SOUTHLAND – (INT) – Business at home improvement stores is booming in spite of the pandemic and its lockdowns and limits on other shopping experiences.

A new national PaintCare/Ipsos poll shows that Americans worked on 50% more home improvement projects since the start of the pandemic than in 2019 – creating a trend many have called “pandecorating”.

For California:

• 46% of Californians completed one project or more and 65% of those projects including the use of paint.

Nationwide, 52% of Americans who have completed at least one home improvement project since the pandemic began:

• 65% describe their projects as something they had been putting off for some time
• 24% were inspired by new ideas that came up when browsing online, an activity that has increased during the pandemic with 51% of Americans using social media at higher rates than usual
• 21% only noticed the need for certain projects after being at home in quarantine.

Story Date: January 19, 2021