STOLMEN Room Divider

Materials: 2 (or more) STOLMEN Posts, Sheet Canvas, Grommets, Fray Check, Liquid Stitch, Wire and connectors optional, Gesso optional but recommended

Description: Just moved into a loft style apartment with about 9 ft ceilings that does not divide rooms. However, we have a TON of stuff and no closets to speak of. I wanted to hide all that and the bedroom from the main living area. After researching room dividers and realizing we would have to spend upwards of $200 for only a partial solution we decided to make our own. In the end we spent about $100 and utilized some materials that we already had.

1. Plan – Plan out your space, be sure to include room for walkways. It helps to put up the STOLMEN Poles to visualize this. Order sheet canvas in the size needed from Ebay. Ours was 6.5ft by 13ft and only cost about $50 shipped. Make sure you get at least 1 ft wider than you need as you will wrap the canvas around the pole to secure it.
2. Prepare canvas – Lay out your canvas on the floor. Iron it and use Fray Check along all the edges (or any other sewing liquid designed to stop fraying edges $3 from Michaels). Fold the unfinished sides on top and bottom back to hide them and to adjust to the desired height, iron them then use liquid stitch to glue them back.

3. Build – Mark your poles to how high your ceiling is, then lay them along the edges of your canvas and lengthen them to their final length. Fold the canvas over the pole and use the grommet tools to make a grommet at the top and the bottom of the canvas around the pole. This may be tricky but be patient and make it as tightly fitting the pole as you can. Before finishing the grommet, treat the hole you made with Fray Check. You could also use a bolt or some other fixture but grommets are what we had. Do the same to the other end.
4. Raise it – Do one side and fit it, make sure its level. Our ceiling is concrete so we did not use the screws for the ceiling, but it stands fine. Then the other and get the canvas as taught as possible.
5. Optional additional dividers – We had spare wire from a dogtie laying around so we fixed the wire around the smaller shaft of each STOLMEN where it fits into the larger part, that kept the wire from sliding down. We then attached another wire into the wall and clipped it to the wire suspended between the Poles to separate two rooms. I then hung a curtain from the suspended wire.
5. Finishing – The canvas will look baggy and canvas colored (ugly). To stiffen it, paint it with Gesso while holding the portion you are working on taut and using a little extra on the part wrapped around the pole (artists paint used to prime canvas also at Michaels 1/2 gallon bout $20). Stepladder and drop cloth recommended. Our 12x6ft wall took nearly a whole 1/2 gallon. If you are artistic you can paint a gigantic cool mural on it.

~ Danielle T., San Diego