For Shalini Naidu, a software engineer working in Mum­bai, her small one-bedroom apartment is a far cry from the two storied house she had back home. The “pigeon hole” as she fondly calls it, begs for more room, she says. It’s then that she decided to use a partition to separate her small kitchen from the sitting area.

Divide and decorate seems to be the mantra of the day for most people who have space rest­rictions. Today, spiraling pri­ces do not allow most individuals to rent or buy big apartments and the only option left is to make good use of the limited space available. In such cases, room dividers come as a saving grace.

“There was no wall separating my kitchen from the sitting area. This was not only inconvenient, but also gave my sitting area a very cluttered look. So, to give it a neater effect, I separated it with a glass partition. Now, I have a very well decorated sitting area and it does not clash with the kitchen,” says Naidu.

Restricted to mostly wood earlier, partitions today are available in different varieties — glass, fabric screens, beads and at times sliding doors also act as a good separator.

According to Subhashini B, an interior decorator, in addition to screens with specific functions such as bookcases and plant holders, there are some basic types of screens which differ by materials, function, and how they work.

“To separate a room, one can opt for free-standing screens that have lot of panels such as shoji screens or wooden frames set in rice papers that allow light to pass through. One can also go for gathered fabric screens or fabric hung in wooden frames that can be removed for cleaning. Also, there are photo display screens that holds plain or matted photos and canvas pocket screens, which add privacy and storage at the same time,” she says.

There are lacquered screens or hand-painted wood coated with lacquer, which adds an arty touch to rooms and silk screens that are often hand painted with ink and water colours.

Sushant Balyan, a banker, who recently bought an apartment in Bangalore agrees. “The drawing room in my apartment is huge and a lot of space is wasted. So, I have installed a folding glass door thereby creating a study-cum-guest room in the house,” he adds.

Apart from these one can also use beads and curtains to create a division. Though not too apt in providing privacy, these add a decorative element to ones house. And if you want to go more creative, you can also install creative plastic or plant room dividers.