A Very Colorful Past
For over 30 years, I've had one-hour conversations with more than 4,000 people. They knew better but weren’t clear, therefore could not say it out of fear. Fear of being wrong. I painted a picture that made it clearer. It worked 99% of the time.
Then, I began to wonder if the same conversation would work with a palette of words instead. It did.
I came to this work not through a doctorate, or decorating. Painting my walls with color because I longed to belong became my vehicle for self-actualization, and changed how I felt about the world. That's how I came to have a colorful past, and to bare what I know.
LONGING
I grew up in Puerto Rico, riding in the back seat of my father's black Chevrolet Impala with red Naugahyde seats, watching light transform the world through chrome-lined windows. Between sunrise and sunset, I fell in love with color, beauty, and life itself. Then plans changed, and what I knew changed too.
KNOWING
Little did I know, when I moved to Oregon, light, nature, and culture would change overnight. I kept changing majors like hairdos, from art therapy to architecture to fashion design. The changes, setbacks, and mistakes beelined me back to my knowing.
BELONGING
When my first daughter was born, everything changed. She was the homecoming I'd been waiting for all my life. Soon after, her sister arrived, and motherhood transformed the way I saw beauty, belonging, and the world I had longed for.
BECOMING
What began in 2001 as a colorful exercise to belong with a bucket of paint became Devine Color, a groundbreaking paint line that pioneered how paint is sold to women today. It grew by word of mouth, because women cared for other women.
BARING
In 2008, I was lying on the hot sandy beach in Cabo when Sherwin-Williams called and said they were pulling out of buying Devine Color. Instant brain freeze!
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With all the time in the world, I noticed my friends' conversations were the opposite of the ones I was having with my clients. All the "should have known betters" were creating misery and conflict. That's when I realized my color work had always been a form of care work.
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​My oldest daughter told me to call it BURP 18 years ago. I Should-Have-Known Better, and listened.
KNOWING TOGETHER
For me, knowing began with color. After over 30 years, I realized color had already taught me something much bigger. That discovery became BURP. Same knowing. Same needs. Different world.
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In one hour, I helped them understand that there are no shoulda-known-betters, only want-to-know betters. No one can know better on their own; we need to share what we know.
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4,000+ color consultations and paint projects
99% of the time, it worked
100+ interviews after the 2008 crash
~75,000 words later, BURP is almost complete
Carried by Target, Wayfair, Home Depot, Lowe's, Amazon and Walmart
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"Running an SKBC scenario with Gretchen gave me the tools I needed to begin one of the toughest conversations I've had with my adult children. During one of the most painful transitions in my life, 'being SKBC'd' opened my heart and mind to THE question that became the segue into our healing as a family. And, for this, I'll be forever grateful."
MOTHER OF TWENTY-YEAR-OLD KIDS
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Prove people care, starting with yourself.
Not care-free. Free to care.
​Our rule is a Golden Rule: Care-In-Action, the crazy little thing we came to do, called love.
ABOUT GRETCHEN
Gretchen Schauffler is a Latina and Boricua artist, entrepreneur, writer, color theorist, and founder of Devine Color and Color Baggage. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and raised in the Pacific Northwest, she graduated from Portland State University's first graphic design class.
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She founded Devine Color in 2001 with the promise of Color Therapy from the Northwest. The paint went on like yogurt and looked like chiffon. She sold it to Valspar in 2009; Sherwin-Williams acquired both in 2017.
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She launched Design Is Personal in 2018, and founded Color Baggage in 2021.
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Featured in: The Atlantic, "Fluffing Your Own Nest" (Nov 2020)
​Spoken at: HOW Design Live · LeadingAge California · Portland State University · PDX Talks · Minneapolis Home Show