Screening Rooms : These Dividers Control Light and Space and Can Create Personality, Both Inside and Out

Room screens--a centuries-old solution to dividing spaces and adding artistic touches--are proving themselves to be versatile additions to modern homes.

New designs are lighter and more open, reflecting trends in architecture and furnishings. In addition to traditional woods, screens are being made with metals, sheer fabrics and just about everything else. Screens can be ornately decorated or simply stated, single panels or multiple ones that fold and unfold, huge expanses or narrow accents.

They can be pricey works of art or simple home-style inventions.

“Screens can be used in many ways,” said Leon Geotz of Z Gallerie in Fashion Island, Newport Beach. “You can put them in front of windows instead of curtains, so light comes in at the top but you still have privacy. You can change the fabric on some screens just like slip covers to get a whole new look with each change in the seasons.”

In an entry, a screen can help set a mood or direct the flow of traffic and air.

All around the house, a room divided can often do double duty.

Put a screen in front of the couch in the living room and you have an immediate mini-bedroom where a sleeping guest is visually isolated from the rest of the house. In the kitchen, a screen can be used to create an intimate dining area separate from the sink, stove and clutter of meal preparation. On the patio, it blocks an unwanted view.

The corner screen that adds a glamorous touch to a movie star’s dressing room can do the same in less stellar settings. Or it can be used to conceal clutter, from computers to storage boxes to racks of clothes.

“Screens provide great storage space for people,” said screen collector Jackie Jefferies, who has used them to create discreet storage areas in her Orange County home. Her holiday decorations are stored behind an antique European screen that extends along a wall in her dining room. She has used the screens to add character to every house she’s lived in. That, she says, brings up another good point about screens: “You can always take them with you when you move.”

Even if you don’t need the privacy or storage, an open screen made from materials such as wrought iron or bamboo can visually divide space between rooms.

Well-placed indoors or outdoors, a screen can be used to make space more interesting.

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The idea of using screens to alter spaces is an ancient one.

Invented by the Chinese more than 2,000 years ago, the free-standing room screen was heavy and often highly decorated. The most prized lacquer screen, the Chinese coromandel, has incised decoration made with a very sharp knife. The Chinese used screens primarily to provide privacy and to control the flow of air, space and light within large rooms.

Centuries later, the Japanese developed screens that were smaller and more mobile. Sliding screens made from wood and heavy paper were used to separate rooms within a house; lightweight folding screens that established the style popular today were used to create privacy. The folding panels were held together by a flexible paper hinge that created one continuous surface that was an ideal canvas for artists.

In the 17th Century, screens began to be imported into Europe from China and Japan, and by the end of the century many noble houses had them.

The Europeans gradually developed new styles of screens using needlework, canvas and wood. Screens depicted pastoral life, floral arrangements and scenes from court, among many others. Panel sizes varied; some screens had two panels, others had as many as 12.

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In the 20th Century, artists as diverse as Man Ray, Ansel Adams and David Hockney have created screens. From both the Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts periods came screens with intricate wood carvings.

Designer and utilitarian versions are sold through home furnishings, import and department stores.

Prices vary widely: Rice paper and wood screens at discount stores are priced at less than $100; designer wood, canvas or wrought iron screens sell for hundreds of dollars. Antique screens or those signed by noted artists are much more costly.

For a truly personal screen, the do-it-yourself version is an option, too.

Plain canvas and wood screens can be purchased and then personalized. Or a basic screen can be constructed by connecting plain doors or frames with hinges, then covering them with fabrics or painting them. On solid screens, some people decoupage mementos like letters, post cards, special wine labels or menus.

The true screen test comes with imagination--expressed in the screen you’ve discovered or made yourself or the way you’ve placed it in your home.