Debbie Travis

Debbie Travis was born and raised in Lancashire, in the north of England. After Art College and a very successful 6-year modeling career, she entered the television industry as a freelance editor and producer.

With this experience to her credit, Debbie started her own production company making documentaries. During a 1985 visit to a TV buyers market in Cannes she met her future husband, a television distributor, at a CBC party. They married soon after, moved to Canada and still live in Montreal with their two sons.

Debbie bought an old Victorian home, which she proceeded to re-do with paint effects modeled on popular revivals of historic finishes in England. Friends and acquaintances were astounded and awed. She was hired to paint their homes, which grew into a small business. Debbie began receiving commissions from large department stores, auditoriums, theaters, and grand reception halls. Newspapers and magazines began paying attention and Debbie opened a small studio, teaching workshops to both professional decorators and homeowners.

The demand for the workshops was so great that with Debbie's experience in film and television, she decided to produce an instructional video. Decorative Paint Finishes Made Easy was a smashing success. That success allowed her to produce 3 additional, more advanced instructional videos. They all continue to sell across North America in both English and French versions.

As Debbie's successes accumulated and her exposure grew, the natural next step was a television series. During the summer of 1995, the first 13 episodes of Debbie Travis' Painted House were produced. Thirteen more series have followed, along with a line of stencils (which sell in craft and hardware stores across the continent and have enjoyed a similar success to the videos), a specialty paint collection, a multi-book contract, and a syndicated newspaper column.

Through her television series, stencils, videos and books, as well as all of her creative endeavors, Debbie's primary motivation is to offer decorating techniques that anyone can execute without spending large sums of money. Her goal is to demystify the art of home decoration and make paint finishes universally accessible. Through her unique combination of entertainment and education, she manages to make all of her projects easy and fun for viewers and readers alike.

Visit her website: http://www.painted-house.com/