Turn Old Bifold Doors Into A Chic Privacy Screen With Added Shelves

Rickety bifold closet doors that constantly come off their tracks are the source of many swears. When it comes to upgrading your home, these folding fellows are often among the first to go in favor of something better. Consequently, they are not hard at all to find online, either cheap or for free. Maybe you have a dusty set left over from your own closet door upgrade. Get them out of the garage, spruce them up with a fresh coat of paint, and prep a couple of boards for shelves. Combine all of the above, and you'll come away with a chic privacy screen with scores of uses. Complete with shelves, the final product will be a great way to carve separate spaces out of one large room. The shelves are also removable, which makes the privacy screen easy to store when it's not in use.

There are lots of clever ways to create your own room divider, but one that's easy to make, provides great privacy when you need it, and has shelves might win the best-of prize. This trick works best with louvered doors; you'll be removing four of the doors' slats to slide shelf boards through. To make your own privacy screen, source two bifold doors with slats. For tools, you'll need a sander, a handheld saw designed to cut in small spaces, and a drill. The additional materials you'll need are three bifold door hinges, two pieces of 2x6 for shelves, paint, and painting supplies. Cut the 2x6s to lengths that will run the width of two sets of doors when the panels are folded at about 90 degrees.

First, decide where you'd like to place your shelves. When in place, the two shelf boards also help the privacy screen stand in place. A good place to start is at the slats just above the knobs. Where you place your second shelf board is up to you, but between 16 and 20 inches above the first board will leave a good amount of room for storage on the shelves while also providing support for the standing divider. Cut out the slats at those spaces, taking care to cut the same slots on all four door panels.

Connect the two separate bifold doors with the three additional hinges at the top, bottom, and middle of the edges that touch. However, attach the hinges so they fold in the opposite direction as the existing hinges; this will allow the divider to stand with the panels connected accordion-style.

Sand and paint both sides of the four door panels and shelf boards. If you're unsure about how you want to paint your new privacy screen, check out our choices for the four best colors to paint your interior doors. You could also treat the divider as an accent piece with one of our 35 best accent wall colors. Once the surfaces are no longer tacky, stand the panels with the hinges bent at roughly right angles. Send each shelf board through their four cut-out spaces in the louvers. You can experiment with the angles of the panels so that they stand firmly. 

Think of all the times you've wanted or needed to break up a room, either for privacy, or just to create a feeling of a separation out of one large room. Studio apartments are top candidates for this type of privacy screen. Siblings sharing a room or dorm roommates won't complain about a bit of separation combined with extra storage. Use it to hide a washer and dryer, water heater, or water softener in a utility room you're wanting to make into a hangout area.

Large living rooms can be airy and welcoming, but there are many reasons why cutting up that open area can be useful at times. Set up a home office in a corner. With the way the 2x6s run through the slats on the divider, they create four shelves on one side of the unit and six on the other as well; position the divider so that you have the most shelving close at hand for small office supplies and objects that make your work area more pleasant.

If you're short of a guest room or dedicated home gym and need your living room to serve many purposes, unfold this screen to give the in-laws a bit of peace on the pullout couch. Use it when you want to work up a sweat out of sight. Hide workout equipment and even store lightweight exercise gear on the shelves.