Interior designer Sharon Hanby-Robie has been in the business for more than 20 years. But things really started taking off for her company last year when she began putting a bit more faith into her work.

Now the Lancaster, Pa., decorator, who charges about $85 an hour, creates prayer closets, small places built inside the home for daily contemplation, for some clients. For others, she uses fabrics in amber and crimson (colors cited in Chronicles and Jeremiah) for slipcovers and curtains. Clients "know I'm a Christian and that religion is a part of my life and my work," says Ms. Hanby-Robie, who says her client roster has grown by a third since making the switch.

As religious themes grow more important in American culture -- in an April Gallup poll of 1,003 adults over 18 years old, 42 percent of respondents described themselves as evangelical Christians -- a handful of interior designers have begun to market themselves as experts in merging home decor with religion. Their influences run the spectrum: subtle touches, such as using colors taken from a client's favorite Bible passages, and more overt ones, like the installation of altars and large cast iron crosses in some homes.

When Natalie Kaye hired Denny Daikeler of North Wales, Pa., to update her home's look, "I didn't want to knock people over with religious stuff," says the event planner in nearby Newtown. Ms. Daikeler, an interfaith minister and interior designer, first asked her client to make a "life" and "happiness" list to help establish priorities and to help her select colors, shapes, textures and patterns that suited Ms. Kaye's spiritual personality.

After reviewing the answers, Mrs. Daikeler advised hanging a framed Biblical passage from Romans 8:39 ("Neither height nor depth nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God. ...") and painting the living-room walls pale blue to evoke the heavens. An angel statue went onto the dining room table, to make that area the "spiritual heart" of the two-story town house, Ms. Kaye says. "She's so much more than a decorator. She's a spiritual influence."

These designers say they're simply filling a niche -- helping Christians and others guided by religion who want to tap into their faith without turning their homes into chapels. Still, there's another reason interior decorators are striving to set themselves apart: The field has never been more crowded. The American Society of Interior Designers,a trade group, says its membership hit a record high of 35,000 this year. Meanwhile, annual income in the field has been flat, at about $40,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many of these decorators get clients through referrals. Washington D.C., decorator Beth Post donates her skills at church functions, helping paint, reorganize furniture and arrange flowers for church events. Then, "people see my work and call me," she says, adding that her approach is less overtly religious than "striking a tone" for the home.

Other decorators have emphasized their shift toward religion by talking about it at religious retreats or writing about it. Last year, Ms. Hanby-Robie co-wrote "Beautiful Places, Spiritual Spaces" (Sample text: "Just as God's pattern can set the tone of our lives, color and pattern can set the mood of a room.") Though she appears on local TV and radio shows and attends decorating seminars, she says -- as do many religious-oriented decorators -- that she finds the bulk of her clients at her local church.

Not all consumers feel they need the services of a professional to bring religious decor into their home. After filling their Atlanta family room with a big-screen television and cherry-wood tables and chairs, Clarence Izzard and his wife, Tonya, had a prayer closet they designed installed under a stairwell. The room, about 12 feet by 8 feet, is filled with scented candles, a rock water sculpture, and pillows on the floor. The couple didn't want "some kind of flashy shrine to God," says Mr. Izzard, a regional manager for a hotel chain, who says he and his wife spend a few minutes praying in the closet daily.

While religious decorators tend to rely on the same sources as the rest of the industry for furnishings and materials, they can also buy from some retailers that specialize in Christian items. Creative Faith Place in Appleton, Wis., for example, sells religious home-decor furnishings and is owned by a religious-oriented decorator, Jeanne Winters. The store stocks items like $33 vases accented with biblical passages and $18 hydrangea-colored picture frames with "Delight yourself in the Lord" etched across the bottom. "I'm simply filling a need in the marketplace for inspirational home decor and furnishings," says Ms. Winters, whose business has doubled yearly since it opened in 2003.

The religious-decorating market has won support from some pastors who see the decorators as keeping expressions of faith from being overly blatant. Instead of hanging crosses or building altars, people "want subtle references to their faith in their homes as simple reminders of what's important in their lives," says Ted Haggard, senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. and president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Of course, religious decor has existed for thousands of years, from Buddhist altars to Hindu prayer rooms to crucifixes posted above doorways. But while some designers accepted faith-oriented work, few openly marketed themselves for such contracts. In their latest incarnation, spiritual decorators, who charge about $85 to $125 an hour ($75 to $250 is the industry standard, according to the ASID), tend to use religious symbolism subtlely, so that visitors might not even pick up on it.

Still, some clients say the methods of some religious-oriented decorators take getting used to. Linda Berger says her husband, Jerry, found Ms. Hanby-Robie "a little peculiar" when the couple hired her to redecorate their two-story, six-bedroom home in Lancaster. Mrs. Berger says her husband was surprised when the decorator started asking questions such as, "What's the first thing you think about in the morning?" and "How would you describe your inner soul?"

But in the end she and her husband found that the questions were helpful and produced some thoughtful design ideas, including hanging framed spiritual paintings depicting lighthouses and angels in the family room. "She really cut to the core of what was important to us," says Mrs. Berger.

The Spiritual

Home While some homeowners are turning to professionals to meld decor and faith, there are additions consumers can make on their own to bring religion home. Here are a few suggestions.

ITEM/PRICE: Prayer closet $300 to $900
DESCRIPTIt negative energy.
COMMENTS: Interior designer Denny Daikeler, an ordained minister in North Wales, Pa., will also bless your home. She charges clients the same $125 per-hour as her decorating fees.

ITEM/PRICE: Home altars $50 for a homemade version, up to $1,000 or more for custom model
DESCRIPTION: A wooden altar small enough to fit in room corners or next to windows.
COMMENTS: Retailers like Elements of the Home in Chicago sell antique and limestone home altars starting at $1,600. In Kaysville, Utah, Heavenly Wood has models made from northern red oak starting at $4,000.

ITEM/PRICE: Wallpaper about $3.50 a yard
DESCRIPTION: Wall-coverings etched with biblical passages or shaded with colors taken from the Bible.
COMMENTS: Justborders.com and York Wallpaper in York, Pa., both carry spiritual wallpaper and borders. Quotes like "Give us our daily bread" are illustrated with sketches of grapes, cheeses and bread.

ITEM/PRICE: Biblically themed plants from $5 for poinsettias to $20 for holly
DESCRIPTION: Plants such as holly and monkshood are mentioned in the Bible.
COMMENTS: Lancaster, Pa., decorator Sharon Hanby-Robie says the colors found in an amaranthus -- deep red, yellow and green -- can symbolize Joseph's multicolored coat.