Decorating a Columbarium Niche

At many modern private columbaria, yes. Niches with a glass front, rather than a sealed marble panel, give families a small but real space to personalise around the urn. It's become a quiet, meaningful part of visiting, a way to make the space feel less like a compartment and more like somewhere that belonged to someone specific.

There's real variety in how people go about this, and none of it is wrong:

• A small piece of fake grass laid down as a base, giving the space a softer, more natural feel • Small decorative touches placed around the urn itself • Personal items the deceased genuinely loved, a favourite small object, something that says who they were • Some families build the space almost like a miniature room, the urn resting to one side, the rest of the niche decorated like a scene • Objects tied to their work or identity, a small nameplate for a teacher or lawyer, right down to specific touches like a miniature mahjong table or tiny beer bottles for someone who loved a good game night • Miniature versions of local food, or small toys, especially meaningful for someone who loved cooking, hawker food, or had grandchildren • A QR code, discreetly placed, linking to a shared drive or page with more photos and videos, giving visitors a way to see and remember more than the space itself can hold

Modern columbaria are generally secure, many with CCTV coverage. But prevention is simply better than dealing with a problem afterward. Avoid placing genuinely valuable items in a niche, jewellery, expensive watches, anything with real resale value. It's not that inexpensive items can never go missing either, but there's little reason to create a situation that didn't need to exist in the first place. Keep anything with real monetary value at home, and save the niche for things that matter for what they represent, not what they're worth.

Decorating a niche is entirely a personal choice, not an obligation. Some families prefer to leave it simple, just the urn and the plaque, and that's a completely valid way to honour someone too. There's no right amount of decoration, only what feels right for your family.