REN: A Series of Room Dividers United by Materiality

Treating the frames of her room dividers as giant looms, designer Nathalie Van der Massen weaves intricate and delicate designs that simultaneously offer privacy and transparency. The collection, named REN, consists of three limited-edition room dividers: a four-panel divider and two two-panel dividers. Using a natural material palette inspired by Belgian textile heritage, Van der Massen harmoniously blends linen, wool, paper, and yarns into unique fabric wefts, ultimately creating objects that tread the line between design, art, and architecture.

A minimalist room featuring tall, wooden-framed screens placed on a smooth, light-colored floor against textured concrete walls.

A room divider made of wooden frames and textile panels stands in an industrial-style room with concrete walls

The impetus for the collection began when Van der Massen started receiving requests for integrating bespoke textiles into her architectural projects. “I wanted to create. A foundation, a framework for my custom textile designs that is scalable in various ways and can be integrated into different contexts and styles. Something timeless yet adaptable to different projects,” Van der Massen shares. From there, through a journey of research and trial and error, she combines manual and digital techniques to create the fabric wefts, subtracting threads as needed to achieve the intentional areas of transparency. Weaving around the wooden frames, Van der Massen also plays with the tightness of the weaves, which leads to subtle changes in transparency.

A four-panel room divider with a neutral colored geometric pattern stands against a concrete wall and a light-colored floor

The SAN room divider spans across four walnut wood panels and, due to its length, can also be used as a headboard for a bed. Because textiles are woven around and within the frame, the wood becomes a part of the design rather than just a border.

details of A four-panel room divider

A room with concrete walls displaying a framed artwork, a wooden room divider with woven fabric, and a triangular object on the floor

A minimalist room with concrete walls features a folding wooden room divider, a small table with books, a wooden chair, and a wall-mounted canvas

SAI and DAN are both two-panel room dividers that integrate the visibility of the wood frame in different ways. SAI conveys more movement, lightness, and rhythm, with the paper weave moving in and out of the frame. DAN, on the other hand, takes on a simple and minimalist approach that’s more familiar to the classic idea of a room divider.

details of a paper and wood room divider

Each of the designs in the Ren collection has its own unique details that engage with the environment’s light and space. SAI’s panels allow light to flow through while DAN absorbs the light by the fabric. The four-panel SAN does both. While each design is slightly different, all three designs deliver an artful and pragmatic function that instantly elevates a room.

A minimalist room with concrete walls features a folding wooden room divider, a small table with books, a wooden chair, and a wall-mounted canvas