To Section Off Spaces

Looking for a clever idea on how to divide a room without building a wall? Try dividing up your space into two rooms using a foldable panel privacy screen! A foldable privacy screen is an easy way to temporary divide a space.

The foldable panels add immediate privacy to any space. When you no longer need to divide your room, simply fold up the screen and store away! This is a great solution to temporary separate a home office or overnight guest space. For small spaces, I highly recommend using a foldable panel screen to section off spaces when needed.

Looking for a high quality foldable panel screen on a budget? I highly recommend checking out this beautiful bamboo Foldable Panel Privacy Screen from Amazon. This elegant privacy screen has a solid wood frame and a woven bamboo screen. It’s lightweight, but stands up on its own well. The screen provides privacy while allowing a little light to filter through. This is an excellent product to temporary divide up a private spaces (makes a great backdrop for Zoom meetings if you work from home!).

6. Split A Space With An Open Shelf Bookcase

If you are looking for cheap room divider ideas to visually divide a space, I highly recommend using an open shelf bookcase. An open shelf bookcase is a clever way to split a space without a permanent wall.

An open bookshelf allows you to access and view items from either side, making it an ideal furniture piece for divided spaces. Large open shelf bookcases also allow natural light to filter through, and look elegant and expensive. Best of all, they provide extra storage for your favorite books and items! When decorating an open bookcase, avoiding placing too many items on the shelves to prevent it from looking too cluttered (books are an exception!).

If you are looking for MASSIVE bookcase on a budget, I highly recommend checking out this beautiful, sturdy industrial Open Shelf Bookcase from Amazon. For just around $250, this bookcase is gigantic and has a total of 17 open shelves. This is a great product to split up dining room, living, bedroom, and office spaces.

7. For Added Storage, Use Cube Shelves To Divide A Room

Besides using an open shelf bookcase, another clever idea how to divide a room is to use cube shelves. Cube shelves are a great way to divide a space into two rooms without building a wall.

If you plan to insert storage bins, cube shelves also help add an enormous amount of hidden storage to your home. Depending on how large your cube shelves are, you might be able to provide adequate privacy between spaces. Similar to the open shelf bookcase, cube shelves allow you to conveniently access both sides, making it this an ideal furniture piece for divided rooms.

Looking for cube shelves to use at home? I highly recommend checking out these 4×4 Cube Storage Shelves. This is a great sturdy product with easy assembly. If you want to add in storage bins, you can fit a total of 16 13×13 cube bins. For around $235, this is an excellent budget storage unit to double as a room divider.

A simple cube shelf is a clever way to section off a room into two. The shelves look minimalist enough to fit in any space. I highly recommend adding cube storage bins to store more items without looking cluttered. Go for a sturdy set of fabric storage bins like these 3×3 ones from Posprica.

Summarized: Cheap Room Divider Ideas

This post lists several ways to divide a room without a permanent wall. Here are all the cheap room divider ideas in one convenient list:

Cheap Room Divider Ideas For Privacy

Ideas to add privacy and divide up your space:

Cheap Room Divider Ideas To Section Off Spaces (Semi-Privacy)

Ideas to visually divide a space without closing it off completely:

Conclusion

In this post, I’ve gathered several cheap room divider ideas for your home. With some creativity, it’s completely possible to section a space into two rooms without a permanent wall.

This post lists several different solutions to divide up your space. If you need split a room AND add privacy, I highly recommend using a curtain wall divider (best budget solution) or adjustable sliding ceiling wall panels (best permanent wall alternative). You could also use a foldable panel privacy screen to temporary divide a room and add privacy. A large cube shelf (filled with cube bins) can also be used to block off spaces while adding extra storage for your home.

Of course, not everyone needs a wall divider with ceiling to floor privacy. If you want a solution to only visually section off your space, I highly recommend using lace curtains (offers no privacy) or decorative ceiling mounted panel screens (offers semi-privacy). Both of these solutions are budget friendly and look attractive! Lastly, try using an open shelf bookcase to divide up your space, add a little privacy, and provide extra storage for your books and favorite items!

I hope this post gave you some helpful ideas on how to divide a room without building a wall and spending thousands of dollars. Good luck!