DIY Temple Buiding Manual - by Girish.
Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement, let us unfold our humble endeavor.
I will break it down into steps in the order we have done – that should help if someone is willing to have a
go at this.
Items purchased from: Home Depot, Lowes, Michaels and Hobby Lobby
Total cost: $300
Let’s do this in 3 stages.
Procure the following materials before stage 1:
1. 3 wooden planks (refer S1); Home Depot/ Lowes
2. 2 pillars (refer S2); Lowes
3. 2” screws (8 nos, refer S3); Lowes/Home Depot
4. L bends (10 nos., refer S4); Lowes/ Home Depot
5. 4 temple legs (look for sturdy ones to be able to take the weight of the temple and look
proportionate) (refer S); Lowes
6. 4 iron plates to screw the temple legs (it is not a good idea to screw the legs to the wood directly,
so it is advised you attach 4 iron plates to the bottom of the floor and screw the legs to those;
these are found alongside the legs) (refer S1); Lowes
S1: Decide on the size of your altar; we have a 3’x3’ – visit home depot/lowes, get 3 planks of equal size
(here is a 3’ square) cut to size or readymade indoor wood (one for the floor, one for the rool and one for
the back panel); once you have chosen the floor, fix the 4 iron plates to the bottom by screwing them,
don’t fix the legs yet, they will come in your way while fixing the pillars if you do that.
S2: Decide on the size of the front pillars (remember the height of the pillar must match the height of the
back panel); Lowes has a good collection of these.
S3: Mark the place for the pillar on the floor of the temple and make holes into the floor with the help of a
driller (remember this is important because if you try to drill into the floor and the pillar in one go, it could
be very tough and a second attempt is not advised as it will broaden the hole). Now place the pillar on
these holes catching the floor plank sideways and drill the 2’ screws from the bottom (4 screws on all the
4 corners of the pillars. If you are not confident enough, take a 5th screw and drill into the center of the
pillar). Now the pillar should stand by itself; Repeat this procedure for the other pillar as well.
Just in case, you are going for a temple much smaller in size, sticking the pillars might be ok.
S4: Now that the pillars are secured to the floor, we have to fix the back panel to the floor. Catch the floor
sideways and drill the L bends into the floor from the bottom at 4 equidistant places and once the L bends
are secured to the floor, place the plank (for back panel) towards the edge of the floor leaning to the L
bends and screw them from behind. Remember screws are typically given along with the L bends, make
sure they are not longer than the plank; else it could protrude from the other side. You will still be left with
6 L bends, we will use them in stage 3.
Now, you could fix the legs to the temple floor to the iron plates attached in S1.
We are done with Stage 1, you have made 60% of the temple already.
Stage 2 materials:
1. 12 table legs (small) (refer S7), Lowes;
2. 2 wooden liners/borders (any design of your choice) (refer S8), Michaels;
3. 8 wooden liners/borders (look for the same size as the length and width of your planks) (any
design of your choice, it would be good to have a different one than the 2 mentioned before),
(refer S9) Michaels;
4. Gorilla (regular glue that sticks anything; remember if you get wood glue, the curing time is very
high, so not advisable) (refer S8/9);
5. Gold paint (the shade of your choice); try and get a spray paint than a bottle and brush, it is very
easy to paint and repaint as needed (refer S6), Hobby Lobby
6. Paint for temple (decide on the color of the temple, remember to ask/look for indoor wood paint,
we used Rust – Oleum, Ultimate wood paint, Cabernet shade),try and get a spray paint here as
well, it is much easy to paint and repaint, (refer S5), Home Depot;
S5: Paint the floor, back panel, temple pillars and 2 wooden liners/borders with wood paint; give a second
coating after an hour and more if needed. Typical drying time: 30 mins (spray paint); 3 hours (bottle,
brush).
S6: Paint the 8 table/stool legs and all the 8 wooden liners/borders in gold. Typical drying time: 30 mins
(spray paint); 3 hours (bottle,brush).
S7: We will now fix the table/stool legs to make a wall on the sides of the floor behind the pillars. Refer to
the picture to see where it is and the purpose this serves.
Adjoining the pillar towards the back panel, draw an imaginary line and mark 4 equidistant spots and
make holes to drill the table legs into the floor of the temple. (Remember these are table/stool legs that
would typically go under the table/stool; we are placing them in the opposite direction here to make it look
like a wall with small pillars, refer pic for better understanding); repeat the same procedure on the other
side. With this we would have consumed 8 legs, we will use 4 more in stage 3.
S8: Now cut to size the 2 wooden liners/borders to place on the table legs that have now become temple
pillars. Stick these liners to the top of the legs/pillars. (Now it should be wood painted liners on the gold
table legs, refer pic)
S9: We will now attach 5 wooden liners/borders from 8 (keep 3 in store for next stage) to the sides of the
floor (3 sides) and back panel (2 sides); it is advised you nail these, so that you could work with it
immediately after; remember if you stick you have to let it dry for some time.
Now you have the floor, back panel, pillars, wall behind the pillars (made with table/stool legs), temple
legs painted and ready, we will work on the roof and dome in stage 3.
We are done with Stage 2, you have made 75% of the temple ready.
Stage 3 materials:
1. 3 wooden liners from the 8 procured in stage 2
2. 8 glass bells; Michaels
3. Temple puzzle (this is available in arts and crafts section of Michaels, 5$; Michaels
4. 4 screw rings (to hold the bells); Lowes/ Home Depot
5. Front design (your choice to be attached to the ceiling in the front as an arch, refer pic); Hobby
Lobby (Remember Hobby Lobby has a 40% off coupon on their website, you could show on your
mobile)
6. 4 table/stool legs from 12 procured in stage 2
7. 1 plank from the 3 procured in stage 1
8. 6 L bends from 10 procured in stage 1
S10: Paint the top of this plank with wood paint and bottom of this plank (that which faces the inside of the
temple, the ceiling to the temple in gold). Typical drying time: 30 mins (spray paint); 3 hours (bottle,
brush).
S11: Paint the frontal design in gold (refer pic)
S11: Stick or nail the 3 wooden liners to the sides of the top plank.
S12: Screw the 4 screw rings to the inside of the plank (the gold side) directly above the table/stool legs
placed on the floor.
S13: Attach 2 L bends to the frontal design (the arch), depending on the material of the arch, you could
screw, nail or stick the L bends to them.
S14: Screw the L bends from the frontal design (the arch) to the front of the plank (refer pic)
S15: Place the roof on the existing structure, it will now stand on the back panel and pillars; with the
remaining 4 L bends, secure the roof to the back panel. Your temple is now ready except for the
dome/gopuram.
S16: Finish the temple puzzle, paint it gold and place it on top of the roof, if you need elevation, use the 4
table/stool legs to raise the height, then place a small plank (as in the pic) and place the puzzle on top.
Don’t forget to attach your bells now.
Tried to be very elaborate, the size of the text shouldn’t scare you. This is our first attempt at anything
like this, so we are sure you could do this.
Cheers, Thank you.
