Beyond the wall

<< Previous | Next >>

What's on the other side of the wall? What behind over there on the other side? Walls in a prayer room create a journey and a sense of discovery as you walk and explore the space. I am a big fan of lots of walls and a well sectioned prayer room. In this dark video you can see how we converted a single big room into a pathway.

This section is about making the most of your space. Most temporary prayer rooms will be set up in a large open space. It is usually necessary to divide up the space to create more privacy and provide places to hang items and such. We have experimented with various methods including:

• Using natural empty space as a divider - If your space is very large, this works well. But having walls often adds a sense of privacy needed. It also gives you places to hang things and decorate.
• Using stacked chairs as fence posts - Works great if there are chairs for you to use. Lots of big rooms often are filled with chairs you'd need to remove otherwise anyways.
• Using buckets with large wood posts filled with rocks - Works ok. You need to grab rocks from a nearby alley or such. This is actually a lot of work for setup and teardown. Not recommended. In this brighter video, you can see the buckets filled with rocks with posts.

• String with disposable table clothes as walls. - Works great. Disposable table clothes can be bought from dollarama and you can save it after use for next time.
• Folding room dividers - Works great, but doesn't go very far and costs lots.

We found that the easiest and quickest way is to use stacked chairs as fence posts and table clothes as walls. Most big rooms will have chairs you can use.

1. We stack a bunch (6ish) of chairs. The higher your stack the taller the walls will be. Be careful that the stacks are so high that they are unstable.
2. We then place these fence posts at the various wall intersections
3. Then tie strings to connect the tops of the chairs. Once string are in place, you can drag the chair posts apart to tighten up the strings.
4. Then we drape disposable table cloths over the string so that you can't see under the strings.
5. Use clothespins (on top of string) to secure draped clothes.
6. Hang vines along the string edges or tape pictures onto the table clothes to decorate.
7. Optional: Cover the chairs so they are hidden and more natural looking.