How can I reuse or recycle a room divider/screen?

At some point in the long forgotten past, I bought a room dividing screen thing. I think the idea was that we would use it to shelter off the messy desk whenever we had guests staying over in our spare room/office in our old house but to the best of my knowledge we never used it because it got in the way and none of our guests cared.

It’s a metal frame which originally had plain cream fabric panels tied onto it. I’m not sure where the fabric panels are now but they can easily be replaced. The three metal sections come apart easily. It’s about 6ft/180cm tall – I couldn’t fit it all in my camera frame without including my untidy desk, my caked-on-mud wellies and the equally filthy dog ;)

So any ideas what I can do with it?

I could, of course, reinvent it as a room divider – some pretty reclaimed/vintage fabric to make it a feature. While we still have an untidy section of our used-for-storage spare room in our new house, I’m still not sure our guests will care and it’ll just get in the way for us the rest of the time. I could use it for a similar purpose in the garden – using weather-resistant fabric or plastic for the panels instead – but again, I think it will get in the way.

Any other ideas?

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5 Responses to “How can I reuse or recycle a room divider/screen?”


  1. Julie Naylon says:

    Sounds like you don’t have a need or use for it. I would list it on freecycle.org to find a good home for it.

  2. Make the fabric panels with pockets and hang it on the wall as an organizer, or make padded panels and use it as a headboard. I have a very ornate metal folding screen that makes me wish my bedroom wall was tall enough for me to use it as a headboard.

  3. Linda says:

    Hanger for drying washing or art -put into triangle shape and run some lines across, maybe at halfway too.

    Turn horizontally as a pot rack, pulley drying rack (if you have high ceilings and a fire).

    Daughter 5yo just suggested pet house e.g.chook run

    Cloche in garden. Pea support frame.

  4. Melinda says:

    – With some twine, it would be a good trellis in the garden for cucumbers, beans, etc.
    – If you can put the fabric panels only half-way up, it could be a puppet theater.
    – It could be used near a desk or table as a study carrel to block distractions. The idea of putting pockets on the fabric panels would work well for this, too.
    – various items could be hung from the top to work as a windchime.
    – Google up instructions for making an elecrical conuit xylophone (I just did this to check and got lots of results.) The lengths of pipe could be hung from the frame and played as a musical insrument.

  5. Deborah Millek says:

    String lights around it. Makes it pretty for lanai, porch, or anywhere. Google it, it’s the latest thing to do.



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