Provide Privacy while Encouraging Sunlight Flow with Modern Dividers
The sun is a treasured commodity in any nest. It helps our plants thrive, and it is an important part of what helps us thrive as well. For this reason, room separators which allow a constant flow of sunlight is a valued and wonderful thing. In the case of an apartment or dorm, a room partition may be desired to separate 2 different housemates with two different senses of style, 2 different sleeping schedules, and 2 different lifestyles. However, if there is one windowpane in the room, then one housemate is literally left in the dark. This is not the case with some modern style room dividers.
In the style of classic Japanese Shoji houses that are built of wooden frames covered in rice paper, Japanese dividers are made in much the same way. Frames of birch are constructed in simple or complex designs, the stretched with durable translucent rice paper. The dividers provide secrecy. You can’t view through the rice paper, but light can flow through the rice paper so that people on either side of the divider enjoys some degree of sunlight. Additionally, Japanese room dividers come in several beautiful designs. Some feature floral artwork painted or printed on the rice paper; others take their decorative beauty from lattice style woodworking.
Another set of modern room dividers that provide privacy but can allow light to pass through is the louver divider. These are wood screens, usually made of three or four panels. They can be simple or intricately decorated and they are generally made of sturdy wood. Louvers cover part, if not all, of the panels, and when closed, the solid wood divider blocks out all sight from the other side. With most louver dividers, however, the louvers can be opened. This does little to minimize the privacy afforded by the divider, but what does change is the amount of sunlight that can drift through the room through the spaces between the louvers.
Either of these modern style dividers come in a number of styles & sizes, and prices can range from below $100 to close to $1,000, depending on a number of factors. Size is an issue because they can range from 4 feet tall to 7 feet tall, and some can be bought with more panels, so that a three-panel screen can become a 6- or 7- panel screen. The model you choose will also affect price. Most room separators are free standing and movable; however, there are also models that can roll or slide on tracks installed in the floor & ceiling.
Finally, a large part of what affects the price of a room divider is the materials from which it is made. A divider crafted from solid oak with hand painted rice paper may have a fairly steep price tag, while a frame of particle board or plastic will provide some cost savings. That is not to say that an affordable room divider will look cheap or ugly; many vendors carry very attractive choices for a reasonable price tag.
