An unusual topic for a fledgling interior designer, but…
One of the more neglected rooms in my house is what we call our “oratory,” a room for prayer. We use it every morning and every night for our family prayers, and as much as we’d prefer that our children enjoy the basement instead, they use this room during the day for their play. It has the feel of a sunroom with sets of windows on two walls and a pitched ceiling although we think previous owners used it as a den for watching television. Dismantling wallpaper and painting the room creamy white as soon as we moved into our house, we have let it be for a few years, trying out different pieces of furniture, different arrangements, and inching toward a vision.
This is an unconventional room to decorate because its function is unconventional—neither a chapel nor a family room but something verging on both; not meant for socializing necessarily but for communion; not for speaking to one another only but for trying to speak to God. (And also toys.)
The room is always circling round my creative thoughts. I work on it theoretically, trying on colors, revising, rearranging. For one of the exercises in my design course, however, I decided to give more focused attention to the space, evaluating its uses, double-checking dimensions, and imagining a domestic integration of the spiritual and artistic.
Amidst the assignment, I’ve thought quite a bit about the importance of these kinds of spaces in our homes—the ones we use for quiet, whether study or meditation or otherwise. Our rooms contain different habits of being with a spectrum of levity and seriousness, their waves distinct but washing into one another.
As humans capable of all those habits, we need corners and nooks set just for being, being still and being quiet. We might inhabit and observe here a naked honesty about our affections and needs. In the case of religious spaces, we also honor the highest recipients of our love. That old direction from the Gospel of Matthew surfaces: “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is secret.” These spaces are the most intimate, I think, and incidentally, they are my favorite in the homes of my friends because of that intimacy. I feel that I am allowed a brief look into the depth.
For those of us with sacred spaces already set aside in our houses, I hope this comes as an encouragement to renew attention to them, and for others of us, I hope it is an encouragement simply to make room. The colors and furniture and decor you choose for such a space depends on you and your loves, but I’ve arrived at a few suggestions for styling such a space:
If possible, remove technology and reminders of it.
Use a credenza or console table to make a perfect altar-like piece or a place to rest books. (The credenza is key for our family because it provides storage.)
Hang art that encourages you to rest and meditate. A more symmetrical gallery wall works well.
Offer multiple sources of light: lamps, sconces, candles.
Hang a wall censer for burning incense.
Add green with a live plant or fresh flowers.
Despite their hiddenness, these spaces may be most worthy of our attention and may even form the central inspiration for motifs carried through the rest of our houses. If quiet and prayer are the highest kind of work, then the rooms or corners that hold these are our most important, however secret. Expressing our innermost ways of being, whether thoughts or prayers or desires, they set the pattern for the rest of the home, as all healthy activity finds its headwaters in rest and peace.
A quiet place to pray is a place of joy and peace in a home. It is needed in every home. It does take time make it your place with God .