Pooja room designs in Hyderabad

Where the shrine goes when the north-east is a bathroom, which way the idols face, what must never sit behind the mandir, and what a unit or a room costs.

A pooja room in this city is rarely the room on the drawing. In a Gachibowli 3 BHK the north-east is often the toilet. In a Financial District tower the only free wall faces the sofa. In a Kollur villa there is a room, a terrace above it, and a skylight the civil contractor will get wrong unless somebody draws the opening before the slab is poured.

What follows is Vastu as the common schools teach it, and then the joinery, light and partitions we actually build. It is not a guarantee that a direction will change a life. It is a way to stop building a shrine against a soil pipe.

The short version

Best zone is the north-east, the Ishan corner. If that corner is a bath or a shaft, use east or north. Sit facing east, or north. The idols then face the other way, usually west. Do not put the main shrine in the south or the south-west, and do not put shoes, a dustbin, a toilet or a kitchen drain at its back.

Light beats carving. A separate room gets a door, a raised plinth and storage on the south or west wall. No room gets a wall unit, a corner unit, a jali or a slider — still aimed at east or north.

The map

Two diagrams. A plan divided into four quadrants: the north-east, marked Ishan, is the first choice for a shrine; the north-west is acceptable but last; the south-east is the fire and kitchen zone; the south-west carries mass and storage. Beside it, a seated figure facing east with the idols in front facing west, on a plinth six to ten inches high.

North-east first. You face east. The wall behind the idols is the wall that matters.

Facing, written down

Question	First choice	Second	Avoid for the main shrine
Zone of the house	North-east (Ishan)	East, then north	South, south-west
You face while sitting	East	North	South
Idols face	West	East, accepted in many homes	North as a default
Door of a dedicated room	East or north	West if the plan forces it	Directly facing a toilet door
Plinth	6–10 inches above the floor	—	A tray that collects water under the wood

Leave 2–6 cm of air behind the murti. Sit so the shrine is at chest height, not a warehouse of statues. Ancestor photographs go on a south wall, not on the same shelf. Hanuman, Kali and Dakshinamurti may face south on purpose — that is tradition, not a drawing error.

What must not sit behind the mandir

A toilet, a soil pipe, a septic chamber, a kitchen sink drain, a shoe rack, a dustbin, the back of a fridge or a washer, an AC outdoor drain, a bed that looks at the shrine, a toilet on the floor above, a sump under the slab.

A closed timber unit built into the space under a staircase, lit inside, with the shoe storage on the far side of the hall.

Under the stair is a compromise rather than a first choice. If we build it, it closes, it is lit, and shoes stay out of it.

Light, air, and an empty north-east

East morning light is why the north-east keeps being named. West afternoon glass in a Hyderabad tower fades cloth and heats the alcove; that window wants a lined curtain or a roller, and the west-facing problem has its own article.

A room left almost empty in the north-east, with morning light across the floor and storage kept to the far wall.

A closed box with a diya burning in it is a soot problem. Heavy storage belongs on the south or west wall of the same room, so the north-east stays floor, light and a kalash. A copper pyramid is not a line on our quote.

A marble plinth edge with a brass lamp standing on a tray.

A tray under the lamp, and cloth out of reach of it.

The villa skylight, and water

An opening over the north-east is the old domestic mandapa: morning light, a stack for heat, a place for a stone in the court. It also leaks if the upstand and the drain are not drawn before the slab is poured.

A tall shaft over a small shrine bay, daylight falling down it onto a stone plinth.

Waterproofing is civil work and not ours. What we draw is the junction with the ceiling and the blind. A dry east window is better than a wet shaft.

Clean water in the north-east of the plot or on the plinth means a kalash changed daily. Not a fountain of stale water against the shrine wall, not the overhead tank, and not a wash-area drain running along that wall.

If there is a separate room

Joinery in BWR or BWP if oil and wet cloth live in there. Open shelves at the murti line, closed storage on the south or west wall. A plinth 6–10 inches high in marble, Kadappa or the same wood, with a wipeable tray. A door or a jali leaf. Warm light at 2700–3000K.

A curtain only where there is a window, and lined if that window faces west. We will not hang an unlined dress curtain within reach of a diya, and we will not use MR ply under a wet stone.

A carved timber pooja cabinet standing against a plain wall, doors closed, plants either side.

If there is no separate room

The wall-mounted closed mandir is the unit we build most: two leaves, three to four feet wide, on an east or north wall. The leaves shut when the living room is a living room again.

A closed timber wall unit, shut, reading as a plain cabinet against the wall.

A corner unit when both free walls are wrong and the north-east corner is free.

A timber corner unit with a shelf above the closed cupboard and a small framed picture on it.

A jali or slat partition, 900–1200 mm wide, so light passes and the aarti is not a show for the television.

A slatted timber partition standing between a living room sofa and a lit shrine bay behind it.

Sliding frosted glass when you want the room back after twenty minutes. Plan the track before the floor finishes.

A frosted glass slider part-drawn across a small shrine bay off a living room.

We will not recommend a mandir on the kitchen line, on the wall the bed looks at, or on a west balcony with no door.

How different households keep a shrine

Hyderabad is not one culture. We do not choose the deity. We ask how many murtis or framed pictures live on the shelf on an ordinary Tuesday, and we build for that number.

Telugu and Andhra–Telangana homes often put one principal picture at the centre with family pictures around it, hanging bells, and a marble-top drawer line. An oonjal in the same bay gets used.

Tamil and South Indian homes lean to carved timber, a kapota, a threshold that takes a kolam, and the family deity that stays on the drawing from the first meeting. Laminate that looks like teak is a different quote.

Marwari, Gujarati and many North Indian homes lean to white marble, a jharokha and brass standing lamps. Jain households usually want the shelf quieter and whiter.

One murti, or many

Both are ordinary. One form needs height and empty air around it. Many forms need width, and closed storage for Navaratri. A cupboard drawn for one figure and then loaded with eleven frames collects dust.

A single brass figure standing in a lit arched niche beside a living room sofa.

One principal form at seated chest height, the rest on a reachable shelf, ancestors on a south wall. We do not arrange the deities.

A pale arched niche with a lotus carved above it, a stone figure on the sill and two drawers below.

Designs people ask for

A recessed bay with a backlit motif behind it and small framed pictures in lit side niches.

Recess, backlight and drawers is the modern Hyderabad default. Decide the number of niches before the cut.

A narrow white mandir tower standing in a passage between two doors, with drawers under a lit niche.

A passage tower works, as long as it is not opposite a WC.

A white open unit with shelves and brass vessels, closed cupboards below.

White PU, brass, quiet.

A dark freestanding timber cabinet with panelled doors, shut.

Carved timber, one motif. Carving is the clock on the programme.

Late-2026 planning bands

Asking bands rather than a printed rate card, with GST in the number. Fitting is a line of its own. These describe the market and get revised; the figure that binds is the one on your quote.

What you are buying	Band	What the money is
Compact wall or corner unit, laminate, basic light	₹35,000 – ₹85,000	Named 1 mm laminate or veneer, LED, two leaves, a small drawer
Mid unit — veneer or PU, storage, proper light	₹85,000 – ₹1.8 lakh	BWR/BWP, Hettich-class hinges, warm lighting, closed samagri storage
Partition and unit — jali or slider	₹1.2 – ₹3.2 lakh	Unit plus one leaf or a short slider, both faces finished
Dedicated small room, simple joinery	₹1.6 – ₹4.5 lakh	Door, plinth, storage wall, ceiling, lights, floor make-good
Dedicated room in teak, marble or carved work	₹4.5 – ₹12 lakh+	Stone plinth and back, carved or long-grain teak

How a job runs

A photograph and a plan with north marked. A site visit is ₹500, adjusted against the job if you go ahead.
Stand in the room at the hour you actually sit — morning, if that is when the puja is.
Freeze the back wall and the facing on the drawing.
Quote under Hexie Homes LLP.
A wall unit is 2–5 weeks after the drawing freezes. A partition is 4–7. Stone or carving is 6–12.
Fitting defects inside three months we come back and fix. The rest of the terms are on the FAQ.

Questions people ask

Best direction? North-east. East or north if that corner is wet.

Which way do the idols face? So that you face east or north. Usually that means the idols face west.

Under the stairs? A compromise. Closed, lit, and no shoes.

Can it share a wall with the toilet? Avoid it. Pick another wall.

Is a skylight required? Only if civil can waterproof it.

Is there a minimum job? No.

Send a photograph of the wall and a plan with north marked, and we will tell you whether it is a unit, a partition or a room. The showroom is House No 536, First Floor, Road No. 12, NBT Nagar, Banjara Hills, opposite the Triumph showroom, Monday to Saturday, 11am to 8.30pm. A site visit is ₹500 and it comes off the bill if you go ahead.

We build the room. The household sets the murtis.

Pooja rooms in Hyderabad — direction, light, and the wall behind the mandir