For the many years that I have seen at my home, mom would setup the Gollu every year and celebrate Navaratri with such pomp and flair. Things to do would be planned in advanced. Gift novelties would be purchased in advance to be given to the women folks visiting every evening. Dining tables, wooden planks, empty boxes would be used to make the 9/11 steps. Our home would be busy in the evening with people coming to visit the Gollu and taste the yummie yummie sundal that she used to make. We brothers always used to sneak into the kitchen and get our share of sundal earlier than the rest of the crowd.

After marriage, we got tagged to have Gollu festival. Last year we picked up Gollu idols during our vacation to India and this year dear MIL mailed us a big box of more bommai for the Gollu. Initially I also planned to use my mom’s idea of using up the dining table , coffee table, books & empty boxes to make the shelf but me being an engineer and big fan of the HGTV, decided to make a wooden shelf.

After goggling to check if anyone sold Gollu shelf’s in the US or if anybody had blogged about making a shelf, the result was fruitless. My first year engineering drawing and AUTO CAD certification came handy, made a 3-D picture of the shelf that I was planning to make along with the dimensions. Decided that it would be a weekend project, I headed to Home Depot. After roaming through the aisle’s of lumber section, I wasn’t sure what I wanted but I got a rough idea off how much the price of wood varied from 1-end of the aisle to another. I approached a gentleman who was quite friendly in explaining to me the various type of wood and what would be a easy DIY project. Things started getting crystal. I decided on what wood I need.

Home Depot is the place to be if you love doing home improvement projects. I paged for a handyman and gave him the dimension. He picked up the straight piece of wood for the side frame, wooden plank and cut them according to my specifications.

So below is the list of things for DIY Gollu Shelf @ home:

1. Power Drill( I already had it, if you don’t have it u could manage with a screw driver).
2. Dry wall nails (the smallest box has 50 plus nails and cost roughly $5).
3. Level meter (picked up a 3 feet level meter for $5.50).
4. 6 no of 1X2X6 No 2 Wood (for the frame $8).
5. 1 no of 1X6 No 12 Wood (for the platform $7).

Total cost of the project $26. Time taken 2 hrs. Check below to see the shelf.

[click here] to view the gallery.

Time to enjoy the Sundal !!!

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