The White Hindu
Perhaps you are lucky enough to have a whole room of your house to devote to a puja space. Or perhaps what you have is a closet, an alcove, a corner. You can make that work!
There are many gorgeous home Mandirs and puja spaces available for sale, but you can also create your own out of an old bureau or cabinet.
Look at thrift shops or the side of the road for a suitable cabinet. You can fix it up by sanding, repairing any broken or missing drawers or doors, refinishing with stain or paint.
The best kind will be like the TV center my parents have: an open space at the top with closing doors and shelves or drawers at the bottom.
You can put images of Gods and guru up on the back wall of the empty space or you can add a small curio cabinet for murtis (unless your bureau has shelves already built in). The drawers below can be used to store puja items like thali, incense, lighters, dhoop, cotton wicks, kumkum, turmeric, etc.
Decorate your cabinet with flower garlands, strings of bells, or a toran (keep it out of the way of the doors, so they can be closed if your altar space is in a high-traffic area of your home. (You can even buy my cotton-flower toran at my Etsy shop! I’ll also probably be creating flower garlands made from cloth or yarn soon to sell there as well)
You can also decorate with inspiration from the above pictures: try putting Indian images on the outside doors to indicate what’s inside. Or make strings of jingle bells to attach to the outside doors.
You could also use a full standing curio cabinet like this:
In a small apartment, Subhamoy Das of About.com’s Hinduism page uses a decorative small box on the wall:
In some Indian grocery stores or online you can buy these small wall-mounted mandaps.
My puja room is a large closet off of my home office.
Though I wouldn’t recommend having your sacred space out in the open and exposed to the bustle of the day, this person has used a coffee table for a puja space:
More Articles About Pooja Rooms and Decor:
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In