Divide and conquer: Stylish screens to change your living space

Best in class: Screen time


One of the leading designers in the US, Jeffrey Bilhuber is lauded for his ability to see things differently. In his recent coffee table book American Master, published by Rizzoli, he repurposed an antique Asian screen to use as wardrobe doors.

Adams At Home auction tomorrow on St Stephens Green has two Japanese six-panel screens from the estate of the late Anne Bullitt. Each has a guide price of between €600 and €1,200. 
bilhuber.com
adams.ie

Screens can be used as a discreet divider between inside and out. This Soeil trellis planter is freestanding and holds up to 11 pots, and can be used to veil an area of the patio or balcony that doesn’t look up to scratch.

It comes in two colours, pale grey or yellow, and stands 162cm tall and 60cm wide. The powder-coated frame can be used indoors and outdoors and costs €263, ex-delivery, from West Elm, based in the UK.
westelm.co.uk

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This room shot from Sainsbury’s Home SS17 collection features its Bloomville accessories range, available at its Belfast store, as well as a two-tone screen in colours reminisicent of toile de jouy. Murphy Sheehy, now at Cranford Centre, Montrose, on the Stillorgan Road, sells traditional options from Clarke & Clarke at €26.25 a metre.

Toiles de Jouy Decoration sells 5,000 versions of this fabric from big names. It also stocks cushions, lampshades, trays and desk accessories.
sainsburyshome.co.uk
toilesdejouydecoration.fr

You can pick up screens for very little at auction but they’re often in need of TLC. One idea is to cover them in decorative wallpaper like this Frontier print from traditional paper company Cole and Son.

Depicting an era of travel, colonialism, and the Far East, the collection's 12 designs have been sourced from the company's archive, which dates back more than 300 years. Pictured is Gondola a paper that costs about €97 a roll. For information on stockists near you, contact Furnishing Distributors.
cole-and-son.com
furnishing.ie

The star of this bathroom is the Perspex floor-standing screen which could also function as a modesty screen in a busy family bathroom. Inspired by the work of artist Tom Burr, it was made for this shoot but APM (Access Plastics Manufacturing), based in Ashbourne, Co Meath, can make something similar: expect to pay about €600 for a line-bend design and it may take several weeks.

This Parma purple screen looks really strong as a decorative element in an all-white bathroom: the freestanding bath will cost about €9,346 from Versatile Bathrooms, in Navan.
versatilebathrooms.ie

A tall, freestanding screen can act as a room divider or could be installed in lieu of traditional sliding or fold-back doors that are a feature of many period homes. This design is by Martha Sturdy, a Vancouver-based artist and designer who creates sculptural home furnishings using resin, steel, brass and salvage cedar.

This five-panel design in brass is art as well as being decorative, and will cost about €20,600, ex-shipping. Each panel measures 61cm by 304cm and the design can also be ordered in an ombre- effect oxidised steel.
marthastudy.com

This layered decorating lets the fabric become freestanding art. It shows Au Theatre Ce Soir, a collection of digitally printed fabrics and deeply textured embroideries given the house of Lacroix treatment for Designers Guild. The two single-panel screens feature Noailles Jour, a scrolling damask that is a fresh take on a classic vintage French textile.

The fabric costs €119 a metre to order from La Maison Chic in Galway and from stockists on Designers Guild online. A roll of matching wallpaperis €119.
designersguild.com
lamaisonchic.ie