(Brendan)
Praise God, after four and a half years of work, our little chapel is "substantially complete!" It has been three years since the last post on this blog (wow!) and since then, there have been three years of work and even a ruptured Achilles tendon thrown in there for good measure (unrelated to chapel construction, but that's another story). Needless to say, the entire process took much, much longer than we thought, but we couldn't be more thankful or awed at how God has blessed us with this space for individual prayer, family prayer, and mass. Without further adieu, the pictures... (click any to enlarge)
The Chapel of All Saints
The altar and statue holders are made from walnut, one of my favorite types of wood.
The tabernacle door iconography was carved by hand. The tabernacle itself is present as a design element for the altar, though it will almost never be used. It is possible that the Eucharist could be reposed there for a short time after a mass, but other than that it will be empty.
We have been gifted two saintly relics by my brother, Fr. Evan, and are keeping three others from Molly's mother for veneration as well. The following two are second class relics of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Therese of Lisieux.
The other three are first class relics of St. Maria Goretti, St. Bridget of Sweden, and St. Pius X. These are wonderful to have in the Chapel of All Saints!
The Latin on either side of the altar is from Romans 8:17, "...If we suffer with him, we will be glorified with him."
The stations of the cross were purchased from a woodcarver in Ukraine, and they are beautiful.
The pews were obtained when a small Catholic church near my grandparents was closed, and we were able to purchase 5 pews. They needed to be cut down to length, and the materials on the kneelers had to be replaced, but they were a bargain and even have that "old church smell." One of the small remaining items is for me to finish three more of the pews, which need more legs made.
In-wall speakers were installed on the back wall and are connected to a receiver, along with a subwoofer. We use it to play organ music and sacred choral music.
Some pictures of the chapel at night, also showing that the color of the up-lighting can be changed (such as for Advent or Lent)...
Joyfully, on January 1, 2020, my brother (Fr. Evan) celebrated our "opening" mass for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. It was also a great blessing to have my father, Steven, a permanent Deacon, vested for the mass. My brother had celebrated mass at various points during construction, but this was the first mass after completion.
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!
15 comments:
I’m curious to know how much of this design was an original plan and how much evolved as you went along.
Great question! From a "form" standpoint it really did turn out exactly as designed, because I designed it on my computer and needed to follow it in order to prevent mistakes happening. I caught so many mistakes in my computer design that had I tried to just "wing it" it would have been a disaster.
However, paint was another story. Do you know how many yellows I went through (dropping like $75 each time) before I was satisfied with the yellow color on the wall? Four. Four separate times painting the walls. No matter how many samples or tests I went through, you couldn't get a sense for the color until it was completely done, and I couldn't accept the thought that I would compromise on the color and then sit there always knowing it wasn't right. :-) The stencils were also a late add, we didn't know what we wanted to do behind the statues until late in the project.
There was a bit of trim on the upper part of the altar I did not do as originally designed because it looked so good without it. I was worried that adding this extra trim on the faces of the wood on the upper part would be too much, so I left it. Other than than, exactly as desiged!
Congratulations Brendan!! You have created a truly magnificent and sacred space for your family and friends. May God's every blessing be upon those who worship there. Gabrielle
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Wow! That is an impressive home chapel. Congratulations.
You certainly have created a wonderful space to worship. This has to be a wonderful help in passing the faith on to your children, as well. With regard to your children, I was pleased to see hearing protection being used and hope dust masks were also the rule. I worked for a radiologist and came to realize that what goes onto the lungs stays there, with regard to particulate matter.
May God bless your whole family and all who worship in your beautiful chapel,
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Would you mind sharing where you purchased your crucifix?
I just learned about your chapel! Did you have to get permission from your Bishop to do this or was it okay because the Eucharist wasn't going to be permanently housed in the Tabernacle? Incredible work! I hope God makes great use of it!
Hi Kevin, no we did not need permission and as you noted the Eucharist is not housed in the tabernacle permanently.
We have a bedroom in the house which we have emptied and are planning to turn into a home chapel, hence how I came upon your post about yours while googling home chapels! This is so beautiful! Ours is going to be much more simplistic, as I need a very empty space for me personally to help clear my mind in our otherwise busy home. But I am wondering if you maybe have a list of what elements to be sure to include or if there is a proper way to set things up? We currently have a small home prayer area which is just a small table with icons, candles, incense, various things. But in the chapel we are making I would like to have it be much more like a church and set up so that should we ever have the opportunity to have a private mass, it would be set up and properly reverent to do so. Thanks for any feedback you may have! I asked our wonderful priest about it, and he is even simpler than I am because he just said table, table cloth, candles, lol.
Would it be possible to see a dimensioned drawing or can you share the dimensions?
Hi there, the length of the floor is 18 feet and the width is 11.5 feet, with a 16 foot height in the center. The length number does not include the little bump-out for the altar.
Hello! Beautiful chapel!! I was wondering where you got the blue wallpaper for behind the statues? Was it a custom design or is it painted with a stencil design? I would love to do something similar in our home chapel.
Hi there Kaity, the area behind the statues is actually painted with a stencil (which was a custom design). There are various places online that will make any image you want into a stencil so that's something to consider. This project was tedious because of the gold paint, which came off the wall easily when the stencil was removed, meaning it had to be fixed with a very tiny brush.
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