Queen Mary: ‘Top-to-Bottom' Painting Begins

The ceremonial first brushstrokes were placed upon Long Beach-based ocean liner ahead of the multi-month undertaking.

If "paint the kitchen" is high on your summer to-do list, well, you're not alone. There are a lot kitchen painters out there nowadays, and den painters and bedroom painters, too, for when the weather warms up many of us finally pull out our ever-growing gotta-get-to-it lists.

And while you might not relish the idea of mixing the paint, and purchasing various rollers, and taping the wainscoting, consider this: Every kitchen on the planet, no matter how sizable and grand, is far smaller than the Queen Mary.

So get inspired, home-fixers: The Queen Mary, too, is undergoing a paint job, an impressive undertaking so massive, and so mega-of-scale, that it won't be completed before the spring of 2018.

What's ahead for the talented crew now wielding brushes, rollers, and the other needed tools at the Long Beach-based ocean-liner? A full-on, every-handrail-and-step, "top-to-bottom painting of the Queen Mary."

Mayor Robert Garcia and John Jenkins, the Vice President of Asset Management at Urban Commons, the leaseholder behind the landmark's major restoration, applied the first ceremonial brushstrokes to the storied ship on Monday, July 10.

The company's plan, per an official statement, is to "utilize cutting-edge coating technology to reverse years of neglect." That means, yes, the corrosion seen around the ship in recent years will be addressed, with the exterior work beginning ahead of the interior.

The state-of-the-art coating, which is described as "environmentally friendly," is Maxon-CRS.

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As for the last time the Queen Mary, which was built on the banks of the River Clyde in Scotland beginning back in 1934, was painted? About 15 years ago, reveals Urban Commons.

The eight-month paint job, which will bring the ship's components back to their original colors, including those iconic orange-y Cunard Red funnels, won't shutter the Queen Mary. On the contrary, a Halloween ball is coming up at the end of July, and Dark Harbor, the falltime maze-filled scare-tacular, remains on the September-October schedule.

And you've heard about the plans for the land near the forever-moored-in-Long-Beach ship, which was known as The Grey Ghost during its World War II service? Restaurants, attractions, and more are expected to open around the adjacent area in the next few years.

If you want to follow the painting of the Queen Mary, and the numerous other restoration projects happening concurrently, the ship's Facebook page is a fine place to start. Urban Commons has been sharing "Fix It Friday" photos every Friday, giving fans of the landmark looks at newly re-discovered rooms and other areas undergoing a big brush-up.

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