Homemade Pooja Mandap

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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