1)Purchase new or used (craigslist??) hollow core doors.

2)Hang them from eye rings and chains from the ceiling joists.

3)Paint them. Cover w/ cork as large bulletin board. Cover w/ flannel & use as a quilting design wall.

I know 2 folks who did just this. One used our old doors that we donated to her art class as room dividers & the kids all did murals on them. They also hinged some & used as tri-fold screens during art shows to display their works. The other person bought new ones & hung them in her basement to hide the utilities.

Had another thought....

Hang matchstick or faux bamboo blinds from the joists. They are easy to find & not much $$. You just can't really use them as a surface like you can the doors.

Your original thought of office walls is good... but they do NOT come cheap! Even the used ones can be very expensive. And you have to be careful that you don't get any that were used in offices that allowed smoking. There are companies that buy used ones & recycle/recover them for resale... so sometimes they can be hard to find.

The doors can be hinged or bolted together or allowed to hang freely. If hinged, they can be spread out like a huge folding screen. They come in many widths. The art teacher that got mine loved using them as huge canvases for her students to paint.

Are there any Habitat Re-Stores in your area? Or any salvage places? Both good sources for doors or walls.

One of the simpler and less expensive things to do is simply hang a curtain that can be closed or opened, plus this adds softness and color.

You can also use tarps or painters canvas. One of these days, I am going to organize my basement and hang the heavy duty brown tarps that I bought over a year ago, for this purpose. Keeps the dust off items.

Even used, office partitions are terribly expensive. If you're looking for something reasonably solid, you might do better to use some tall bookcases to form the divider. Used or inexpensive bookcases would be a lot cheaper than used office partitions (and easier to find) and they would probably be easier to stablize. Plus they would provide you with extra shelving for your craft projects. The backsides of cheap bookcases often are made of pasteboard but if you seal it with shellac first, you can paint it so it actuallly looks pretty decent. Or, you can hang a large mirror on the back of the bookcases to help brighten up your "studio" area.

If you're looking for something really inexpensive and don't care whether it is a "solid" divider, get a shower curtain rod and hang it from the ceiling then attach an inexpensive shower liner to it. You could also show off one of your quilts on the craft side. The shower curtain on the studio side would help protect the quilt from stray oil paint.

I just saw on a show I think was called "small space big style" that you can get partitions made of accordianed paper. Picture those tissue paper wedding bell decorations that accordian in but a rectangle 6 ft high. They fold in to a few inches deep or pull them out to make a wall.

Sorry I don't have a resource but maybe if you google.

A 2005 rerun of Divine Design is on TV today -- Candace used vertical blinds to create "walls" to cover up a section of a basement where the w/d and workbench are located. She put art work (canvas) hung on hooks to airplance cable with rings on the top. The rings were on a conduit pipe so that the art work can slide out of the way. It looks great!

I found a link to that episode

Here is a link that might be useful: Divine Design

Thanks so much for all your ideas/ suggestions! Plan to look into the Habitat re-stores and other used office places for the bookcases as well as door panels. Have a toddler roaming thru the area at times, so need something more substantial than curtains/vertical blinds.

Did like the HGTV reference to painting the ceiling that is 'woody' and has shiny ductwork, electric cables etc. Think I saw an article about just spray painting all the upper 'stuff.'..in a loft setting. Do plan to paint the floor with the tough latex-probably light gray. Concrete floor has 2" blue Dow underneath, plus a vapor barrier-so can put down a few rugs in the lounge area. Exterior walls are insulated and dry-walled. Will follow up with progress of this project.

Since you mentioned bookshelves, why not use them to partition the rooms and on the back just fastened some 1/4" plywood and paint either like the wall or some fun artwork or whatever inspires you.