DIY Pooja Mandir with doors: Wall Mandir Design for home
This blog post will teach you how to DIY a pooja mandir with doors. This is a simple and modern wall mandir design for a home.
If you’re an Indian living in the US, chances are you don’t have a dedicated room for a puja mandir in your home, just like us. We couldn’t dedicate a closet either. So we decided to build a wooden pooja mandir in our living room. Since it’s the first room you see when you enter, we wanted it to have that contemporary look just like the rest of the house.
So we went with some dark shiplap to contrast with the brass idols of gods. I wanted the wooden mandir to have a shelf with a wooden door to store all the pooja items. This is the perfect solution for us. The size of the mandir can be customized based on your space and liking.
This small mandir looks great, even as an accent wall in any room, because of its modern design as opposed to a traditional temple. I temporarily decorated it with some hanging planters, but you can easily make this a statement wall in your house. All the materials can be bought at Home Depot or your nearest hardware store.
Table of Contents
Shopping List for DIY Pooja Mandir
- 1x8x12 – 1
- 2x4x8 – 1
- 1x6x8 – 1
- 2.5″ screws
- Nail gun nails
- Hinges
- Shiplap
- Stain – Carbon Gray
- Pre-stain wood conditioner
- Polyurethane
Tools Recommended
- Miter Saw
- Nail Gun
- Sander
- Measuring Tape
- Level
How to: Diy pooja mandir
Step 1: Make Inner Frame for shelf
Let’s start by making the shelf. The first step is to make the inner frame. It will not be visible from the outside but will support our structure. Take a 2×4 that is 5ft long and add the smaller pieces on the edges and in the middle. The middle one acts as a partition on the shelf. You can use pocket holes or screw in from the back to make the frame. We used 2.5″ screws and ensured that we flushed the screw head onto the wood surface.
Step 2: Stain the frame
Even though this stays inside, we stained it using carbon gray from Varathane. Also, stain the insides of the outer pieces. It’ll be hard to reach the corners once we assemble everything. We left the external, i.e., the visible side of the shelf, as we will have to fill the nail holes and edges with wood filler before staining it. We also stained the doors while we were at it. I explained the staining process in little more detail in step 7.
Step 3: Attach the bottom
We are using a 1×6 door, which is 5.5″ high. If we remove the top and bottom height (5.5 – (2×0.75)), the frame should be 4″ high. But the actual size of a 2×4 is only 3.5″. So we used two 1/4″ plywood pieces on the top and bottom to give the frame desired height. Alternatively, you can cut the door height by 0.5″ by running it through a table saw, but we didn’t have a table saw then. So we adjusted the height using some scrap 1/4″ plywood piece.
We used 2″ screws to attach the bottom and covered the screw holes with wood filler.
Step 4: Add Hinges
It’s time to add the hinges, but it’s a tricky step. We got these hinges and nailed them to the bottom piece. We had to redo this step couple of times as the doors weren’t aligning properly. Mark the hinge holes correctly and test their placement with closed and open doors before attaching them using screws.
Step 5: Add the top and sides
We didn’t want the screw heads and wood filler to be visible for the top. So we nailed 2″ nails using a nail gun.
We used 1×6 for the sides as well. The sides will cover the ugliness of all the joints we made until now, and it should be 7.5″ (the depth of the shelf).
Step 6: Fill the gaps and nail holes
Now we are almost done. Use a wood filler to fill the nail holes, corners, and joints. Sand it thoroughly to have a smooth finish and a flat surface. You can use some sawdust and wood glue mix if you’re out of the wood filler.
Step 7: Stain the shelf
Now stain the external side of the shelf. Here’s how the staining process goes:
- Use a soft cloth to wipe the shelf. This removes any tiny particles and sends dust.
- Apply a pre-stain wood conditioner using a foam brush.
- Use a soft cloth to apply the stain. Apply in the direction of the wood grain, wipe away the access with a separate cloth, and let it dry.
- Now you can apply polyurethane using a foam brush to finish it.
Step 7: Fix it to the wall
We should mark the studs on the wall where you want to mount the shelf. Place the shelf on the wall with doors open and see where the stud markings fall. You should be able to see the lines you drew on the wall through the gap between the 2×4 frame and the top. Now attach the inner frame to the wall using 2.5″ screws.
Step 8: Add Shiplap
Now, we have to add a shiplap above the shelf. Cut the shiplap boards using a miter saw, which is 42″ long. We nailed these shiplap planks to the studs using 2″ nails using a nail gun. These planks come with readymade lips, and the grooves are formed automatically as we align them. These planks have a rustic look, but if you like smooth planks, you can also find them.
That’s it! hang some diyas and you have a contemporary pooja mandir. I didn’t make it a mandir yet, but I got plans for it.
My wall mandir design idea
After living with it for a couple of years, I want to extend the shelf to the floor so it’ll be easier to perform pooja activities on special occasions.
I have been looking for a Ganesha statue, and we plan to add some cabinets below this shelf. The main reason is that we decorated a temporary stage on the floor for every Indian festival like Diwali, Ganesh Chathurthi, etc. We want a designated space for that and keep it modern to match the rest of my home. Here’s my vision for this space. I want to add hanging diyas, focus lights, and a primary idol in the center. hopefully, I will make it happen soon. Oh! If you know where I can get that Ganesh statue, let me know!
