MY POOJA SPACE IN OUR HOME.

A Pooja/prayer room in the house is a smaller version rather a mini version of a Hindu temple where the deity is worshiped everyday. The idols of God/Goddess is decorated with flowers, lamps are lite and prayers are said in that room. It is the most pious place in a Hindu home.

Visiting grandparents during summer vacations was always fun. Both set of my grandparents house had a dedicated pooja room with small bells on the carved wooden door. Every morning, I would watch my grandmothers (whichever house I was in) give bath to the idols, decorate with flowers, offer fruits and say their prayers.
Their Pooja rooms were very similar to these pictures:

architectureideas

Pooja Room

My father's job had us moving every few years. So my mother had a small wooden carved temple which she could carry with her every time we moved. And which she would set up on the counter-top in the kitchen for lack of space in apartments. Till they built their custom home with the pooja room.
My mother's temple was similar to this:

Pooja Mandir

The whole structure could be dismantled and carried in a small box. The base, the pillars and the top part.
When I moved to US after my marriage, I wanted to bring one such temple with me but was not sure if I would have a place to set up. So set up my pooja space on a table, on a book shelf and also had it on a wall shelf.
These are the only two pictures I found from the album.

On a wall-shelf.

Just before we bought the house, Mr. Tweaks brought my mini temple with him when he visit India. Couple months later, we moved in the new house. At first, I had set up on a table in the breakfast nook.

Few months later, moved the temple here. Remember this space by the staircase in the house tour?

We had this IKEA LACK side table. I removed the legs and used the table top as a foundation for my temple.

Ikea LACK

Few months later, I wrapped the table top with a gift wrapping paper and tape, similar to how you would wrap a gift box.

I found the peacock on the corner wall at Pier1 Imports during Christmas. It's an ornament for the Christmas tree. Peacocks are often found near temples in India. I guess not anymore.

 Sometime last year, I changed the gift wrapping paper

To this one from Marshalls.

This is how my pooja space looks now. The tall brass lamps are more for decor. I never light them since there is a smoke detector on the ceiling just above the temple.

The bananas are the offering to the deities.

One will find similar wooden temples in Hindu homes. Some of my friends have very intricately and beautifully carved mini-temples in their homes here in US. Few of them have converted an extra bedroom into pooja room.

I would love to see how you have decorated/arranged/set-up your pooja space in your home. 

Have a wonderful week ahead.