Are your customers ready to return to decorators?

Many decorators have been hard hit by the pandemic. Work has slowed down or even come to a standstill in some cases. However, as the lockdown measures are gradually lifted, there are some early signs of a return to regular business.

To help the trade understand what may be next, Dulux Decorator Centre surveyed more than 2,000 UK households to find out when they’ll start decorating again, and what projects have made their hit list.

What work are homeowners planning?

The results were encouraging, with two out of every five (42 per cent) UK households planning on decorating their homes as lockdown lifts.

Painting the living room has emerged as the nation’s no.1 post-lockdown decorating priority, with one in four (25 per cent) intending to tackle it first.

One in five (20 per cent) want new carpets, while fifteen per cent intend to give the dining room a fresh coat of paint. Thirteen per cent plan on painting the exterior of their homes.

Over one in five (22 per cent) plan on spending between £100 and £500 on decorating projects. However, 18 per cent said they were willing to shell out up to £1,000 and get a professional in.

As the pandemic put a pause on many people’s plans, we also found that a quarter of people (26 per cent) have ditched a planned house move in favour of renovating their current home.

Will your customers be able to afford to pay a decorator now?

While the coronavirus outbreak caused financial uncertainty for many, our research also revealed a positive impact for one in five (20 per cent), who reported being better off by as much £500 a month. This was due to savings being made on money that would have been spent on retail purchases and leisure activities.

Lockdown’s impact on the nation’s spending power can be seen with a quarter (27 per cent) of those left better off by lockdown having between £50 and £100 more disposable income a month. A third (30 per cent) report a boost of up to £250, while a further third (29 per dent) say they have up to £500 more spare cash per month.

As restriction lifts and the nation gets used to the new normal, the majority (57 per cent) of the public say they are keen to support local tradespeople.

How Dulux Decorator Centre is helping you

The Coronavirus outbreak has seen our industry face huge challenges and disruption.

We’ve been supporting decorators for 125 years, and as lockdown lifts we want to continue to support the trade in every way we can through the ‘Backing Our Decorators’ initiative.

By undertaking this comprehensive research we hope that its positive findings reassures you that the public’s appetite to undertake decorating jobs is returning.

We’ve created a host of resources to support decorators in working safely and we would now encourage homeowners to think about the benefits of using a professional to get their perfect finish and support the trade as normality resumes.

For more information visit: www.duluxdecoratorcentre.co.uk/backing-our-decorators.