Pooja Mandir for a beautiful and rich Pooja room (prayer room) makeover during the Fall 2021 One Room Challenge

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase by clicking the link at no additional cost to you. You can read my full disclaimer here. 

We are in the sixth week of the Fall 2021 One Room Challenge and for this week, I built a Pooja Mandir for the prayer room.

If you aren’t familiar with what the One Room Challenge (ORC) is, it’s a biannual interior design event hosted by Linda at Calling it Home. There are 20 featured designers and anyone with a blog or an Instagram account can participate as a guest. Everyone gets 8 weeks to makeover a room of their choice and share their progress weekly.

You can see all the featured designers here and all the guest participants here.

POOJA MANDIR

This is the most exciting week of the One Room Challenge for me!

I am building the most important feature of the Pooja room which is the Pooja Mandir. 

A Pooja Mandir is an ornate shelf on which the idols of Gods and Goddesses are placed and worshiped. You can find them everywhere in India, and they come in so many designs. My favorite kind is the one made from wood with intricate designs. 

I can get them in the USA, but the price is certainly not on the lower side. Most of what I wanted ranges between $1500-$2500 and I am sure that I don’t want to pay that kind of money.

So I decided to build it myself and with that, I not only save a LOT, but I have the added satisfaction of having built it.

Well, it’s easier said than done, isn’t it? 🙂

But guess what, The Home Depot did indeed make it easy for me. They sent me everything that I needed to build the Pooja Mandir.

With their wide selection of materials and tools, helpful staff, an app that tells you exactly where every item is and the store pickup option, every project can be completed easily!

Here is the Pooja Mandir I built with the help of Home Depot.

Isn’t she a thing of beauty? 🙂

THE PROCESS

If you would like to know the step-by-step process of how I built the Pooja Mandir, head on over to this post on The Home Depot’s blog. It details the exact steps that I took to build this.

Although it looks complicated, I promise you that it can be built easily using the steps outlined in the post. Check out the blog post here to build one for yourself.

THE MATERIALS

Just in case you are curious, here are the materials, tools and supplies that I used to build the Pooja Mandir.

• 3/4 inch plywood (1)
• 1/2 inch plywood (1)
• 1/4 inch plywood (1)
• Foam board
• Circular Saw
• Rip Cut Guide
• Table saw
• Pocket hole Jig
• Pocket Screws
• Wood Glue
• Edge banding (4)
• Bun feet (4)
• Feet plate (4)
• Table legs (4)
• Wood Screws
• Drill
• Drill bits
• Drawer slides (2)
• Concealed hinge jig
• Brad nailer
• Decorative Trim (Around Gopuram Top)
• Decorative Trim (Doors and drawer fronts)
• Egg and dart molding (Gopuram)
• Miter saw
• Bun legs (top of Gopuram)
• Wood filler
• Sander
• Tack cloth
• Wood Conditioner
• Stain (Early American)
• Polyurethane
• LED Strip
• Level
• Speed square
• Framing square
• Painters tape

You can find all these in Home Depot.

THE FINISHED MANDIR

Here is one more look at the Pooja Mandir in all its glory!

Hope you like it! Let me know in the comments what you think and if you checked out this post on The Home Depot’s blog for the step-by-step process.

That’s it for this week. Please join me on this exciting journey as I transform our prayer room into a beautiful and rich sanctuary.

Do let me know what you think of the Pooja Mandir. Follow me on Instagram for more detailed and day-to-day updates on the progress of all my projects.