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She's Canada's decorating diva — a household name in this country and abroad.

The four-time Gemini-award winner has several TV series under her belt, a new luxury line of condo and home designs in the GTA, and a paint, product and housewares line at Canadian Tire.

But Debbie Travis, the British-born ex-model, isn't just a workaholic; she plays hard, too.

That's why she drives a BMW X5 and a Porsche Carrera 911 — each car reflects different sides of her personality.

"I would say the Porsche is my fun, young, like-to-go-outside and socialize car, and the BMW is my go-to-work, stability, more entrepreneurial side," says the queen of renovations, who was never formally trained or educated in interior design.

"I think they're both fantastic cars, both very sexy cars, and both white."

Travis' 2008 BMW X5 3.0si SUV is loaded to the nines with a technology package and all the bells and whistles.

"It has a camera in it, so I hope that will keep me from bashing it around. I tend to bump cars a lot. I'm not the best driver, so it's nice to have a camera in the back," says Travis who admits she can "ruin a car in a week."

While the X5 may be "a wee bit complicated for my un-technical brain," it's the little things that drive Travis crazy.

"It's so sensitive to seatbelts — there's a lot of beeping. I'm really bad at putting my seatbelt on.

"I'm so lazy going from the office to the home, which is only two blocks, I mean, I should probably walk, but … I like to time myself how long I can stand the beeping going off without the seatbelt, and I've never gotten more than half a street.

"I'm like, 'I'm gonna outwit this car and not put my seatbelt on', and I tell you, by the time I get to the first traffic light, it's like, 'Alright! You win! I can't stand the noise!'"

Travis' Porsche Carrera 911 was a gift she bought herself to mark her 50th birthday last year. "What does a Porsche say about me? Oh, I would say, gorgeous, young, hip, free — everything I'm not," she laughs.

But there's one problem. "My husband doesn't like me driving in it. He's horrified.

"It's very much like watching a child come home from school, stand in the window, and there's every excuse like 'Where are you taking it?' 'I'm just going to the office.' 'Too short a drive. It's not good for you.' 'Alright, I'm taking it to Toronto.' 'No, too long a drive. It might rain next week.' …

"He's worried the car might get hurt. He doesn't care about me! So that's really funny."

Despite a bad track record with cars, she hasn't had any mishaps with the Porsche, yet. That's because "I haven't been in it long enough.

"Like I said, [my husband] lets me go on very short shifts. I sit in it in the driveway. It's really hilarious," says Travis, who has 12 different TV series under the Debbie Travis Group. Besides her famed decorating shows, she has Buy Me, Instant Beauty Pageant, Income Property, Matched Out and Property Shop.

She just finished a new pilot, a cooking show, for the Food Network and is writing another book — this one is on parenting, which is called Not Guilty and comes out this fall.

One of Travis' many automobile mishaps includes an accident on her wedding day. "The hairdresser had made me look like Shirley Temple so I was trying to pull the curls out and I swerved on the wrong side of the road when I saw another car coming.

"It was a tiny little English lane. I went to the Canadian side, instead of the English side, and of course hit the local farmer …

"With 400 guests, it was chaos. We had the police sitting at one table taking statements as the reception was going, so it was the craziest, craziest wedding — all my fault."

Travis also has a Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 convertible; over the years, she has owned several cars; her first was a Morris Minor, her favourite an MG GT.

"I had an MG GT when I lived in London when I was single, no kids. Just driving down the King's Road in that little sports car, I felt like a million bucks. A million bucks!

"You just felt so hot, you know? And it was bright yellow, primrose yellow, I loved that car. It broke down continuously, but I loved it. I would say every 10 days but it was a great way to meet men!" she says excitedly.

"Before that, I had a [Citroën] Deux Cheveaux, which had the engine size the same size as a sewing machine. It was a 400-cc engine and I know there are Singer sewing machines bigger than that.

"I bought it in Belgium and it was dirt cheap. It had been on a farm, covered in hay.

"I drove that car around London as well for about two years. Loved it, and that broke down a lot as well.

"I never put oil in it. Nobody told me you had to put oil in a car, and the whole engine exploded and I couldn't afford to mend it, so I left it on the side of the road. I had no money; I was like, forget it. So I don't know what happened to that thing," says the mother of two sons — 20-year-old Josh and 19-year-old Max.

Neither is allowed to drive the Bimmer or Porsche. "I'm not a great fan of seeing young kids in nice cars. I think they should earn it …

"I think a car is about the memories you have in it, and I think so many young people are missing out today on having these flashy things.

"When you get your first car when you're young, and if your mom gives it to you, it's not the same thing than when you've done a hundred paper rounds and saved every bit of Saturday money to buy some clap-trapper old thing.

"When you've earned the money for a car, it means so much more."