DECORATING : Screening Possibilities for Beauty and Privacy

Fabric and wood panel screens have been around for centuries. Early on, folding screens, often ornate, stopped drafts and divided rooms. Not so long ago, they hid an unattractive view and provided portable privacy. Now, many screens are playing a starring, rather than a supporting, role.

“They’re almost stage sets,” Constance Neustaetter says.

Neustaetter and Julie Ruff of Redstone Studios in Millwood, N.Y., use the rich color and imagery of old world art to create panel screens with dramatic presence.

They are among a number of designers--particularly on the East Coast--who’ve specialized in screen effects.

A couple of years ago, the two painted their first screen in the style of a 15th-Century map for Neustaetter’s living room.

“We used colors that matched my living room, and House Beautiful featured it,” Neustaetter recalls. “We got lots of calls, not for that screen but for a custom screen that could be coordinated with the decor of somebody’s particular room.”

The two women now make wood screens full time, collecting hundreds of museum postcards and leafing through magazines and books for design ideas. Most of their screens are antiqued in jewel tones and painted with themes past: part of a 15th-Century Florentine painting, 19th-Century playing cards, antique maps, illuminated letters in Renaissance style. Prices range from $2,500 to $4,000 for screens of three to five panels and 80 inches high.

“Everyone recognizes these images, but in a new context they stand out,” Neustaetter says. “Though they aren’t fine art, screens are large enough to establish an atmosphere. People who find large artworks intimidating and too expensive find this a less costly and more accessible choice--accessible but still in good taste.”

For those who want a screen strictly as decoration, there’s a three-panel, wrought-iron style with a lacy floral Art Nouveau pattern. It’s meant to be placed against a wall or used as a room divider so the graceful pattern can be admired for itself alone.

The design, about $2,700, is based on a French Art Nouveau antique and is one of several unusual wrought-iron screens available from the Phillips Collection of Long Island City, N.Y.

Modern art lovers might enjoy the works of New York photographers James Cohen and Jeffrey Rubin. They create five-panel screens with enlarged photographs printed on linen. The screens, 90 inches wide and 72 inches high, are usually mounted on casters and the reverse side upholstered with the customer’s choice of fabric.

“Only 50 of each image will be made, so we call it functional art,” Cohen says. “We think they look best in large open spaces with high ceilings.”

The screens are $3,300 through their company, Visual Culture in New York. They also accommodate special orders.

For about $300 in materials, New York architect Peter Moore designed a plexiglass screen decorated with a photographic blowup for a decorator show house. The screen is further enhanced with a video of changing photographic images on a TV screen behind the plexiglass.

Moore’s aim was to create something that would call attention to a room in a setting where all rooms were meant to stand out.

Focusing on screens as eye-catchers shouldn’t obscure the fact that they can perform more utilitarian jobs such as filling an empty corner, cutting off a sharp angle or visually paring down an ungainly room.

Repainting the surface or changing the fabric can give the screen an entirely different look. Painting isn’t too onerous a task. Recovering sometimes means calling an upholsterer. But not always.

The Phillips Collection sells several screens with metal frames and fabric panels held in place with Velcro fasteners. The Velcro makes for a quick change to coordinate the fabric with upholstery or window treatments.

Styles include a screen with three narrow horizontal rods to give the effect of a triple-tiered curtain. This works best with lightweight fabrics such as muslin or sheer cotton. Prices are about $750 to $1,000, plus $150 if the fabric is supplied by the Phillips. Many clients buy the screen without fabric and add their own.

“You put in a new fabric and you have a new look,” says Mark Phillips, company president.