Below are answers to questions we have received. Feel free to contact us with other questions, and we will do our best to respond to you within 24 hours. You may use this interactive menu to jump to specific answers.
How may I contact you?
The best way to reach us is by email or by using the"Contact Us" button. We typically respond to questions and concerns within 24 hours of receiving a message.
Contact us at the following email address:
inquiries@lightwellcottage.com
Or click the button below to send a message:
Owner's Information:
Melissa Lightwell
Lightwell Cottage
10556 Combie Rd.
PMB 6108
Auburn, CA 95602
(530) 718-2387
Where may I find you on social media?
Currently, Lightwell Cottage does not use any form of social media. If we ever decide to create social media accounts, we will state this clearly on our website. Please protect yourselves from online scammers who pose as big and small businesses trying to gain customer trust. We will never try to contact individuals through social media platforms for personal information or payments. We also do not offer things like social media memberships, loyalty points, raffles, etcetera. We only contact customers directly through our business email or goimagine account regarding actual purchases, and we will only contact customers by phone to return a customer’s phone call. If you believe you have been scammed by someone posing as our business, please contact us by using our official contact information listed above.
How do you use my personal information?
Lightwell Cottage does not use third party apps with tracking technologies. This site only uses WIX CMS, which includes essential standard components. Visitors and customers to this site will never be targeted by customized advertisements or promotions according to their activity on this site.
Information collected through email, by phone, or an online purchase is for the sole purpose stated. If you provide your personal information to Lightwell Cottage, this information is used for the sole purpose of providing you with customer service. Once the service is completed, customer contact information is saved in our secure Wix business file for 4 years. This information will only be retrieved if you require future assistance or if we are required by law to assist in a legal matter. Lightwell Cottage does not store any personal financial information. Customer payments are securely and privately processed through Stripe. In terms of email lists, you will not receive any type of announcements or advertisements from us unless you have clearly requested to receive such notifications from us. There will never be any type of automatic electronic collection of statistical information directly by Lightwell Cottage. The small amount of contact information that is collected upon checkout is used specifically to fulfill your order. Lightwell Cottage does not sell customer information and does not share customer information with third parties outside of Wix and the service providers they use to fulfill orders such as Stripe, delivery carriers, etcetera. If you choose to purchase an item from us, please understand that you will be making the purchase through Wix Payments. Their ecommerce platform is a separate businesses from Lightwell Cottage and only serves as an online platform for Lightwell Cottage to sell goods. The Wix platform maintains their own privacy guidelines, which can be found directly on their website.
Every visitor has the opportunity to clearly state privacy preferences through the "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" link here on lightwellcottage.com. This link can be found in the footer section of every Lightwell Cottage website page. Even though Lightwell Cottage never collects information for the purpose of selling information, we provide the link in order to stay in compliance with consumer rights over their personal information.
Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns regarding this privacy statement.
Can I purchase an item in person?
Lightwell Cottage is a home-based business that sells online, so all purchases must be made through our website. You will have the option to choose "Local Pickup" at checkout, but please understand that this option does not include a discount. We decided to fully bear the expense of shipping, so there are no hidden shipping fees to discount. The prices listed in our shop are the set prices for both the local pickup and delivery options. If you choose local pickup, we will contact you upon processing your order to schedule a pickup time. If you choose local pickup by mistake, please let us know so that we can make corrections to your order.
Do you accept custom orders?
Wooden Items by Jeff & Melissa: You are more than welcome to contact us with a special request, and we will let you know if we can help you. Our decision will depend on the materials available to us as well as turnaround time. Although we offer handmade wooden items, please note that we do not make large furniture pieces such as armoires, china cabinets, large dining tables, etcetera. We mainly make small wooden items and occasionally smaller coffee/end tables. The type of requests we typically take are ones that request an item we already make but with a slight variation, such as wood type, a custom color, or an item's size.
Jewelry Pieces by Melissa: You are more than welcome to contact me with special requests, and I'll let you know if I'm able to help you. For example, if you know the exact type of beads you want, I could order them for you and string them into whatever design you desire. I can also fix or deconstruct/redesign a piece you already own. If you own a special pendant that just needs some type of necklace, feel free to contact me. I may be able to help you turn your heirloom into a wearable piece of jewelry.
Fabric Items by Melissa: You are more than welcome to contact me with special requests, and I'll let you know if I'm able to help you. I am not taking any requests for clothing, but I may take a request for other items such as bags and soft toys.
Artwork by Melissa: I am not taking special requests for drawings or paintings at this time. If this changes in the future, I'll state it clearly here on our website.
What method of payment do you accept?
If you are purchasing an item online through our website, your payment will be processed by Wix Payments, which utilizes Stripe. Stripe is a secure and reputable online payment processor that serves some of the largest ecommerce platforms, and it allows customers the opportunity to pay with debit, a major credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more. Customers also have the option to pay with PayPal when purchasing through our website. If you want to use a Visa gift card at checkout, you must first register the gift card in your name through the gift card company such as www.vanillagift.com, and make note of what address you register the card with. Your gift card address must match your billing address for security reasons. Please note that Lightwell Cottage never gains access to sensitive card information. Only Stripe collects that information from you for the sole purpose of securely processing your payment. You can always contact us if you have any issues with making a payment.
If you are purchasing an item in person, such as at a craft fair or an art show, you may pay with cash, card, or mobile wallet. We use a Stripe POS system to process in person payments.
What is your return policy?
Lightwell Cottage offers refunds within the first 30 days of your purchase. This means that we must receive the unwanted item before the end of the 30 day period. Any requests beyond this point will be ineligible for a refund.
If your refund request is due to a delivery carrier failing to deliver your package successfully, we will issue you a refund and then open a case with the specific carrier. We may ask you for more details about the failed delivery if necessary.
If your refund request is due to receiving an incorrect item or a damaged item, you may mail the item back to us. If the item you want is still in stock, we will promptly ship that item out to you at no cost. If the correct item is not available, we will offer you the opportunity to replace it with something similar in value or receive a full refund.
If your refund request is due to you simply changing your mind, that’s perfectly fine. As long as the item is free from heavy wear and tear and has not been severely damaged by you, we are happy to offer you a refund or a chance to exchange the item for something else.
To request a refund, please notify us of the specific issue. You can make the request in two ways:
1. Send an email to: inquiries@lightwellcottage.com
OR
2. Use the following link to access our refund request form:
We typically respond on the same day or by the following morning, and we will let you know if your case qualifies for a full refund/exchange. If you qualify, you must do the following in order to receive the refund.
If the issue is not regarding a missing package, you must pack the specific item back into its original packaging or find other appropriate packaging that will keep the item secure during delivery. We will provide a return shipping label for you. However, the cost of the return shipping will be deducted from your refund if the reason for the return is simply because you changed your mind. If the return is due to an error on our part, you will not be charged for the return shipping. No restocking fees or other additional fees will be charged during this process.
Items must be mailed back to the following address:
Lightwell Cottage
10556 Combie Rd. PMB 6108
Auburn, CA 95602
Once we receive the item, or once we’re notified of a missing package, please give us up to 10 business days to process the refund. If eligible for the refund, a credit will automatically be applied to your credit card or other original method of payment such as PayPal. If you are returning an item that you received as a gift, your refund will be issued in the form of a gift certificate, which can be used anytime on our website.
Please contact us anytime if you have questions about this return policy. We maintain good communication with our customers and are always happy to answer questions and address concerns.
Lightwell Cottage
inquiries@lightwellcottage.com
How do I submit a review?
If you'd like to write a review for us, we'd love to hear from you! Our site is currently not set up with an automatic review system, so you'll need to use our basic review form to make a submission. The link below will take you to the correct form. If you have already written a review and wish to delete or edit it, please use the appropriate link below to make that request.
How long have you been in business?
05/2023:
Created Lightwell Cottage to sell handmade goods.
05/2023:
Our first time selling at a public event ("Music & Art in the Park") in Auburn, CA.
11/2023:
We opened an Etsy.com shop to start selling online.
05/2024:
We closed our Etsy shop and moved to the goimagine.com marketplace.
05/2024:
We attended "Music & Art in the Park" in Auburn, CA for a second time.
10/2025:
We closed our goimagine shop & opened our own shop directly on our website.
Are all of your items truly handmade?
Yes, all of our items are truly made by hand. This is one reason why it takes us longer to restock our inventory. Each item in our shop is crafted one at a time. We do not own or use any automated (CNC) machinery or AI software that allows us to quickly mass produce items. While we rely on certain power tools such as saws, lathes, rotary tools, sewing machines, etcetera, none of our tools are capable of doing the work for us. We sketch our own designs and are then required to use our own hands to fully guide our tools to bring each piece to life. We are not against technological advancements. We just prefer to craft in our own unique way through a combination of hand tools and power tools because we enjoy the variations that naturally come with handcrafting. While power tools can help with precision, slight variations still occur due to the fact that we are the ones guiding the power tools. Please visit our “About” pages to learn more about who we are as self-taught artists.
Where do you get your materials?
Jeff's Response: I do not buy perfectly cut boards from mills or hardware stores. I prefer to get my material from trees that have naturally fallen in storms. I clear the trees myself, cut them into rounds, stack and dry the pieces, and then use it all for woodworking. Occasionally, I'll use salvaged wood or gifted boards for a project, but most of my items come from local oak trees that have naturally fallen. Because I use freshly fallen trees, it takes a long time for the wood to dry out, but I've improved this process by building a solar kiln. The kiln speeds up the drying process as well as sanitizes the wood. I'm constantly cycling through different rounds of wood I've gathered.
Melissa's Response: I use a variety of materials to create my items. For wooden items, I use wood that my father has gathered from trees that have naturally fallen, but I also use milled boards. These boards mainly come from old salvaged wood, but I sometimes use brand new boards, which I purchase from a small local business. Other materials I use include basic art supplies, fabric, and beads. These items come from both new stock and new old stock such as unused quality vintage supplies. My materials are bought from both small and large businesses, but I especially enjoy supporting smaller craft suppliers. I also try to reuse or repurpose supplies whenever possible. For example, all of my favorite beading needles and paint palettes were purchased from a small local thrift store. I always enjoy finding and using old but perfectly good supplies.
How long does it take to make an item?
This depends on what is being made. Some of our smaller creations only take one to two hours, while a larger piece could take four to eight hours. We also have more labor intensive pieces, such as our wooden natural edge decorative bowls and sculptures, which can take one to four weeks to complete. No matter how long it takes to create a piece, the process is what we enjoy the most, and we hope the time, energy, and joy that go into each piece are apparent to customers.
How do you price your wooden bowls?
You may notice that our wooden bowls have several different prices. This is because we use a formula that takes a bowl's exact height and width into consideration. The larger the piece, the higher the price will be, for it involves more material and more labor. We use this formula for the majority of our wooden items, but there may be times where other things are taken into consideration. For example, pieces that are more unique and artistic tend to take us longer to create. Even if the piece is smaller, we may decide to price it outside of our typical formula. The power-carved natural-edged bowls, for example, are far more labor intensive than the lathe turned bowls, and we tend to view these pieces as unique sculptures that happen to function as bowls. Because of this, we may decide to price them a bit differently than our everyday houseware items.
What is the story behind your name?
The name Lightwell Cottage came from myself, Melissa Lightwell, and it’s simply meant to describe a small online business that creates thoughtful handcrafted gifts from home. The name Lightwell is something I adopted for myself and the business as part of my own personal growth process. I’ve always been fascinated by and have felt connected to the literal and symbolic meaning of lightwells or skywells. The idea of dark spaces being illuminated by natural light has always inspired me to remain hopeful during difficult times and to move through life with a compassionate light.