Painting With Debbie

I’ve never reviewed a paint before but I’ve used a lot of them and I have some definite opinions on the Debbie Travis line.

I’ve always liked Debbie.  I own a couple of her books and over the years I’ve made some of her projects with great success.  I find her to be a bit crabby on some of her TV appearances but I’ll take authentic and crabby over fake happiness any day.

Debbie and I almost worked together!  My second fully-written, fully edited book was abruptly cancelled, along with dozens of others, when the Montreal partner of ECW Press bought out the Toronto partner and ditched all of the Toronto-based books.  I had spoken with Debbie and asked her to write a forward to the book, as she was one of the women I profiled in it. She readily agreed.  Calling her to tell her the book was off was one of the hardest calls I ever had to make.  I felt like a worm!  But such is life and publishing.

Now back to the paint.  I’ve used virtually every brand over the years, from CIL to Sherwin-Williams to our renovator’s preference of Benjamin Moore to Ralph Lauren’s suede to Behr and if I had my druthers, I’d be a Behr gal all the way.  The paint is thick, it doesn’t splatter as much as others and it covers beautifully.  But I use Sherwin-Williams to take advantage of our guy’s generous discount and I find that paint to be better than most.

I was stripping and painting an old dresser whose only problem was that it’s aging coat of paint was chipping.  It’s not exactly a showpiece but it’s functional and decent and well worth hanging on to.  Since I only needed a quart of paint I decided it was time to give Debbie a try.  I purchased a satin base into which the Canadian Tire paint dude mixed Truffle Oil, a rich, creamy brown.  Debbie’s line of furnishings, decor items and paint is categorized four ways, according to mood: dramatic, nostalgic, cheerful or calm, with about 80 paint colours in each.  Truffle Oil is nostalgic, perfect for an older piece to be used in our guest bedroom.

The paint seemed to go on fairly well until I put my glasses on!  It’s not too thin but it’s a bit fussy about coverage, not a quality I admire. But its number one problem – and I’m not sure if it’s particular only to satin – is that it’s unforgiving.  You know how you sometimes have to give an extra dab, brushing or roll to one small area, even before the full coat is dry?  This paint will not absorb it.  You will forever see where you added a third or fourth layer, unless you apply another full coat.  That’s not a good thing and many, many other paints will just suck that layer in and it will vanish.  Not Deb.

I love the colours and the overall feel of the paint but I’m not an expert and I need a paint to work with me, not against me.  Even in our bathroom which I just painted, the CIL let me do touch-ups without telling the world where they were done.  Is that too much to ask?

Sorry Debbie but I can’t give you a ringing endorsement on this product.  Next time, I’ll go back to Behr.