Separating one large bedroom into two living spaces

**lottaLove** · 02-11-2011, 08:41 PM

So we've been on the lookout for a 3 bedroom apartment, but have been unsuccessful. We spoke to our landlord, and he will be renting us a much larger 2 bedroom for the same price we are paying now.

So we are going to have a master bedroom that is the size of two bedrooms (the units directly above ours are 3 bedroom, so we have same amount of space minus one room I guess).

Does anyone have any creative and inexpensive ideas on how to separate the master bedroom into 2 living spaces? DH and myself will be sharing this room with DD who is 9mos old. So far the only ideas we've had are using a privacy screen or putting the 2 dressers back to back so that each one is facing it's respective 'room'.

I hope my ramblings make sense.

**krbshappy71** · 02-11-2011, 09:11 PM

How much privacy do you need?

If you want her to have a safe play-space area how about dividing the room with a large baby gate?
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Aosom-Wooden-Playpen-Divider-Panel/dp/B001GQ4CL0"]Amazon.com: Aosom Baby Kids Wooden Playpen Room Divider 8 Panel: Baby@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KfWAJxoGL.@@AMEPARAM@@41KfWAJxoGL[/ame]
If you want visual privacy only, you could do hang sheets across the room with a clothesline.

Dressers back-to-back could add storage on both sides of the room, hopefully making up for the space they took up. For dorms sometimes people use tall storage cube room dividers. Your little one will be pulling herself up soon if hasn't been already so whatever you choose should be sturdy.

Hope that helps.

**dancemommy** · 02-11-2011, 09:39 PM

When my brother and I were like 5 and 7 we lived in an apt with a very large master bedroom. My mom took the smaller room and gave us the master. So that we didn't have to "share" the room she put book cases down the middle. It worked fine for us. I'd be afraid with young kids personally that they could climb them and knock them over, but if you could somehow anchor them that might work. In our basement we have a storage area partitioned off right now with shower curtains and curtain rods- they slide across on shower curtain rings very easily. We got plain black and they really don't even look like shower curtains. Another thing we have is this adorable scene from pottery barn. It is huge, but I think was pretty pricey originally- it is a castle scene and is probably like 8 X 15 feet. I don't know if they make cheaper items like that but we use it to partition off a playroom from a storage area too. Good luck!

**krbshappy71** · 02-12-2011, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by dancemommy

When my brother and I were like 5 and 7 we lived in an apt with a very large master bedroom. My mom took the smaller room and gave us the master. So that we didn't have to "share" the room she put book cases down the middle. It worked fine for us. I'd be afraid with young kids personally that they could climb them and knock them over, but if you could somehow anchor them that might work. In our basement we have a storage area partitioned off right now with shower curtains and curtain rods- they slide across on shower curtain rings very easily. We got plain black and they really don't even look like shower curtains. Another thing we have is this adorable scene from pottery barn. It is huge, but I think was pretty pricey originally- it is a castle scene and is probably like 8 X 15 feet. I don't know if they make cheaper items like that but we use it to partition off a playroom from a storage area too. Good luck!

Hey thanks for the basement idea, I have just recently started storing things in the basement in the open area. This might dress it up a bit if it starts looking unseemly.

**Debbie-cat** · 02-12-2011, 10:32 AM

A shower curtain or fabric hung by a curtain rod is a great idea as well as bookcases back to back. I did the same thing in my old place in the basement and it worked really well.

**lottaLove** · 02-12-2011, 11:39 AM

Thanks for the ideas!

**heartofmine** · 02-12-2011, 11:53 AM

A lot of people use the book case idea to split shared rooms and it seems to work great. I saw a show once on HGTV where they did that and they panelled and trimmed out the backs of the book cases too look like walls. You could actually just turn the book cases facing your room and then wall paper the back with a cute baby scene. Maybe put a changing table or dresser on the babies side against the back of the bookcases to help anchor them. Depending on how big the room is you could put 2 bookcases on each side forming a wall and then put a curtain up between as a door. 2 could be facing your room and 2 faces the babies room. The book cases would give you great storage. You could put baskets in them to hold things.

**Momto5RN** · 02-12-2011, 04:27 PM

my only concern with dividing things with furniture is that such furniture should really be attached to the wall for safety reasons at that age .

they say a child dies every 2 weeks in tip over accidents and 16000 er visits a year also are attributed to them

article :

A child dies every two weeks in tipover accidents; feds issue alert

who will be in the other bedroom ???

**heartofmine** · 02-12-2011, 06:07 PM

You are right Momto5RN. The book cases should be secured by attaching brackets on the backs of each bookcase attaching them together. On each wall attach brackets and then attaching a board the width of the tops of the bookcases all the way across the tops and across the "door way" between. Stain it or paint it to match the bookcases. Secure to the tops of the bookcases and to the wall could keep them from tipping. Also setting the dressers she mentioned on the back side would also help support them.