How Can You Create a Dedicated Prayer Space at Home?

My aunt used to have a small wooden chair in the corner of her bedroom for as long as I can remember. Next to the chair was a small shelf and a candle. As a child I was always puzzled by this little corner that my aunt would set up every morning before everyone else in the house was awake. She would go to her little corner of prayer with the candle lit. It seemed so odd to me as a child but as I grew up I realized how special and beautiful a space that little corner must be.

Carving out a space for stillness and prayer in a home is radical. It is most radical in the most chaotic of homes. For in such a home, the space for stillness and prayer is a kind of pressure release valve for the inhabitants.

Why physical space actually matters

The majority of advice for creating a sacred space to foster a personal prayer practice focuses on the objects and how one should set up a space. Most people are unaware of how the physical space already affects the person who inhabits it. A cluttered and messy workspace creates a space for task oriented work and a dimly lit, quiet space with candles and a crucifix or two gives the body and mind a completely different signal: slow down. The body often responds before the mind is even aware of it.

This isn’t mysticism. Locker room rituals for athletes. A writer’s coffee shop corner or specific set up of desks and so on for writers. A space can cue your nervous system for what you’re doing there. That’s what a sacred space does.

The same principle applies to many areas of life, where thoughtful solutions for creating productive environments can influence focus, habits, and the way people approach their daily routines. 

So, where do you put this chair? This is the first decision that you have to make when creating a sacred space. Most people create a sacred space in a corner of a room, against a wall, facing another wall. Others create a sacred space in a nook or by a window. Your sacred space can be a cabinet or a small room.

Find a corner

Your room or even a wall in your home can be the backdrop for your space for prayer. The corner of a room with a window is a lovely place for some natural light. But a softly lit space with one or two candles can be even more beautiful for your times of prayer. A single floating shelf on the wall with an icon and a tea light creates a beautiful space for prayer.

Also keep in mind that the area for your sacred space should be somewhat removed from the rest of the room. So a space in a corner of your bedroom would be better than right next to your television or next to where you pay the bills. Generally it is best if the space faces a wall and not an open area of the room. This will help to keep visual distractions to a minimum and to keep your mind from wandering back out into the world.

Of course, a prayer space does not have to be in a room with natural light. If a space with candles or softly-lit objects works better for a person than a space near a window, then that is what they can use. One person I spoke to has a tea light on a floating plank with an icon on, situated in the corner of her room. It is a tiny space, but it is so arresting it far outshines the rest of the room.

What to actually put there

In terms of objects, don’t overcrowd your space with a bunch of objects. In reality, a few meaningful objects, combined with a few meaningful texts, is all you need to create a beautiful space for prayer.

• A small crucifix or icon as a visual focal point
• Catholic rosaries, especially if you pray the rosary regularly or want to start. Having them physically present in the space makes them far more likely to actually get used, rather than languishing in a drawer somewhere
• A candle or small oil lamp, something you light to mark the beginning of prayer
• A Bible or prayer book, whichever form of Scripture or guided prayer fits your practice
• Something personal. A photo, a prayer card, a small object that carries memory or meaning for you specifically

Don’t over decorate your space. Negative space is doing spiritual work. Don’t feel the need to fill up every inch of your space with religious objects and decor. Remember I said that I struggle with not wanting to over decorate things. This is true for me.

The small rituals that make it stick

A space without a habit is just furniture.

Most advice for setting up a prayer space to practice Islamic devotions will focus on the various objects that you can include in the space, how to organize them on your various shelves, and so on. And then at the end they will give a backhanded compliment to the ease of practice by saying something to the effect that practicing your devotions is easy and all you have to do is sit in your space. But setting up a space of objects and sitting in it is very hard to do.

Here is a practical sequence of steps you might take to set up a sacred space for prayer, even if you have no experience with this before.

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  Set a specific time, even just ten minutes, and protect it like a meeting you can’t reschedule.

  Use a physical cue to begin. Lighting the candle, picking up the rosary, opening the book. Something that signals the transition from ordinary time to something else.

  Start shorter than you think you should. Five focused minutes beats twenty scattered ones, without question.

  Return after you miss days, because you will miss days. The space will still be there, patient as furniture.

      Element

      Purpose

      Notes

      Crucifix or icon

      Visual anchor for attention

      Choose one you actually like looking at. This matters more than you’d think

      Candle

      Ritual marker, signals start and end

      Unscented is often less distracting

      Rosary or prayer beads

      Tactile focus during repetitive prayer

      Keep within arm’s reach so reaching for them feels natural, not like a production

      Scripture or prayer book

      Guided reflection and reading

      Leave it open to where you left off

      Personal object

      Grounds the space in your specific life and intentions

      Can rotate as your intentions change. This one is underrated

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1. Set a specific time, even just ten minutes, and protect it like a meeting you can’t reschedule.
2. Use a physical cue to begin. Lighting the candle, picking up the rosary, opening the book. Something that signals the transition from ordinary time to something else.
3. Start shorter than you think you should. Five focused minutes beats twenty scattered ones, without question.
4. Return after you miss days, because you will miss days. The space will still be there, patient as furniture.

How can a Prayer Space made of stuff in your home possibly matter?

Second, a prayer space does not make a person more religious or more spiritual than they otherwise are. Rather, the physical space of a prayer room or a prayer corner can be sacred in and of itself because it is returned to again and again in acts of prayer. The space can, in fact, become holy not because of the objects in it, but because of the frequency of use. The space is thus not automatically made holy by the inclusion of certain objects. Rather, it is the return to the space again and again that makes it become imbued with meaning. In order for a space to become a sacred or holy space, it must be returned to again and again in acts of prayer or other spiritually meaningful acts. A river, for example, can carve a stone out of the landscape not by hitting it once with great force, but by returning to it again and again over long periods of time. In much the same way, the act of returning to a space, whether a physical room or a corner in a room, again and again is what makes the space a sacred or holy space. A space is not automatically made into a sacred space simply because it is given certain objects to make it a more proper space for prayer.

Which brings me back to my aunt’s chair.

One last thing

As a final point I want to describe my aunt’s chair. It was an old armchair with worn armrests, and one leg was slightly uneven. It didn’t look sacred in any way but my aunt would sit in it every morning for decades. It would have accumulated so much meaning and have become so much part of her habit of prayer that it would have felt heavy with something profound, in much the same way that old churches can feel.

At first, things may look and feel rather awkward and a bit silly as you and your space grow together in these early days. Remember that awkwardness is a completely normal part of any new beginning, and things that are just beginning are far removed from things that have reached their full development.