No. 005 · Ideas · Small spacesInvalid Date · By The Art of Interiors

How to divide a studio apartment without walls

Shelves, curtains, rugs and a well-placed bed: how the studio dwellers we've toured split one room into several.

A tall open shelf dividing a desk from a bed in a Brooklyn studio

You can divide a studio apartment with an open shelf, a curtain, a rug or the way you place the bed. None of them needs a wall or a landlord's permission. The studio dwellers we've toured use all of these, often together, to make one room work as a bedroom, office and living room. Here's how they do it.

How we chose these: we looked at every studio and open-plan home we've filmed and noted how each host separated sleeping, working and living. Each method below links to the home where you can see it.

Step 1: Decide on your zones

Start with how you live, not with a divider. List what the room has to do each day: sleep, work, eat, relax, host.

Isabelle split her 480 sq ft Brooklyn studio into four zones: a kitchen and dining area, a living room, an office by the window and a bedroom. Jeff did something unusual in his Long Island City studio. He put his desk in the entry so that when he walks into the main room, he leaves work behind.

Once you know the zones, place each one where it makes sense. Desks like windows. Beds like the quietest corner.

Step 2: Use an open shelf as a wall

A tall open shelf is the closest thing to a wall you can move. Isabelle found a large shelf on Facebook Marketplace that had been custom built for a doctor's office. She hired movers to bring it in and stood it between her desk and her bed.

A tall open shelf with plants and books dividing a desk from a bed — *Isabelle's open shelf divides her desk from her bed.*

An open shelving unit used as a room divider between a living area and a hallway — *An open shelf separates rooms without blocking light. Photo: Artbovich on Pexels.*

Because it's open, light still reaches the bed, but she doesn't see the bed while she works. The side facing the bed holds her jewellery, perfume and sewing supplies, so it works as storage too.

Step 3: Hang a curtain

A curtain gives you a door that disappears when you open it. Jeff's studio has only one door, on the bathroom, so he hung curtains to hide the kitchen and to separate his workstation. A friend in Korea brought one curtain back for him, and it fit the opening from top to bottom without his measuring.

Floor-to-ceiling curtains pulled back to frame a kitchen and dining area — *Curtains can close off a kitchen in seconds. Photo: albeg on Pexels.*

In a long Montreal apartment, Sandrine hung floor-to-ceiling curtains on three walls of her living room. They give her privacy from the bedroom next door, which opens through a wide doorway. Because they cover whole walls, they read as decor instead of a cover-up.

A living room with white curtains covering the walls and an arc lamp — *Sandrine's curtains cover three walls of her living room.*

Step 4: Let rugs draw the lines

A rug tells you where one room ends and the next begins. Jeff's rug marks the line between his sleeping area and living area. Sheridon put a large rug at the foot of her bed in her Jersey City studio to separate it from her office.

Rugs work in bigger homes too. Samiha's apartment rules require rugs on most of the floor in her Bed-Stuy apartment, so she used a green rug for the living area and a round one under the dining table.

Step 5: Turn the bed into furniture

Where you put the bed decides how the room works. Tanya skipped a bed frame in her Toronto studio and set her box spring along the wall so it doubles as a sofa for guests. Turned the other way, she says, it would have cut the room in half.

Jake tried curtains around the bed in his Ottawa studio when he first moved in. Guests seemed afraid to use that part of the room. He took them down, painted a rainbow mural as a headboard and styled the bed to match the rest of the room. Now people walk past it without a second thought.

A view from the bed across a studio to the living area and an orange fireplace — *Jake's bed now reads as part of the living room.*

Step 6: Try screens, plants and glass

A divider doesn't have to be solid. Sheridon thought about a curtain between her bed and desk, then hung a plant instead to mark the edge of the bedroom. Tom closes off the bed alcove in his Upper West Side studio with a glass and metal screen, inspired by Japanese sliding screens he saw on his many work trips to Japan. It closes for guests and lets light through.

Frosted glass sliding panels closing off a sleeping alcove — *Tom's screen closes for guests and still lets light through.*

A slatted wooden screen separating a sofa from a bedroom area — *A slatted screen marks a zone and keeps the room open. Photo: Gatranro on Pexels.*

Step 7: Or don't divide at all

Some hosts like seeing everything at once. Lessandra and Sam's Old Port loft in Montreal has no interior walls, not even around the bed. They say it makes gatherings feel warmer, since everyone can see each other.

A large open loft with a dining table, sofa and big windows and no interior walls — *Lessandra and Sam's loft has no walls between rooms.*

If you go this route, keep the bed neat and in the same colours as the rest of the room, the way Jake does.

Which divider is right for you?

A real visual wall that still lets light in: An open shelf (Step 2)
Privacy on demand: A curtain (Step 3) or a screen (Step 6)
The cheapest change: A rug (Step 4)
A bed guests will sit near: Turn it into furniture (Step 5)

Start with the zone that bothers you most, often the bed, and live with one change for a few weeks before adding another.

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