House Plan with Pooja Room: Sizes, Direction and Layouts

Where the pooja room goes and how big it should be

A house plan with pooja room has one fixed point: the north east corner of the ground floor. Vastu guidance calls this corner the ishan kon and treats it as the place for prayer, water and light. In planning terms it is also usually the brightest corner of a north or east facing house in the morning, which is when most families pray. Everything else in the plan can move. The pooja room should not.

Size depends on how your family prays. A couple who light a lamp standing up need a niche. A family that sits for aarti, keeps a small library of books and does a monthly havan needs a room with a door. Here are the sizes we use in our studio.

The pooja room size most of our 3 BHK clients settle on is 5 x 6 feet. It takes 30 sq ft, which is less than a common toilet, and it holds a 3 feet wide mandir, two people seated on an asan, and a cupboard for the puja samagri under the platform.

Direction rules in simple terms

The pooja room location in house plans follows a short list of Vastu guidance points. We present them as guidance, not as science, and we tell clients which ones to hold firm on and which ones to bend when the plot makes them impossible.

• Room position: north east corner of the plot is first choice. North or east wall positions are second choice. The exact centre of the house is third.
• Idol facing: idols face west or south, so the person praying faces east or north. Facing east is preferred.
• Door: a two shutter door opening outward or a sliding door, on the north or east side of the room if possible. No door facing a toilet door.
• Height: the idol platform sits at chest height for a seated person, about 2 feet 6 inches to 3 feet from the floor.
• Light: a window or ventilator on the east or north wall. Natural morning light in the pooja room is the single detail clients thank us for most.
• Storage: closed cupboards below the platform. Nothing stored above the idols.

The points to hold firm on are the north east position and the toilet rule below. The one to bend most often is the door direction, because on many plots the only workable door is on the west side of the room and that is a small compromise. Our full Vastu notes on this are in pooja room Vastu direction and size, which this post builds on from the floor plan side.

What to keep the pooja room away from

The mistakes in a pooja room in house plan drawings are almost always about neighbours, not about the room itself. These are the placements we refuse to draw and the reasons that go beyond Vastu.

1. Under the staircase. Vastu guidance is against it, and practically the headroom is 4 to 5 feet, the space is dusty and nobody can sit upright. Use that space for a store.
2. Sharing a wall with a toilet, or below or above a toilet on another floor. Plumbing noise and damp patches follow. Keep at least one room or a passage between them.
3. Inside a bedroom. The pooja room is a shared space and a bedroom is private. If the only north east corner is in a bedroom, use a small closed cabinet there and keep a second unit in the living room.
4. Beside the kitchen hob wall. Oil fumes and heat damage the mandir finish. A kitchen in the south east and a pooja room in the north east are far apart by design.
5. In the basement. Vastu guidance prefers the ground floor or above, and basements are damp and dark, which is the opposite of what the room is for.

One more practical point. The pooja room gets a lamp, incense and camphor every day. Give it a ventilator or a small exhaust fan, use a non porous finish on the ceiling above the lamp position, and run a separate switch for a warm LED so the room is lit without the harsh living room tube.

Pooja room in a 1,000 sq ft house plan

A small house plan with pooja room has to choose between a dedicated room and a second bedroom, and the bedroom wins almost every time. So in plans around 1,000 sq ft built-up, such as a 20x50 or 25x40 single floor 2 BHK, we plan a pooja alcove rather than a room.

The alcove is a 3 x 4 feet recess in the north east part of the living room wall, 2 feet deep, with a platform at 2 feet 6 inches, a cupboard below and a jali or glass shutter to close it. It costs the living room about 12 sq ft and gives the family a proper mandir with morning light from the east window beside it. If even that is too much, a 2 x 3 feet wall niche beside the main door does the job in a 600 to 800 sq ft house.

Our 1,000 sq ft layouts in the 1000 sq ft house plans for India guide show the alcove position on east and north facing versions. When the house has a small passage between the living room and the bedrooms, the end of that passage facing north or east is the other good spot, out of the TV line and still shared.

Pooja room in a 1,200 to 1,500 sq ft house plan

From 1,200 sq ft built-up the pooja room stops competing with bedrooms. A 30x40 G+1 or a 25x50 single floor 3 BHK has room for a 4 x 5 feet or 5 x 6 feet pooja room beside the living room on the ground floor without the living room shrinking below 12 x 14 feet.

The two layouts that work

In the first, the pooja room sits at the north east front corner, entered from the living room, with its east window on the front wall. The main door is a few feet away on the same wall and visitors see the mandir as they enter, which many families want. In the second, the pooja room sits at the north east rear of the living room, beside the dining area, entered from a short passage. It is quieter and more private and the morning light comes through a north window on the side setback.

Both versions keep the toilets on the west or south side of the plan and the kitchen in the south east, so the pooja room never shares a wall with either. Our dimensioned 1200 sq ft house plan for India shows the first version on an east facing 30x40 and the second on a north facing one.

Pooja room in a 2,000 sq ft house plan

A 3 bhk house plan with pooja room at 1,800 to 2,000 sq ft, such as a 30x50 or 40x50 duplex, can afford a full room of 6 x 8 feet with a door, a window, a cupboard wall and space for a havan kund on a stone slab. This is the size at which the pooja room becomes a room the family actually sits in rather than a cupboard they stand in front of.

• Position: north east corner of the ground floor, entered from a small lobby or the dining room, not directly from the main door so shoes stay out.
• Floor: marble or a light coloured stone, with a 1 inch raised threshold at the door so wash water from cleaning does not spread.
• Ceiling: a small dome or a false ceiling with a cove light, 9 feet or higher, so the room feels taller than it is.
• Door: two shutter wooden door with brass bells or a carved jali, opening outward into the lobby.
• Services: one 5 amp point for the lamp, one for a small speaker, an exhaust fan at the top of the east or north wall, and a tap and small sink outside the door for washing hands and vessels.

In duplex plans the pooja room always stays on the ground floor. Vastu guidance is against placing it where people walk above it, and in practice a ground floor pooja room is used, while a first floor one becomes a store within two years. Our interior design expert on the review team adds that the mandir unit itself should be designed with the room, so its height matches the window and the cove, and our post on pooja unit design ideas covers the unit styles, materials and lighting.

Pooja room on west and south facing plots

The north east corner is easy to give to the pooja room on north and east facing plots because it is on the front wall. On west and south facing plots the north east corner is at the back, and clients often ask whether the pooja room then has to sit behind the kitchen.

It does not. On a west facing plot the north east corner is the rear corner on the north side. We place the dining room there, with the pooja room opening off it, and move the kitchen to the south east rear or the north west front. The pooja room gets a north window onto the side setback. On a south facing plot the north east is the rear corner on the east side, and the same move works with the kitchen in the south east front.

Where the plot simply does not allow a north east pooja room, Vastu guidance accepts a north wall or east wall position, and after that the centre of the house. We tell clients honestly which option their plan allows and why, rather than forcing a room into a corner that then has no light. For the full direction logic on every facing, see our complete Vastu house plan guide, and our Vastu compliant house plans show the pooja room marked on each facing.

Your next step

Decide which type of pooja space your family needs from the size table, check which corner of your plot is north east, and make sure the plan keeps toilets and the staircase away from it. If you are still choosing between plans, our pillar guide on how to choose the right house plan in India puts the pooja room in context with the other decisions.

Browse our ready 1200 sq ft house plans to see pooja rooms marked on real layouts, or send us your plot details through our Vastu consultation service for a free first consultation. Our Vastu consultant and architects will show you exactly where the pooja room fits on your plot and what it costs you in floor area, before a single wall is drawn.