Debbie Travis
On passion, strength and success

Interviewed by Barbara Goodman
Editorial Director – Canadian Health & Lifestyle

She brought home decorating to TV. She taught us how to dirty our hands and not be afraid of paint. You see her name on paint, furniture, housewares and a number of TV shows. She knows how to find the story and how to tell it. And here’s Debbie’s story.

H&L Have you always been passionate about decorating, how did it all begin?

Debbie In a rather bizarre way. In the 80’s a woman in England wrote a book called Paint Magic that everyone was reading and it intrigued me. About that time I met my husband, and moved to Montreal. I couldn’t get a job and had nothing to do. So I’d go to the basement and practice her techniques. It started as a hobby but it was great fun. I felt exhilarated making an ordinary wall look like stone. This had only been done in big hotels and old houses in Europe and here I was learning how to do this on my own home. Friends loved it. I started doing their houses and it eventually escalated into a job.

People were fascinated with the ‘hands-on’ techniques. It was artistic, they didn’t have to know how to draw and it wasn’t mundane like painting a wall or putting up wallpaper. It was very personal for them and you could see the pride in their eyes.

Then one day it clicked, “Why don’t I make a video?” So, I made a ‘how to’ video that’s still being sold today.

I started getting invited onto ‘chat shows’. I hadn’t imagined a career in front of a camera doing this, and nobody else was. Julia Child had a cooking show but there were no design shows. I loved it. I’d bring an old, beaten up armoire on the ‘Dini Petty Show’ and show the audience how to transform it.

H&L You were the trail blazer.

Debbie The first anyway. Eventually somebody at CTV asked if I ever thought of turning this into a regular show. I wondered, “How on earth do you do a show on paint?” But we did. We borrowed a new, little house in Montreal, taped 13 shows including a complete show on how to paint cupboards. The first season was bought by 14 countries and eventually 80. The Painted House is still aired all over the world in 20 languages. People are learning how to transform a room on a Saturday afternoon.

H&L You awakened peoples’ creative spirit.

Debbie And I was only one step ahead. Everything is a mirror – when I saw their excitement it inspired me to create more and that’s how it escalated.

H&L So this is all Hans’ fault. How long have you been married to your business partner?

Debbie We’ve been married 22 years now. It started with a whirlwind courtship that was pure passion.

H&L Please tell us.

Debbie I met Hans at a very exciting time of my life. I was working in television and wanted to get ahead so I got myself to the Cannes Festival. I met Hans at a CBC party and thought he was very cute. I really wanted him to invite me to the huge Warner Brothers’ party. The day of the party I waited in the main square hoping to bump into him. I finally did and he asked me to go. “Okay, whatever," I said nonchalantly like a typical 20 year old, forgetting about the fellow who had already asked me.

I had never been to anything like this. It was amazing. Hans was very popular and here I was on his arm dressed to the ‘nines’. We were having our first drink when I was asked to dance. It was the guy who had invited me first. I didn’t realize he had waited two hours for me and I completely stood him up! Thinking it looked good that I was being asked to dance I agreed. As we walked through the crowd of ‘everybody who was anybody,’ this guy picked me up and put me down in a slimy, frog-filled, disgusting pond. I was a mess; I had lost my shoes, and my dress was ruined. Needless to say that was the end of the party but the beginning of many experiences together.

The next day we drove to Italy and got stuck in a tunnel for five hours. We talked about how many kids we’d have, the whole shebang. I didn’t take it seriously, but Hans did. I went back to England, he went back to Canada and the phone calls began. A week later he turned up on my doorstep. He said, “Come with me or we’ll never see one another again.” So we got married.

H&L Your story is like a movie. It would make a great ‘chick flick’. (We have a good laugh.)

Debbie It was all very exciting but really it was a ‘crap shoot.’ Hans was a buyer of programming for Canada and we had an exotic few months going to festivals and traveling. Then we ended up living in a one bedroom flat in Montreal. It was very hard in the beginning – it was cold and I didn’t know anybody. I’d fly back to England often. The marriage side of it was easy, moving countries permanently is difficult. I’d say it takes about five years to make a country your own. Living in another country is the best thing anybody can do. A must for young people to experience other people and places, to learn that things aren’t perfect right away. You must take something out of every situation, whether it’s a good one or a bad one. It’s the bad ones that actually form us. When our son was two and had meningitis he almost died and that helped form us as a couple. It grounded us. Every couple needs grounding.

H&L When did you have your two boys?

Debbie I basically got pregnant straight away. We were married in June and the next June I had my first child. Three weeks after having our oldest son I was pregnant with my youngest. So, I went from driving my sports car on King’s Road to married with two children in a very short length of time. But it’s through kids that you make friends and life begins. It was when the kids were small that I started painting. Now they’re off to University.

H&L You and Hans have a very successful company together.

Debbie We produce a lot more than what people see me in, such as Buy Me a very successful real estate show here and in the U.S. with crews filming all over the States and Canada. We also produce Maxed Out, my shows and now there's the product line in Canadian Tire. Hans takes care of the financial end of the business, which I think is the boring stuff. I’m the ideas person. The one who runs in and says “I have a great idea; I think we should do...”

H&L That’s a good balance.

Debbie Yes it is. The funny thing is that when we got married my Mom had our horoscopes professionally done. Written across the top was, ‘I do not recommend this marriage.’ We’re complete opposites. Well, we proved them wrong!

“It started with a whirlwind courtship that was pure passion. I met Hans at a very exciting time of my life. ”

H&L What is a key ingredient for marriage?

Debbie Friendship. It’s the mistakes and hardships that make us and the relationship. For me the number one thing is to discuss things; that’s what you do with friends. It can be hard to get a man to open up. But if not, then that’s where the imbalance comes in.

Women are busy, and we’re busy thinkers. I live with a houseful of men and they concentrate on one thing at a time. Whereas women have everything going on at the same time: what food to get for dinner; ideas for tomorrow; do the kids need shoes. Men don’t think like that. Hans can’t sauté chicken and answer the kids’ questions. He’ll sit down and answer them but will get cross when both are expected at the same time. That’s how he is.

H&L You obviously followed your heart in your marriage, do you follow your gut when an opportunity is presented?

Debbie Hmmm, that’s a good question. You do have to be sensible and I’m quite an impulsive person. So it’s a benefit having a partner who’s more conservative. I do believe you have to try to create your opportunities. That’s how I got on Dini Petty – I rang them up and asked. You also have to understand your own value. I still don’t think I understand mine but that’s because I have no ‘real’ qualifications.

H&L But you have TONS of experience.

Debbie Experience, absolutely. But I still get embarrassed when people ask me, “Are you a television host or a designer?” I don’t think I’m either, yet I’m probably at the top of my field in both. Although other people will tell me I’m good, I still don’t know for sure. Maybe that’s what keeps me going. I’m very impressed with everybody else’s talent.

H&L Who impresses you the most?

Debbie The youth I work with. I have a talented team. I did a whole show around the problems with youth but it wasn’t about the talent; the talent was there. It’s about passion. There’s a large group of youth who have given up, maybe because there’s too few jobs or too many of them. They don’t see the link between passion, hard work and achievement. They only see achievement so they move on too fast. I don’t know if it’s the way they’ve been taught or the way we’ve brought them up. There’s no middle road for them, they want to go to the top immediately. But it’s on that boring middle road you make the mistakes you learn from. That’s where you have fear; you must never lose that fear. That’s what makes us good.

H&L Isn’t that what tests our passion?

Debbie Yeah! Even if you’re afraid of doing something you have to give your spirit a chance. You never know what’s going to come out of it. If you’re not where you want to be in life you have to change it. I never thought I would be doing this and I started late – in my 30’s. See yourself as brave. Don’t sit at home and suffer. There are many opportunities out there.

H&L You were brave leaving home at 17 to model.

Debbie I’m not sure if it was brave or stupid. I was on a bus going home and a photographer asked if he could take photos of me. We got off the bus and he took photos of me in the countryside that ended up in a local newspaper. An agency called me up and it started from there, off to London and then Milan. Youth can be stupid but that’s where you’ve got to listen to your gut, your instinct. You have to take care of yourself, to have street smarts. We need to teach our kids that.

H&L Did you teach this to your kids?

Debbie I think so. I also want them to have passion. To see a hunger in them for something they really want. Kids have to have a passion. My youngest had a passion for World War II history from the age of 5. Now he’s studying in London at one of the best schools. He was one of six chosen to listen to Tony Blair speak every week. Parents need to push their children to find their passion.

H&L When you worked with the 20 somethings, what did you want to create for them?

Debbie This was a show about the attitudes of healthy young people who weren’t giving life a chance. I believe you have to work from the ground up, to get your hands dirty, to learn it all.

We weren’t saying “be like your parents and have a job for 40 years,” we were teaching them that if this is your passion, pursue it through the good and the bad, but they don’t want the bad. I was trying to teach them to be the brightest, to stand up at the back of meetings, to give opinions that stand out. That’s how I get my people to rise up through the ranks.

H&L And this new season, is it the same?

Debbie No. Season 2 of The Ground Up is about talent. And they’re being tested. We’re going to be launching ‘Debbie Travis condos and homes’ with Tribute Homes in Toronto this Fall. This is something I’ve never done, so I’m looking for a talented team I can work with. They’re tested in very interesting ways and the camera is there to capture their wheels turning. I want them to show me who they are. It’s getting into their psyche and also knowing I can work with them. I hope this show will have viewers at home go, “You know what I’d do?” This is a way to spark the viewers’ creativity, to challenge them.

“Once a year I do a 7-day fast at a spa in Palm Springs. It's like running a hose through your mind. I become so clear thinking.. ”

H&L You put out a lot of energy Debbie, what do you do for your health?

Debbie An important thing for me is to stay away from people who drag energy from me. Physically – I hike a lot. I’m hiking for the Arthritis Society to Machu Picchu with the whole family this summer. I did this in Vietnam four years ago with 58 women and we raised a lot of money for colon cancer. If your dream is to travel to exotic places why not do it this way. The charity teaches you how to do it all. You raise money for a good cause and you have an unforgettable experience.

Once a year I do a 7-day fast at a spa in Palm Springs. It’s like running a hose through your mind. I become so clear thinking.           

The hardest thing is keeping up with friends. I call them a lot. I may not see them for six months but at least we’re involved with each others lives.

H&L Indulgences?

Debbie I’m not a very materialistic person. The kids are my indulgence now because they don’t want me around. So when I get to spend time with them it’s a real pleasure.

H&L Looking back from where you started, are you surprised at where you are?

Debbie 100%. I constantly say, “Go figure.” I never thought I would be here, with such a business, being on television, known by so many people and influencing so many lives.

H&L You inspire people to be creative.

Debbie I think it’s about making things into an event, whether it’s creating a lavish dinner party or coffee for a friend. Knowing that you’ve created something special satisfies you and others. To me, this is how you share your passion.

The first of 10 one-hour episodes of From The Ground Up with Debbie Travis debuts Thursday, May 31 – 9pm ET/PT on Global. Talent alone isn’t enough to become Debbie’s Chief Designer, it will take passion and professionalism to work alongside, and inspire, Debbie.

H&L