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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Homemade Pooja Mandap



With an array of festivals and poojas on its way , I badly needed a pooja mandapam.I thought of ordering one online but it was either too expensive or it was too small.

I finally ended up making myself.This was too easy to make than I thought.Hope this post will  be useful for anyone who wants to make the mandap at home.

We bought all the materials from home depot.The total cost was around $45

Materials Required
Wooden Plank (2ft by 4ft) - Will cost around $7 - 8.Get it cut into two 25" by12" pieces
Ornamental moulding 1(for gopuram)- 15". Cut the ends little slanting like gopuram
Ornamental moulding 2 (for top and bottom) - 2 pieces (each 25")
Stair legs - 4 (Will be available in 34 or 36".Cut the required 27" from each and keep the remaining for stand)
Some round moulding bought from Joanns
Elmers Carpentar glue
Minwax wood stain( I used Red chestnut color)
Some old newspaper and clothes


Procedure:

Step1:
Get everything cut to the required size at the home depot itself.The wooden plank can cut using electric saw( An operator will be doing it).However the small mouldings have to be done by ourselves with a hand saw which is also available at home depot itself. (My husband helped me to cut the mouldings)
Wooden plank -cut into two 25" by 12" pieces using electric saw
Ornamental mould for gopuram - Cut it into 15" using hand saw.The sides should be slightly slanting
Ornamental mould II - Cut into tow 25" pieces
Stair legs - You will get it in 32 or 36".We require only 27".Cut the both the ends and save a 3" piece for the lower stand

Step2:
Apply the wood stain using old clothes.
Refer this video in youtube on how to stain wood.There are lot of videos available


Step3:
Apply 2 or 3 coatings and allow to dry overnight

Step4:
Assemble all the pieces using wood glue
  • First stick the four small legs to the lower wooden plank.Let it dry for 30 minutes
  • Then stick the four large legs evenly and dry it for 30 minutes
  • Finally place the upper wooden plank on top of the legs.This was the only difficult part.We had cut the legs little uneven and then I had to apply little play dough with glue to fix it
  • Once it is dry, stick the 25" moulding to the top and bottom plank
  • Now stick the gopuram plank in the center of the top wooden plank


Note: There were some imperfections when we cut the mouldings.I mixed the play dough with little bit of glue and applied over it

Step5:
Apply a final coating of wood stain if required

After decorations

65 comments:

  1. Great job... Mandap looks very Pro.

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  2. that mandap looks very nice....gr8 job

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  3. Thats a very inspiring project...Thanks for the detailed post...Will try out soon

    http://www.panchamrutham.blogspot.com/

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  4. With Varalakshmi vratham on the way this sure is a very useful post. But too short a time to try but mailing this a reference to couple of my friends, a very useful post indeed.

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  5. That's a great job Shylaja...looks very good

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  6. That is totally awesome Shylaja :) Looks perfectly made!! Yes August/September are the months when we get barraged with so pandigais!! Enjoy your new mandapam and lots of good wishes to you :) cheers, priya

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  7. I admire you. Looks perfect. Happy to know abt it.

    Cheers,
    Uma

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  8. beautiful, thanx for sharing the idea :)

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  9. That looks fantastic! My hubby is too interested in these kind of stuff. Will try it and let you know! :)

    Thanks for sharing!

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  10. Great work dear !! looks beautiful !!

    Ongoing event --CC-Appetizers

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  11. Great work dear...looks very nice...

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  12. So beautifully done!!!!
    Prathima Rao
    Prats Corner

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  13. very nice.. great job.. thanks for sharing

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  14. I cannot believe you made that! It's beautiful.

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  15. too good. I love the mandap and step by step process.

    Too good

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  16. Hi ...First time on your blog...Very nice idea to make temple..Happy to join you dear...Do visit me at http://muchmorethanahomemaker.blogspot.com/
    Cheers

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  17. wow, that is such a great piece of work, love the idea. And being wood, it must be easy to maintain as well. Amazing dear !!!

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  18. WOW, you made this at home?!! Kudos!!

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  19. woww......nice idea...looks good

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  20. Mindblowing idea dear.. hats of to you. :D Awesome.. You should take this as serious pass time :) really

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  21. All I can say is WOW. Thank you so much. I will try my luck at it.

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  22. Thanq sooo much dear.....for sharing with us....
    beautiful mandap....The best...

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  23. Wow...Awesome, Thanks for the info's..... will try to make...:)

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  24. I wanted to make a pooja mandap for my home. When i was searching about it found your blog. Thank you so much for this post. It was really very helpful for me. Pls have a look at my pooja mandap and tell ur comments.

    http://visualtaste.blogspot.com/2011/11/home-made-pooja-mandap.html

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  25. Thank you so much for the detailed instructions. It looks beautiful.

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  26. how thick was the wooden plank you bought?

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  27. @Anonymous. The thickness of the plank was 1/4".
    If you want it to be more strong you can use thicker than that. Since I use this only during pujas hardly 5-6 times a year, I used the thin one

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  28. Thanks for the reply. How many times did had to stain it? Did you apply polyurethane after done with staining ? Did you buy any particular kind of wood?

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    Replies
    1. I stained it around 3 times. I did not apply polyurethane.
      I have provided the link of the ornamental mouldings and stair legs. I am really not aware of what kind of wood it is.
      Since I used carpenters glue for binding, I used only light weight wood.

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    2. Hi sailaja,
      what is that red cloth or carpet?

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    3. Thanks for the comments Vani.The red carpet is nothing but the felt cloth. I used an yellow fabric paint to draw the kolam. Since we have only carpet floor here I used the felt cloth and fabric paint

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  29. Thaank you so much for sharing this.
    mandap looks so beautiful.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Vani,

      The red carpet is nothing but the felt cloth. I used an yellow fabric paint to draw the kolam. Since we have only carpet floor here I used the felt cloth and fabric paint

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  30. Hi
    I wanted to make a mandapam and found your post online.This is great post and was extremely useful. I followed your instructions and it was soo easy to make our own.

    Thanks a ton.
    R

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  31. Wonderful....u did a great job and thanks for posting it online...

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  32. Hi
    Ur mandap is gr8bi would like to know every thing which u glued for mandap is ready made or u design the gopuram will they cut and give how much we need as here we dont have any tools to cut or shape

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  33. Hi
    Ur mandap looks gr8
    I would like to knoe few things for goporam shape did u cut or we can ask in shop and legs also and the design is it already carved

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    Replies
    1. Thank you.
      For Gopuram I used the ready made ones available at Home Depot (USA). I have provided the link as well.

      If you are in India, I believe you can get it cut from any carpenter shops.

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    2. The legs are also already carved ones

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  34. Hi is every thing stick by glue is there need of nails

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    Replies
    1. No. I did not use nails. Everything was done only using carpenters glue

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  35. Hi,
    very nice and creative mandap. Could you please give more details on where you got the ornament mouldings?
    The link you have mentioned does not show the product, as the same product is not available. Could you please tell em where else can we get it.

    Thanks,
    K

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  36. Hi Ian Uma.i just moved to us.i was in search of mandap which is too expensive here.i saw this link and got all the materials.thanks a lot for this post shylaja

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. All the best on your project.Happy crafting..

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  37. Shylaja...I was born in India, raised out of India and was looking for my options as I recently got married...and am kinda clueless about some things. This is a very very helpful post. Your temple looks amazing and thanks for showing us the steps.
    I guess I will be making a trip to home depot to get this project started. I have couple of questions for you..where can I get that red/Maroon carpet from? I've the same brown carpet so this helps. Also...I have different idols/pictures given to me during the wedding and I'm not sure how to decorate my temple...if I send to the pictures of things I need accommodate...would be kind enough to help give me some ideas? I've never had a temple before...

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    Replies
    1. The maroon carpet is nothing but the felt cloth. I drew kolams using yellow fabric paint.You can send me your queries to shylaja.praveen@amuthiskitchen.com

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  38. Shylaja..this is sophia..I'd one more question (the person whose never had a temple before..) What's in front of the temple? Is that a place of flower petals?

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    1. Hi Sophia,

      I took this picture during Varalakshmi pooja. It was the flowers used for pooja

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  39. Hi Shylaja,

    If I wanted one point on the top kinda temple...like a dome with a single point up in the air...how can I modify your design to accomplish that? Could you please let me know? I'm not good with this stuff...but would like to make my own temple. Thanks..

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  40. Hello,

    Thank you very much for posting this. I made exactly same as yours and mine tuned out great too. Here is the link https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-qFr1vmeZ7q0/Uu_70iYz7wI/AAAAAAAApPM/1QwQOfumRBA/w425-h573-no/photo%25282%2529.JPG

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    1. Thanks for the nice words. I checked the picture. Your mandap has turned out great with neat finishes!Loved the way you decorated with bells and thorans.Nice work

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    2. hi

      there
      i liked the mandap which u kept link as anonymous how u put the bells can u tell me

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  41. Very very nice and great effort!!

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  42. wow fantastic ideas...lovely thanks for sharing i wanted to make like this

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  43. Hey I loved your puja mandap..its really awesome cant wait to try this at home..I just have a few questions though..Is that a normal plywood plank that you used for the base and roof of mandap? How did you get that design? Did you stick two planks together to get that design? I've never done any projects of this kind. So can any one please help me get a clear idea so I can start off this weekend

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  44. Good Job and thanks for the Motivation

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  45. Great job... Very inspiring... thank you.

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  46. Wow...great....what is the cost of this project

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