This isn't a real DIY. I just said that to get your attention. Tricky right? It's more of a show and tell - but I bet you know some-one somewhere who could use a variation of our set-up for their own space.
Lune and Freckled Nest share the rental of our space - half is used for their office/studio and the other half is Lune's Vintage shop which is open exclusively twice a week. The space is a mirror image of itself, with matching bright bay windows overlooking a busy street. The entrance is smack in the middle of this divide, so on our one common day of operation (Fridays) we needed to make sure the space had a clear division to allow customers to understand that the shop is right, and the private office is left. Up until this point, we were using furnishings to divide the space - but a line of back to back furniture isn't exactly design ideal, and the sight lines still didn't allow for our professional spaces to be esthetically individual.
The issue was, our ceilings are very high, and since they're drop tiles in a track, I couldn't hang anything from them without the risk of the ceiling drooping. There was nothing to anchor a super long rod to, and building a wall was out of the question. I had to be economical too, and buying a series of screens or room dividers just seemed expensive and not much better of a solution.
Light Bulb! Air Craft Cable! Cheap in supplies, strong enough to cross the 30ish foot span from front to back, and minimal enough not to be a waste of space! Todd picked up the cable supplies at the hardware store and I bought 30 curtain rings (clips) to hang 3 matching vintage yellow 70's semi sheers which I thrifted for $20 (a huge score), as the same amount of raw material, even purchased at the discount section was $50.
It took us one evening to rig it up - and it's strong! We even used the cable in our display window which also couldn't use a regular rod since it was basically a very wide bay window , and we needed the curtain to sit behind the stage.
This technique would be ideal for any open space that you'd like divided off in an adjustable way (easy to slide the curtain or straight fabric panels back and forth) in your home too! The lightness and slight transparency of the curtains allows light to pass, and if you get sick of the color - changing them out is a hell of a lot easier than painting!
Check out a quick and easy list and how to over at Apartment Therapy - it's pretty much genius for any multi use space!
Love Jill