Acrylic Panel Room Dividers

With, or without COVID-19, we are excited to market a new line of acrylic panel room dividers. To join the fight against the virus, we eagerly started producing acrylic sneeze guards, and from there, we decided to go even bigger. Now, we offer large size dividers. You may have seen a bit about this product from an earlier blog post, but new products don’t make themselves. Often times they need a bit of testing and tweaking until they are perfect.

After spending time on Wayfair, I noticed an absence of decorative dividers. Additionally, the lead time for these products were quite long. There were also few acrylic dividers that had a design or a corporate logo. Customization is an important element, as it is the backbone of our business. Seeing that there was a lack of products, I decided to get creating.

The Process of Designing Acrylic Panel Room Dividers

The first step was to find a supplier of large metal frames. As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, the acrylic was no problem. But to find a frame that could hold the large panel proved to be a challenge. The first four suppliers I contacted did not return a call.

Finally, we found a supplier in the U.S. who was creating dividers with a wood base. The wood base proved very costly to order and ship. The frame arrived ten days later, very well-packed, but unfortunately the product did not work for us. After standing the divider up, the wooden base broke, and the whole frame was too heavy for the wheels to work efficiently. Thankfully, the supplier understood our frustrations and provided a refund.

acrylic panel room dividers in a wooden frame
A room divider made with the wooden frame. The frame broke and could not stay upright with the panel inside of it.

We then contacted a few companies from overseas through Alibaba. The response was incredibly fast, and we were excited to begin creating our acrylic panel room dividers. We found exactly what we were looking for: a sturdy 70×40″ metal frame with wheels that could support an acrylic panel.

acrylic panel room dividers on wheels.
An room divider with the metal frames from Alibaba. Unfortunately, the cost of assembly, shipping, and the frame leaning made this prototype not viable.

Challenges

The frame itself was cheap, but the shipping costs were high. After five days, the product arrived, again, very well-packed. However, the frame was not assembled, and ended up needing two people and one hour to put together.

The end result was not great. The frame was sturdy, but leaned forward. There was no way we could make this a viable option either, considering the cost of shipping and the labour for assembly.

I live by the motto “if it was that easy, everybody would do it.” So I wasn’t discouraged. Instead, I turned my sights back to Montreal. Finding a local vendor meant I would save costs on shipping, be able to tweak the product as necessary, and I could support other businesses like myself.

Solutions

After many phone calls and Zoom meetings, I finally found a company that could make custom frames perfect for our acrylic panel room dividers. The company is so flexible that we could create custom sizes in with a short lead time. We could simply ship the acrylic to the frame supplier, who would them install it within the frame, package, and ship it.

The acrylic room divider works great for medical offices, gyms, and restaurants. It can also work at home, if you need to separate your home office from your living room. We are even able to print a corporate logo or design onto the panel, which can be a bold decor statement.

The final product!

After a few more rounds of tweaking, we hope to be offering this product soon! Please contact us if you have any questions, or you would like to place a pre-order!