• Make a decorative window screen with masking tape, and spend only a couple of dollars.Polka Dot Images/Polka Dot/Getty Images
  
  Perhaps you've just purchased a home with an especially long, narrow living room you'd like to divide into a larger living area and private reading nook. Maybe you have two children sharing one room, and they're clamoring for some privacy and personal space. At any rate, you don't need to add on to your home to solve the issue. A simple privacy screen can divide the space and give everyone a haven all their own.
  
  

Headboards as Privacy Screens

• If you're looking for nothing more than a semi-private room or just the illusion of privacy, use an appropriately designed and placed headboard to do the job, which also works well if you have kids who share a room and want their own space. Incorporate a headboard-bookshelf combo for a private sleeping and resting area. To maintain the sense of a unified room, choose shelves without backing so you can see through to the rest of the room. Place books, knickknacks or toys in the case for a clutter-free room with a place for everything.
  
  If you live in a studio, look for a giant headboard that acts as a divider wall. Paint it a bold color or put some wallpaper on the bedroom side for a textured headboard; use the other side for mounting your flat-screen TV, showcasing artwork or placing furniture against, depending on what's best for your floor plan and comfort.
  
  

Window Privacy Screen

• If you're looking for privacy from the outside world, not within your home, place some "privacy film" on your windows or make your own with masking tape. Different patterns can be created by cutting the masking tape and taping it in a lattice, plaid or star pattern. For subtle variation in hue, the tape can be double or triple layered. This option still allows plenty of sunlight in the room, especially if you use one layer of tape on most of the window. It also may cast a lovely shadow on the wall at some point during the day, and you can remove it with some warm water and soap or "goop" remover.
  
  

Lounge Area Screen

• Adding a lounge area to your living room, studio or patio allows visitors to sit comfortably and chat. The more cozy -- and sometimes private -- you make your nook, the more welcome your guests may feel. Create an enclosed space while maintaining site lines by hanging some sheer curtains. They divide the room and add a bit of privacy without closing off the area completely. You can create your own with large discs of contact paper wired together, though you don't have to stick with disc shapes. You can also hang a horizontal venetian-blind panel between your two areas. This way you can close the blinds all the way for total privacy and open them to "increase" your space. These work especially well in homes with contemporary design and decor with clean lines.