Ghent Lamp & Shade

This shop is a gem. Want an unusual lamp you just won’t find anywhere else or need help with a lamp you ready have? This shop is the best — eclectic and fun. Staff is expert and creative.

This little lamp shop is a gem! The gentleman who helped me find a shade for a custom made lamp was so helpful! There were so many wonderful lamps in the shop. Too bad I don’t need any right now, but I will absolutely go here the next time I need a lamp or a shade.

Stopped in this little shop several days ago to replace two lamp shades for my mom. All I can say is … Larry, Curly, and Moe sell lamps! Really. It was that bad. Save yourself a lot of time and hit yourself in the face with a 2×4 — it will hurt less and be a lot faster.
It started when we walked in. Please understand, this is a SMALL shop. The shopkeeper was maybe 10 or 12 feet from us, chatting with another customer who was on his way out. Chatting. And chatting. And chatting. Not so much as a «Hi, folks, I’ll be with you in just a moment!» Not a wave. Nothing. For a good five minutes.
Finally, the other customer left. The proprietor at last acknowledged us and asked what he could do for us. We explained that we were looking to replace lamp shades. He looked at us – we being totally empty-​handed — and said, «OK, just bring your lamps over here and set them on this table.»
A little irritated, since we CLEARLY didn’t have lamps with us, I calmly replied that we hadn’t brought the lamps but we had photos of both lamps, and the shades, and detailed dimensions of each. He rolled his eyes and started whining about how he couldn’t help us choose a shade without the lamps.
Now, I’m a designer by trade. I wasn’t there because I wanted someone to help me choose a shade. I was there to BUY shades; nothing more. But I ignored his presumption, and we selected a shade that was a very close match to one of the previous shades for one of our lamps. The second lamp was harder, because the specific shape and proportion of the old shade have gone out of style (I knew this, having spent two evenings online looking at roughly 900 lampshades, trying to order a replacement). So we had to go in a new direction. I knew, from about 60 seconds after we walked into the shop, which shade we would wind up with for this lamp. Unfortunately, the salesman wasn’t interested in what I thought, and he managed to browbeat my timid, 82-​year-​old, recently widowed mother into believing we needed to go back and get that lamp.
So we did. We came back. The young man we’d been dealing with had left for lunch (after promising to be there when we got back); but his uncle, who’d run the shop for years, was there instead. He looked at the lamp and immediately selected the shade that I’D KNOWN WE’D WIND UP WITH and recommended it.
So now we’ve spent roughly an hour and 15 minutes on this 10 minute task. But we’ve chosen shades, we’re ready to go. Except the uncle can’t find the paperwork to process a credit card transaction. He looks through two desks, muttering about how in his day, they didn’t ACCEPT credit cards. Finally finds the paperwork. But the tax in Virginia has recently gone up to 6% from 5%, and he can’t figure out how much tax to charge us. He asks us what it should be – also asks a friend of his who’s stopped by to visit. The total charge is $ 135; the tax should be $ 7.80. He gets out a calculator, and first says «$ 9:00.» I say that no, it can’t be more than $ 8 (since I’m still doing the math in my head but have figured out that much). My husband pipes up that it should be $ 7:80. After a moment, I finish my math and agree. He ignores us and continues punching at the calculator. Next he comes up with «$ 12:40.» We say «No, that’s not right, it’s $ 7.80.» Somewhere around this time the kid who’d gone to lunch comes back and they all mess about with the calculator. At last they say, «$ 7:80!» They looked so proud at having accomplished grade school math with a calculator, in only twice the time it took us to do it in our heads!!!
Altogether, we spent the better part of two hours on this simple shop visit. To summarize: the staff that we dealt with were rude in multiple ways, ignoring us, insulting us, and browbeating my mom. They were incompetent to make a basic sale, failing to find paperwork, and lacking the ability to calculate tax. Add to that the fact that the selection is very limited, and I can think of no reason to ever, EVER visit this shop again.

Okay, this little shop is great and so is the staff. I stumbled up these guys when I was looking for some specific lamp parts for some hobby projects. They have a lot of antique lamps and fixtures and a pretty extensive parts section, as well as specialty items.
The staff is so friendly, I went in for a few items and ended up sticking around for about 45 minutes just talking with James and his staff. They had a vested interested in what I was looking to accomplish with my project and helped me out so much. I suggest stopping in if you are looking for a special lighting instrument for your home or just want to browse their inventory.