FORBES CALLS HER
The Queen
of Paint
— and she started in a kitchen, in her 50s, with one jar.
The kitchen
2013. New to Louisville, out of a bad marriage, a teenage son to keep busy after school. Paula mixed her own paint at the kitchen table — a formula that skipped the sanding, the priming, the guesswork. Just clean & paint.
The company
Heirloom Traditions Paint went direct to the painter — thousands of live tutorials, a community of DIYers, and since 2021, ownership in the hands of its employees. American-made in Taylorsville, Kentucky.
The legacy
One of the few women-owned companies in the paint industry, carrying hundreds of Kentucky families — and a memoir that hands the blueprint to anyone convinced they need to start over. You don't. You start where you are.
“I didn't set out to build a paint company. I set out to keep my son busy after school.”
THE MEMOIR — OUT NOW
Just Open the Jar
Lasting change without starting from scratch — the whole story, wherever books are sold.