Have you ever captured privacy screens? Very beautiful, and not all easy on the wallet, but so useful. You can put one in front of a room that doesn’t have a door, or in front of another area in the house to hide it from visitors, or separate one room into two. If you would like to have one of these room dividers, but don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars to get one, do it yourself. When you use cardboard to make a privacy screen, you create a cheap version that mimics the real thing.
A room partition can be as long or as short as you want. If you are using one solid box, remove the top and bottom, then trim each corner of the box to make four panels. If you use silver cards, you need at least four pieces that are all the same size. Four pieces of cardboard form a two-layer screen, known as a window “pane” with a design to ensure privacy.
Cut the windows out of the cardboard so that you have two, juxtaposed, across the top, then two more, juxtaposed, and so on, all the way to the bottom. The size for each slice is large printer paper. The number of windows you cut will depend on the size of the cardboard you have. At the bottom of each panel, leave a wide piece of cardboard, just to confirm that the screen will be solid and will stand straight. You will cut all four panels so that they look exactly the same, using a sharp tool to cut out the holes.
You can create window frames in different ways. One way is to use onion typing paper from an office supply store. The thin paper will allow the desired design to shine through. There are enough sheets of tape to make the same pattern as you would on your cardboard. Make sure the edges of the paper you use line up with the strips of paper around the windows. Draw freehand to make pictures on paper, or just use the pebbles and paint the stickers.
Instead of drawing you can also print out images on regular printer paper or colored varieties. Vellum, or even colored cellophane, are other options for creating window panes. After he had asked them all together, to form the cardboard windows, he put one of the cards on top of the paper and temporarily taped it in place.
Apply adhesive to one of the cardboard window panes, covering the other, to hold the paper or other material between the two panes. Make each cardboard box in the same way.
After applying the glue, cut two or three holes along one long piece of cardboard. Use a zip-tie tool to tie the two panels together. If you want, you can paint or cover the cardboard with shelf liner or fabric before joining them together. You’ll love the lightweight privacy screen that’s made for just a few bucks.
Cardboard Privacy Screen
