Bringing Home Everything But the House

Where one-of-a-kind treasures find new lives, one auction at a time.

Every home has a story, but perhaps more importantly, your home tells your story. Family heirlooms, your collections and treasures from travel, they all add up to something that is unique to you. From day one, when Jacquie Denny and Brian Graves founded Everything But The House (EBTH), a singular initiative has remained a constant north star: their passion for helping people and carrying on the legacy of their heirlooms. Today they have integrated this passion into a promise — an Uncommon Promise — that everything on the EBTH platform would be authenticated or validated, presented clearly and accurately, and handled with utmost care. It may seem obvious, but it’s important.

Founders Jacquie Denny and Brian Graves posted their first sale on EBTH.com in 2008. Today they are committed to developing the platform with integrity and passion. Photo Aaron Conway

Denny and Graves want to make sure that their clients know how much responsibility and care they hold for the items that enter their warehouse doors. Every day they are interacting with homeowners, collectors, and dealers who choose EBTH because they trust that their items will be treated with respect and care.

Living spaces styled with items from EBTH.com, a the go-to source for creative home decorators, fearless DIYers, style mavens and collectors looking to bring personality and uniqueness into their lives. Photo courtesy of EBTH

Beginning with their first live sale in 2008, their inspiration was to innovate the way people interacted with secondhand, vintage, and antique items. As a curated shopping destination, EBTH is the go-to source for creative home decorators, fearless DIYers, style mavens and collectors looking to bring personality and uniqueness into their daily lives. By giving items context — through thoughtfully researched descriptions and interactive content — shoppers are inspired to imagine how they can bring their own personality and style to the table in contemporary and trend-forward ways.

“This isn’t just ‘stuff,’ it’s living history,” Denny says, as she takes a walk through an organized maze of furniture, homewares and clothing racks inside EBTH’s Cincinnati warehouse. “Every item has a story, and some point it spoke to someone and they bought it. Now it’s someone else’s turn.”

EBTH is the true Marketplace for the Uncommon, presenting an eclectic variety of highly sought-after objects to personalize the lifestyles for over 2 million registered bidders, while sharing the history behind the objects and the collections they originated from. In the past year EBTH has brought to auction landmark art pieces including works by renowned Cincinnati-based artists like Frank Duveneck and Robert S. Duncanson. Included in the descriptions of these works are these artists’ connection to Cincinnati. They are more than beautiful paintings; they are pieces of local history.

EBTH’s network of dealers, consignors, and shoppers spans the globe and in addition to items of local significance have brought to auction significant finds like a 1949 Dodge “Woody” Station Wagon — a rare find, originally produced for commercial use — and a vintage Cartier diamond ring that brought $72,000 last March.

Whether you prefer the charm and aesthetic of a rustic, Englishinspired cottage or sleek, Scandinavian designs from the mid-20th Century, EBTH has the statement pieces and finishing touches to bring any look to life. Incorporating different eras into our homes and lives builds character and dimension that enhances your existing décor: a hand-knotted antique Persian rug that ties together a bohemian living room, a mid-century, Danish-designed pendant lamp that anchors an entryway, even pieces of architectural remnants from around the world can be found at your fingertips on EBTH.com.

This past October Interior Designer and Owner of Aubrey Welsh Interiors, Aubrey Welsh partnered with EBTH to outfit a Victorian-inspired home for the 2020 Homearama showcase at Walworth Junction. During the home show, visitors were able to shop the items on display via the EBTH app and EBTH.com.

“It was unlike any other Homearama experience,” Welsh says. “Being able to layer vintage, antique and secondhand items really made the home come to life.” The home itself, given the moniker The Royal Blue by builders Redknot Homes, was the perfect canvas for a design that merges antique and contemporary elements.

The collaboration brought character and life to the home to make it feel like it was lived in. It was unexpected from a new build and ultimately a testament to the power of secondhand, vintage, and antique items to seamlessly blend contemporary and timeless styles. The second floor — the heart of the home — includes a chef’s kitchen and an open floor plan to showcase incredible views of the Ohio River and Downtown. Aubrey Welsh took inspiration from the emerald green Rookwood-tiled fireplace for the main living area which featured a forest green, timeless Chippendale-style sofa and a pair of rounded, velvet-upholstered and Mahogony tub chairs. Layered cow-hide rugs and a sturdy, William-IV-style Walnut table grounded the dining area. Throughout the home were unique finds which pay homage to historical, local culture including portraits painted by Edmond James Fitzgerald, equestrian accents, and a print of the Roebling Bridge signed by James Billiter. Collectively, items sold on EBTH. com from the Homearama, Aubrey Welsh Interiors collaboration brought more than $63,000 at auction.

As proprietors of a full-service consignment resource and e-commerce marketplace, Jacquie Denny and Brian Graves have experienced firsthand the effects of the secondhand market boom. Rapidly, people’s perceptions of vintage, antiques and luxury preowned are shifting. Increasingly people are seeing the value of investing in the pre-owned market, something that has always existed but has never been so accessible.

Tablescape styled with accessories and other tableware from EBTH.com where shoppers can find items with history to fit every aspect of their lifestyle. Photo courtesy of EBTH

EBTH began as a journey to change how secondhand goods are discovered by elevating the estate sale and auction model. They have worked with families during life’s transitions and were able to pass along profits in the process. Today they are taking that model and amplifying it, connecting shoppers with their network of collectors, dealers, and the wider world of consignment. As a holistic, auction-based marketplace, shoppers aren’t just adding items to their cart, they’re calling the shots. Ultimately it’s the shopper’s connection to an item that determines its worth, and with an everchanging assortment of thousands of uniquely curated and carefully authenticated items they’re bound to find the thing — or things — that speak to them.

Beyond traditional E-commerce, EBTH is rolling out virtual previews, in-depth content that highlights trends and educates customers on the value of secondhand and innovative collaborations showing their commitment to being pioneers in the secondhand, vintage and antiques market. sl