About Us

OTTAWAKI sells lighting to people furnishing homes in Canada. About half of it is wall sconces, plus a few ceiling lights, pendants and outdoor wall lights. Prices start just under $100 and the most expensive piece is just under $700. Shipping is free anywhere in Canada.

There are 17 fixtures on the site right now: 8 wall sconces, 4 ceiling lights, 3 pendants and 2 outdoor wall lights. That is a small catalogue for a lighting shop, and it is small on purpose. Two thousand nearly identical lamps do not give you more choice, they just make the decision take longer.

How we pick

Most of what we look at never makes it onto the site, usually for boring reasons. A brass finish that photographs warm and arrives yellow. A shade that looks slim in the studio shot and turns out to be 40 cm across once you hold it against a real ceiling. Or a price set high so that a permanent 60 percent discount can sit next to it, which we find a bit insulting.

What survives is fairly plain. A finish that still looks like itself after a year. Proportions that work under an 8 foot ceiling, because that is what most Canadian houses have. And the price on the page is the price.

Outdoor lights

Two of the fixtures we sell are made for outside walls: entrances, porches, patios and garden walls. Every outdoor fixture states its IP rating on its own page, and all of the current ones are IP65: sealed against dust, and against water sprayed from any direction. If a fixture is not rated for outdoors, its page will not say it is. Please do not mount one outside on the strength of a photo.

Getting it to you

We take 1 to 3 business days to pick and pack an order, and delivery usually takes another 5 to 8 business days after that. Rural addresses and the territories sit at the long end of that range, and we would rather say so here than have you wonder.

If a fixture arrives damaged, faulty, or is not the one you ordered, we pay the return postage and either replace it or refund you. Send a photo to support@ottawaki.com and we sort it out.

If you simply changed your mind, you have 30 days from delivery. In that case the return postage is yours to cover. We would rather write that here than hide it three screens down in the small print. There is no restocking fee either way. You need a return authorisation from us by email first; it comes with the return address and the instructions, so that we can match the parcel to your order when it arrives. The full terms are in our Return and Refund Policy.

Who is behind it

OTTAWAKI is a trading name of WE THE BEST LLC, a limited liability company registered in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. The store is operated internationally from the United States for customers in Canada. It is not a Canadian corporation, and we prefer to say so plainly. Prices are shown in Canadian dollars, we ship to Canada only, and customer service is handled in English by email and phone, Monday to Friday, Eastern Time. Our full company details are at the bottom of this page, in the footer of every page and in the legal notice.

Where our lights are made and shipped from

We do not run a factory. The fixtures are made by our manufacturing partners in Asia and are dispatched from our logistics partners' fulfilment centres in Asia. From there a tracked courier brings the parcel to your door in Canada; that journey is what the 5 to 8 business days of transit on our shipping page cover. Returns go to the returns processing address we give you with your return authorisation.

Before you order

Not sure whether a fixture suits the room? Send us the ceiling height and a photo of the wall. We will tell you whether it will look right, including when the answer is no. A person reads those emails, usually the same day.