Purchased a part to a lamp. A very common part. Wanted to return and they said no. Very bad customer relations. Will never refer them or shop there. read more

Amazing service and quality. you'd be hard pressed to find people who can do what they do. they bring antiques back from the dead!

My brass looks better than new. The service was very fast and courteous. I'll take other metal to be refinished. I trust their workmanship.

Steve's work and patience preparing my sconces for my lighting project has been invaluable. I started my project during the Covid shutdown thinking I could do it myself. I purchased antique art deco milk glass sconces to add to an existing track system in my kitchen. I quickly found out I needed an expert to sand the glass to fit the lighting inserts. My project would have been a bust without his craftsmanship and expertise. Such wonderful work. I'm so happy he was able to make it happen for me and I love the finished project. Thank you, thank you Steve. read more

The Bellows Shoppe - Lighting Fixtures & Equipment Near Me - Winnetka, Illinois

See all

Wonderful experience! I have a 22 year old Chandelier that was a house warming gift from my parents, that had an issue with one of the sockets. It was so bad it smoked and even had a small flame. A lot of the other electrical places I called pretty much told me to just get a new chandelier but I didn't want to go that route.... so happy I found this place. This company was great. They came out, took my Chandelier they fixed it and brought it back & hung it back up. I definitely recommend them read more

Never use the Bellows Shoppe. We had them come to our house to clean the light fixtures. My wife visited the shop had them send someone out to do the work. The charge was $1650. The job took 6 hours for an hourly charge of $275 per hour to clean light fixtures he never saw. We received another quote after the fact for $300. I had my wife stop payment on the check and I offered to pay him $800 or $133 per hour, still a ridiculous sum at half the price. We sent the check and he marked it void returned it, called the police and served us with a lawsuit for the original amount plus $10,000 in damages. This guy should not be in business in Hubbard Woods! read more

This store does amazing work. Everything I've had done with them has come out exceeding my expectations. The girl at the front is very knowledgeable and the owner is accommodating and helpful. Definitely recommend!! read more

The Bellows Shoppe - Lighting Fixtures & Equipment Near Me - Winnetka, Illinois

I worked with Steven for a short period of time. He is an old fashioned artisan people. He is not a good conversationalist and is somewhat introverted but will produce excellent results regarding your antiques. read more

I have been a customer of The Bellows Shoppe for many years. That provide unique services and products that I've never seen elsewhere. They also have some of the coolest antiques around. This is a charming place! Please read more

Another great project the Bellows Shoppe has just completed for us. We have been using them for over 20 years. We have been EXTREMELY satisfied with all of the 20+ projects they have done for us. We live in a semi-historic house. They have revitalized every door handle and brass fixtures in the house over the years. The project they just completed was our front door brass handle, English knocker and mail box flap. Again a perfect job done quickly and relatively inexpensively. Most of the hardware dates back to 1916 and it now looks brand new. All we can say is WOW, how nice it is to have a shop like the Bellows close by. Ron and Jane Scheff Highland Park, IL read more

NEVER USE THIS COMPANY!!! The man offered to pick up my chandelier for a quote (that took 2 months) when I told him the quote was too high, he suddenly had a pick up fee of $150. He refused to release my property to me without the police. read more

I had 2 custom chandeliers created for an event space I was designing. I needed the chandeliers done very quickly & I supplied at least half the product for the chandeliers. The chandeliers were to represent the visual brand language of the worldwide company I was designing an event space for at the Merchandise Mart. I am a professional within the design industry. The BS did build the chandeliers very quickly; the price I was charged ($400 each) was pretty expensive. But, I was on a very tight deadline so I agreed to the cost. Rod (I believe he is the manager), made a big deal of telling me they would even include the bulbs in the chandeliers so the lights would just need to be hung by the electricians and they'd be ready to go! The lights were hung in the event space and turned on. About an hour later, there was a burning smell. Relieved it wasn't coming from the booth I'd designed and was in the process of being installed, I went onto other things. Well...the smell, AND the smoke! WAS coming from the space I'd designed. One of the professional electricians at the Mart determined the Bellows Shoppe had put a light bulb into one of the fixtures, which was too many watts for the fixture. The fixture had actually begun to melt and now hung lower than the matching one which I'd placed a few feet from it in my design. I made due with this, but called the BS. They agreed to fix it for me, no charge. They called me a month or so later to ask where the chandelier was to be fixed, as it was now January & I needed it for an event in NYC in late March. I took the chandelier to them. It turned out that I did not end up needing the chandelier for March. But, it occurred to me in April, I hadn't heard from them as to the status. So, I called. I would call, leave Rod a message and sometimes right away or sometimes a day later or sometimes not at all, I'd hear back from him. This went on for several weeks. When he did call me back and I missed his call, I'd call him immediately. I finally had to resort to an email address I found on their web site because I wasn't getting an answer. I was getting VERY frustrated & I'd heard from one of the others in the design industry that the owners name was Steve. I asked Steve to contact me. He did via an email. Based on that email, I really do not think he had rec'd the entire story of events from Rod. The long & the short of it is, they now wanted to CHARGE me $50 "for parts" in order to fix the chandelier. I told them I thought this wasn't fair, as THEY'D put the wrong bulb in the light to begin with. (And, quite frankly, they'd put 2 used, non-matching bulbs in the fixtures. While this may not be a big deal when I do it at home, when done in a space which is on display for the design industry, every detail does count.) Six months after I'd originally ordered the chandeliers, I picked up the one which had been fixed. I refused to pay the $50 "for parts" and they were extremely rude to me over this. I would NOT go back to this business. Based on the way they handled a situation which they created by putting a bulb with too high of a wattage in a fixture THEY built from scratch, is quite concerning. Add to that the fact they wanted to charge me to fix their mistake and then gave me a hard time about it, reflects their lack of basic business acumen. read more

Tammy G. I had a VERY SATISFYING experience at the Bellows shop. The staff was courteous and attentive and took time to explain to me the processes of restoration. My replated pieces looked brand new and the project was completed sooner than I expected! I would highly recommend this business! read more

I had a Verdelite lamp from the 1900's that needed to be restored and I ran across the Bellows Shoppe web site. I emailed the company and Steve emailed me back with a quote to restore the lamp to it's original brass finish. I sent the lamp to Steve and I just received the lamp back and it looks fantastic. The lamp looks brand new and I could not be happier. I highly recommend the Bellows Shoppe and I look forward to doing more business with them in the near future. I'm from Valdosta Georgia and I'm sure glad I found their web site. Thanks Hal Drake read more

The shop has done unbelievable amazing work restoring old antique lights for me as well as a 1970s Mastercraft beautiful vintage brass table. The owner Steve - and Ron who works with him - are an unbelievable pleasure to work with!! Their work is stunning and they're pricing is very very good they are one of the few left that can restore old craftsmanship from years back!!! 5 stars plus !!! Highly recommend. read more

Terrible experience...brought in a chandelier for cleaning and missing pieces. Dropped it off and waited more than 2 weeks for a response. They gave me a insulting quote that didn't include delivery nor did it include parts! I asked around and was referred to someone that not only came to my home and cleaned it, but completely disassembled the entire Shonbeck chandelier. He cleaned each piece individually and ordered the missing pieces with me so that I can see the cost. It was literally 1/8 of the price. Bellows is predatory merchant that is full of it. This is a company for the customer who doesn't know any better. I felt terrible when I saw some elderly people going into the shop. They are being totally scammed. read more

I have taken a variety of items to the Bellows Shoppe for over 20 years. I have never had a single disappointing experience with either the work or the owner Steve Schmid. From rewiring lamps to re-plating expensive plumbing fixtures, their pricing has been fair & reasonable. I have ALWAYS asked for an estimate before they started & to be called if it went any higher. I added a second sink to the master bath during a recent remodeling & needed a second faucet to match the discontinued Dornbracht faucet. I was able to find it on eBay but it was Gold & I needed it in Polished Chrome. Steve re-plated it for $350 & Al-Bar, in Wilmette, wanted $900. It can't get any better than that! There was one time that I wanted to change the color of a small lamp base from Gold to Silver & I did not do the work as the estimate was too high. Steve explained how labor intensive it was to take apart. His explanation made perfect sense. While Rod is the person at the front counter, Steve does the majority of the work & he is usually always there. My experience has been to talk to Steve directly if cost is a factor. I would take the negative reviews with a grain of salt. There's 2 sides to every story. read more

I took in 2 lamps to be rewired. The gentleman told me it was no big deal and I could pick them up the next day. Imagine my shock when I returned the following day and received a bill for $300.00. This work was definitely not worth the money. When I brought the lamp in he told me they do not even sell 3-way bulbs anymore so I would have to change to a 300watt system, but they did not even replace the 3way with a new socket they just wired into the old socket. read more

Had some chandeliers rewired here - Super Expensive. Total rip off for the time they actually spend doing the work. I won't be going back or recommending them to anyone. read more

STAY AWAY. Far away. The manager is so difficult to work with (beyond disorganized and abrasive) and the owner (Steve) will not return calls. I had my chandelier there for over a month and the job wasn't completed even after I called and went into the shop a half dozen times. He thinks because they offer an unique service he can be horrible to people and clearly the owner doesn't care. I found out I am not alone after talking to several other companies who say they have heard "horror stories" about Bellows. Save yourself the hassle and go to Idlewood Electric. They have been doing this on the north shore for years, have amazing customer service and appreciate your business. read more

Bellows did some small metalwork on a problem I had with a keytag. The fellow at the desk was very helpful. Their work also was done very quickly and at a very reasonable cost. I like them, and would use them again! read more

Did a great job cleaning my crystal chandelier! Sparkles like new.

The Bellows Shoppe assisted in the selection and installation of outside lighting fixtures at my home. I appreciated the individual attention that I received during both parts of the process. The service was excellent, the price was reasonable, and they finished the project earlier than I had expected. I intend to use them again for the lighting needed for my next projects for finishing my redesigned kitchen and bathrooms. read more