I'm more into opening rooms up for better flow with a feeling of more space than dividing rooms, but there are many good reasons to put in room dividers, and many ways to divide rooms. We'll explore some of those, here.

One reason to divide rooms is to make a long room have better balance. The bowling alley feel can be broken into parts, each with its own functional form, by placing furniture in the middle, facing into the two separate areas. Sofas do that well, with a sofa table behind it, maybe, so it is attractive from either side. Or, bump two sofas together, back-to-back, forming two areas on either side. I love the new sofas with no backs in the center of the room, which is quite unique, functional with large groups, and makes a great place to nap when there is no one around. I wouldn't want it to be the only sofa in the room, however.

Kitchen islands are room dividers in a way. They divide the room into the 'working side' and the 'watching side', or what I call the 'advisor side'. Guests sit and advise you on what you did wrong as you cook and they critique. Before the popularity of kitchen islands, we had serve-through bars. They divided the kitchen from the dining area or den, often. They were quite serviceable, and will return in popularity, soon, I predict.

Partitions are a way of making one large bedroom, for instance, into two smaller bedrooms for two children as the family grows. Partitions may be just accordioned screens, tall bookcases, or actual walls. A do-it-yourself person with medium building skills can put in a room partition for little expense. Some studs, drywall, screws, trim molding and then texture and paint is all it takes, maybe a door between the two rooms. The partition can be built in a manner where it may be removed later, or made to be so permanent it will be there forever, depending on what the homeowner wants. It may require a building permit, depending on your area.

Years ago, I helped a friend do what might be described as a combination of these ideas. His living room was long and narrow, and the hardwood floors immediately invited the "bowling alley" comments as guests arrived. "I don't want the room to be cut in two, but I wish it had something to break up the long, narrow affect," he said.

We went to the store, spent a couple hundred dollars, rolled up our sleeves and went to work. We built some protruding square pillars, just off-center, on either side of the room, with a false beam connecting the two. In the pillars, we put stereo speakers aimed to give the entire room 'surround sound,' hid the wires (to the stereo nearby to the speakers) in the false beam. We arranged the furniture to make one end of the room more like a sitting area and the other more of a reading room, with some bookcases built into the walls and the new pillars on the reading room side.

We were quite proud of the effect we accomplished. With some Oriental rugs and complimentary colors, the two areas flowed well, looked separate yet connected, both, and no one ever commented, "It looks like a bowling alley," ever again.

Need to divide a room? The possibilities are endless, limited only by your imagination and budget. Adjusting the budget is difficult, but imagination has no limits.

Learn more about this author, Will Kester.
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