Room divider for a loft with IKEA BESTÅ

room divider for loft ikea

A room divider helps in using the empty space in a loft, turning the open plan into functional areas.

Kevin divides up the loft space with this clever IKEA BESTÅ hack, separating the sleeping area from the home office space. The versatile room divider does double duty as storage for clothes and office materials. On the other side, it’s the perfect solution for hanging a TV.

In planning the room divider, Kevin set his sights on the modular BESTÅ system for a modern design. But the only problem was the original BESTÅ configurations didn’t fit the space, being either too tall or short. A creative solution was called for.

room divider for loft ikea

IKEA item used:

BESTÅ storage combination with glass doors and drawers

Other materials:

MDF boards

How to build a Loft Room Divider with IKEA BESTÅ

While the whole room divider looks seamless, the original BESTÅ takes up only the lower two-thirds. The BESTÅ unit ends at the glass cabinets.

To raise the room divider to loft height, Kevin built a custom frame with basic materials from the hardware store.

Then, Kevin installed the frame on top of the IKEA BESTÅ unit with screws. He drilled from inside the BESTÅ frame into the custom frame. To finish, he used drawer fronts in a similar finish as the rest of the BESTÅ unit, attaching them with hinges. This tied everything together.

“With this custom frame we were able to have a loft room divider as high as our ceiling height,” he says.

loft room divider storage

Next, the back half. He finished with the exposed BESTÅ back with MDF panels from Home Depot. To attach the boards Kevin cut blocks of wood and positioned them at 6 spots per BESTÅ frame. The MDF is screwed into the block and then the block of wood is screwed to the BESTA side panels. MDF boards reinforced the flimsy BESTÅ backer board and made the back sturdy enough the hang a TV. The MDF boards were unfinished so he painted them white.

attaching the mdf board

He used a hole saw to make 1″ holes through the back of the frame. Cables, power supply and lighting wires thread through the holes.

hang up the TV on back of BESTA unit

His loft room divider hack took him about 5 days to complete.

(A note on safety: The room divider is freestanding. To avoid a top over incident, please anchor it to the ceiling with appropriate wall anchors.)

See more of Kevin’s loft room divider on his flickr photo set. Also check out the video tour of it.