Now at Hirshfield's!

From GLOOMY
To GORGEOUS
When Gretchen Schauffler moved to Oregon from Puerto Rico in the 1980s, the gray days and hazy nights began to overwhelm her. Gretchen, an artist-turned-color-consultant-and-entrepreneur, decided to brighten her world by comparing the colors of her new home with the bright oranges, reds and yellows of her native land.
She created 10 palettes of 115 colors found in nature to counteract the muted tones of the Pacific Northwest. The result is a line of luxury residential and commercial paints called Devine Color, Inc., that retails for about $30 a gallon. Instead of the traditional printed color chips, do-it-yourselfers get dried paint in a handmade sample book to plan their projects and can purchase a mini paint pouch to test on the wall before buying a full gallon.
Designed as “Color Therapy for the Northwest,” Gretchen describes her acrylic latex paints, manufactured by Miller Paint Company, as having the texture of “thick, rich yogurt.” She says they apply to walls like chiffon without the strong odor of most paints.
One of Gretchen’s philosophies is that there can never be enough color in the world—a theory she takes to heart every day.

Q: What do you offer as a color consultant?
A:  I am more like a color detective. I make people aware of what’s there in the first place, then look at the colors that they cannot use and eliminate them from the palette. I sometimes use Glass [from the Pebbles and Creams palette] as a white because in some lighting, that green is weightless. I make customers confident about color.

Q: What is color therapy?
A:  In Puerto Rico, we use white as a color. When I came to Oregon, people were using white walls, but they looked depressing and gray. We have a lot of trees that cover all the light, so there is a high sense of depression. I needed to create a contrast with white and beautiful deeper colors so the white would appear whiter and not gray. I think that color is like Prozac for people. You get instant gratification when you live with color you love. As children, we choose the colors we love, but as adults, we shy away from that and turn to what we know. I wanted to fight the gray that depresses us.

Q: How has color theory and color therapy affected your customers?
A:  It has been amazing to have affected the paint used in the Northwest and almost create a revolution about color. When I first started, I didn’t have a paint line and thought I could just choose colors to do what I wanted to do. As an artist, I had to create a palette for the area. Everyone who saw the colors accepted them almost as an answer to their long search. We all have a color in mind—I just produce it.

Q:What is the future of Devine Color?
A: I think I want this company to be a company of color content. I want to be able to come out with colors that forecast our personal lifestyle changes. The 115 Devine colors are the classics of today, and they are here to stay forever.
–Kristin English