Unleash the Pollock Within

When I decided to move into a studio, I knew I would need to finagle a divider to define the spaces. It's nice both for myself and for guests to know the living space from the private or sleeping space, even though there's no wall between the two.

Remodelista blogged about a few ideas here, and Buzzfeed has an article here. Here's some inspiration that I played with, too:

This room is just fantastic, packing a double punch with the dividers by using both curtains (attached on only part of the ceiling and not meant to be fully closed) as well as the screen/plant combo. Those herringbone floors... I could move right in.

Another screen. Wouldn't that be a fun DIY?? 

I love this screen because it doesn't obstruct the view or, more importantly, the light, but cues the separate parts of the room. (The rest of the image is a little froo-froo for my taste but how crazy is that wallpapered ceiling?!)

Bookshelves are a fantastically functional use of space... especially airy ones like these that let light come through:

Here's an example of very thin, narrow shelves that act as a divider:

Great curtains (can you spy the Jielde lamp, like I talked about in this post??):

Another curtain divider here:

I considered all of the above ideas before settling on the curtain, which I like because it's lightweight, lets sunlight through, and doesn't distract too much  from the rest of the space. I didn't have the perfect spare curtain lying around, so I decided to make one myself. Keeping in mind something simple, light, neutral, but with a bit of glam, I thought a Pollock-inspired divider would be simple, quick, and  have just the effect I was after.

I grabbed a clean, white, flat bedsheet from my mother's linen closet, some gold paint, and a paint brush. After laying the sheet out, I commenced to splattering. To figure out how best to splatter the paint, I studied a few photos of Pollock while working:

I liked how his pieces have both the drip drops of paint, as well as the longer lines that have been flopped down with the flick of a wrist.

Because I wanted plenty of light to shine through, I leaned toward more background, less paint, like this of Pollock's:

I also studied how Pollock made his paintings into fields ("field" refers to a painting, surface, expanse, etc that has no distinction between figure and ground), like these:

... and tried to do the same in mine by avoiding having either clusters of paint or expanses of white, as in this "during" photo of my own:

And finished:

Then I hung it up by attaching a heavy duty wire into the wall with screw-in hooks from the hardware store:

Later, I added a little black velvet trim to the edge to finish it. I would definitely recommend doing this before hanging up the curtain, but fabric glue got it to stick (would've been much easier if the sheet were lying horizontally instead of vertically!):

Now I need a chic little tieback and I'll be set! Stay tuned for a DIY on that to come :)