Devine Color: True Love In a Bucket

"What Gretchen brings to the table is a color sense born from a childhood in Puerto Rico, a background in art, and a craving for intense hue s from living in the rainy Northwest. She also has a savvy sense of how to appeal to women, who make most decorating decisions and who, Schauffler says, see their homes as sanctuaries from the pressures of daily life." ~ USA TODAY March 13, 2006.

For those who don't know Devine Color, hello, my name is Gretchen Schauffler, and I fell in love with painting my walls in the 1990s. When I couldn't find colors that felt like true love for my own home, I created Devine Color™, Color Therapy For the Northwest with Paint that Goes On Like Yogurt and Looks Like Chiffon—a paint brand that I initially sold out of the trunk of my car and changed how people experienced color in their homes forever.

It was true love in a bucket of paint.

Confidence breeds confidence, and happiness breeds more happiness. My brand delivered a colorful platter they could feast on and confidently share. Women put away comparison and instead celebrated each other's original blends. They made personal color choices that, like true love, last a lifetime—turning away from short term affairs with fleeting trends.

In a painting market that is duplicitous by nature by selling products to different customers at different prices, the value of Devine Color was intrinsic and resonated with everyone. It gave expert designers permission to break out of their builder beige boxes and use color with abandon because they couldn't make a mistake that caused them embarrassment, or money. 

Devine didn't just color homeowners' walls; it recolored their worlds with a magnetic sense of belonging, true love, baggage, and all, regardless of the size of the home, social status, or income. Like watching a sunset, flowing from one to another in perfect harmony, spaces felt more remarkable than the sum of their parts.

After Valspar Paint (in 2010) acquired Devine, and then Sherwin Williams (in 2017) acquired Valspar and Devine, I walked away with a 5-year non-compete. Devine Color was taken off the market in 2018. When people remodeled their homes, walls got damaged, and they had to touch up, which became impossible to do. 

Over the years, new environmental requirements and supply chains have changed, and paint companies have tried to match the old Devine colors. However, none were able to capture the original harmony that made them so special. 

It was the countless emails and phone calls from people asking where to find Devine Color that caused me to try again in the name of true love, baggage, and all. I created Color Baggage, knowing that if I built it, people would come because true love lasts a lifetime.

Just like Taylor Swift reclaiming her music, I'm bringing back my classic colors—remastered and reimagined—while introducing fresh, somatic shades that will make you fall in love all over again.

Please email me at gretchen@colorbaggage.com and share your Devine Color story. Your experiences remind me why I fell in love with paint in the first place, and if you have a color request, I'll put it at the top of my list.

From my bag to yours,

Gretchen