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relaxed
thanks to an adventurous two weeks in the Caribbean with her family.
A joy to be with, Debbie is as chatty, engaging and witty in person
as she is on her successful television program. For those of you
unfamiliar with Debbie Travis, she's the paint lady! Originally
from the UK, Debbie now lives in Canada, is the host and executive
producer of WTN's The Painted House and the author of two
bestselling books. Her latest book is Debbie Travis' Weekend
Projects.
Q.
Tell me about your television series, The Painted House.
A. It's really a show not just
about design, but about people. It's about creating a sense of
humour, seeing the flip side of decorating - which I think a lot
of people take far too seriously. It's a makeover of a person's
space. Basically each show revolves around one person, or a couple,
or a bunch of kids. The difference between the shows now and several
years ago is that the people are actually in it. When we started
the show it was just a room and me. When we turned the cameras
on the people and included them in the show, the ratings soared.
The success rate was fantastic. Everybody wants to see what other
people's homes look like and how they handle redecorating. Is
she really going to turn that lovely beige bedroom into some kind
of reggae hangout? Very often we push the envelope a little bit.
At the same time we also try to give important tips on the things
that many people find quite scary. It's intimidating - although
it's not brain surgery - painting walls. People really think,
am I going to be able to do this? What if it goes wrong? Is it
going to be a costly mistake? We try to answer all those questions
and work with what people have.
Q.
Did you always have an interest in decorating?
A. Fifteen or sixteen years ago
there was a woman in England who wrote a book called Paint
Magic. I remember it was the first decorating book - apart
from the old stodgy faux-marble books, which were translated from
the French, there was nothing. It was an overnight bestseller.
And for people like me, you go out, buy the book, hug it to your
chest and run home and start doing this stuff.
Q.
How did your decorating career begin?
A. I started a television company
after working at the BBC and ITV. I took my little project to
Cannes, which is like a vegetable market for buying programming,
and at the CBC party met a very good-looking Canadian, married
him, and then came to Canada. What he had forgotten to tell me
is that he lived in Montreal. I didn't speak a word of French,
so I didn't have much of a career working in television. We bought
an old Victorian house and I painted it. Before the paint was
dry people would come in and get absolutely blown away. People
started to ask me to do their homes and within a few weeks I had
a business.
Q.
Did you receive formal training?
A. I went to art school, so I
can draw, but not terribly well. I don't think there was anybody
else doing it in Montreal - there were a couple of old Italian
guys who had done the Ritz, but apart from that there was no one
else. I really trained on people's houses. And I did that for
several years. Then in 1994, I decided to make a video to show
people how to do this. It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing.
Well this video went to number one. And through that video I was
invited on to television shows like Dini Petty, Canada
AM and CBC Newsworld. Every time I appeared the ratings
went up. When the new cable channels started, we thought, wouldn't
it be a good idea to turn this into a show? We planned to do thirteen
episodes. In fact the first interview I did was on a radio show
and the interviewer said it sounded about as interesting as watching
paint dry. I thought my career was finished before it had even
started. Then all the radio lines were blocked and I could sense
the fact that people were thinking, maybe I'll just do my kitchen
cupboards. Not everybody has the money to rip out his or her kitchen
and start fresh; people are often looking for a quick fix-me-up
or something just to cheer them up. We did the 13 shows and sent
them off to Cannes, and we sold it to 15 or 16 countries. It was
unbelievable! We were commissioned to do another 26 shows and
that was six years ago. Now we've done over 150!
Q.
Describe your new book, Weekend Projects.
A.
Weekend Projects is different from the first two books
because it's really for people who are scared to do all that stuff
on their walls. It's the book where you take your granny's old
frame and do something with it. We have all of these incredible
hardware stores where you can take materials that are used for
one thing and use them for something else. Things like fabric.
I'm probably the most useless person with a needle and thread;
I can't even sew on a button. But now you have these huge windows
in modern apartments. You could spend $7,000 just putting blinds
up in a window. But you can buy cheap muslin, a huge roll of it
for $50, and tie-dye it in soft pale grays. Maybe you're only
in an apartment for six months and you just want to make your
kitchen cupboards look better. Maybe you have something that looked
great five years ago and now it looks awful. You can't sell furniture,
but you can reinvent it. This is what this book is about. It's
a matter of taking what you've got and reinventing it. Weekend
Projects takes the mystery out of home accessories.
Q. You're a working mother,
the executive producer of two television programs, own and operate
a production company, and travel the world promoting The Painted
House and your books. How are you are able to juggle home
and career?
A. I think for any working mom,
it's a matter of being organized. One of the reasons my husband
and I live in Montreal is that we don't have the massive traffic
that you do in Toronto and we don't have a long commute. We live
two streets away from our studio. We live across the road from
the school. I'm probably the only mother who chose the school
because of the distance rather than the education. You try and
organize your life around what you have. You have to be as clever
with your home life as you do with your business life, because
if one falls apart the other will fall apart. And I think you
have to be able to walk away from things. I work with my husband,
which in a way is great and in others ways it can be quite ugly.
But the advantages of working together absolutely outweigh the
problems. It's juggling. Lots of people do it!
Q.
What else do you have in the works?
A. We're helping launch a special
line of paints through Dupont's web site, which we've designed.
The Debbie Travis' Painted House Web site
is growing phenomenally. And we've been approached about setting
up a series of Debbie Travis workshops in stores across the country.
Through these workshops, people can get answers to their decorating
dilemmas, buy products and my books. And I'm running for Prime
Minister.
Debbie
and I burst into laughter, but if there's one thing I've learned,
it's never to underestimate the drive and talent of the paint
lady.
Interview
reprinted with permission. Copyright Random House Canada.
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