More Scrim Comes Off the Haunted Mansion and the Facade Underneath Has Changed: Green Cupola, Darker Brick, Lighter Stone

The Haunted Mansion has spent most of 2026 disappearing. Scaffolding and scrim went up around the attraction in January, largely covered the facade by mid-February, kept expanding through the spring, and reached the exit at the start of June, with the ride open underneath nearly the whole time. Scrim has been coming off in stages since June, going back up in places even as it came down in others, and by Thursday enough of it was gone to see what the refurbishment actually did. The building that is emerging is not the one that went in.

In WDW News Today's photos, the dome of the cupola atop the mansion's central tower is green. The brick is darker. The stone is lighter. Put together, it reads as a reversal of the flat, evenly toned exterior the mansion had settled into by 2011 and kept ever since.

The cupola dome now reads patina green above pale stone columns and red brick. Scrim still covers much of the building below. Photo: WDW News Today

Quick facts: The Haunted Mansion opened with Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971. The exterior refurbishment has been under way since January 2026, with the attraction open throughout apart from an unexplained two-day closure in early May. Disney has not published any statement about the facade work. Scrim is still up in places, and at least one wall is unfinished.

What actually changed

WDW News Today published its photos of the reveal around midday Thursday, and its rundown is specific. "Starting at the top, the cupola dome is back to its green finish, as it had upon opening in 1971. The bricks are also noticeably darker," the outlet wrote.

The stone went the other way. "The stone elements around the building, like the banister and flower pot seen above, also appear to be lighter now. This also points to the color schemes the attraction had in its early years," WDWNT reported. The same goes for the trim: "The stone detail around the walls also appears to be lighter than it was before the refurbishment. Looking at the top righthand corner of the photo above, it also looks like the roof shingles have been redone."

A stone urn and balustrade pier visible through a gap in the scrim, in the pale tone WDWNT identifies as the lightened stonework. Photo: WDW News Today

The net effect is contrast. A dark brick body with light stone trim is a very different building from one where the brick and the stone are close to the same brown-beige, which is what the mansion had become.

One caveat on the 1971 claim

The "back to its green finish, as it had upon opening in 1971" line is WDWNT's characterization of what Disney appears to be doing, not something Disney has said. Disney has published nothing about this work.

It is also worth noting a wrinkle that WDWNT surfaces itself. The outlet ran two archival comparison photos credited to Yesterland. Of the first it wrote: "In the above photo from 1983, we can see that the cupola dome was more of a bronze, though the brick was dark and the stone light around the building." So the high-contrast brick and stone scheme is well documented in the early years, but the 1983 reference image shows a bronze dome rather than a green one. Of the second, from 2011: "And in 2011, the entire building had a more even-toned color scheme, as seen above."

The dark-brick, light-stone restoration is the solid part of the story. The exact history of the dome's finish is the part to hold loosely.

The work is not finished

This is a reveal in progress, not a completed one. Scrim and scaffolding are still up on parts of the building, and one section is conspicuously mid-job. "There is also a brick wall near the exit with unfinished whitewashing segments on it. It appears this area isn't finished yet but is now uncovered," WDWNT reported.

Near the exit, whitewash covers part of the brick and stops partway, leaving the wall visibly mid-job. Photo: WDW News Today

Guests can see that wall right now, half painted, so Thursday's photos are not the finished look. How much color work is still to come, and on what schedule, is not something anyone outside Disney can say yet.

Light gray stone quoins against the darker brick, with the roof visible at upper right. Photo: WDW News Today

How this fits with the graveyard

This is the second Haunted Mansion reveal in a week, and they are separate pieces of the same project. Last weekend the walls came down around the queue graveyard, and we covered what moved: Uncle Theodore and Cousin Algernon shifted up, Dorothea moved toward guests, and Martin's grave dropped out of view from the old angle. That was the family plot. This is the house.

The June milestone was narrower still. In its June 24 report, with the cupola visible as scrim came down, WDWNT described the finish as "a shinier, darker metal finish," noting that before the refurbishment "the cupola was the same brown-beige color as the stone walls of the mansion." At the time it added that the new finish "appears to have the same patina green tint as the mansion's rooftops, although those have not been completely re-revealed." A month later, with more of the building uncovered, the green reads much more clearly.

What to watch

As of Thursday evening this is single-source reporting: WDWNT has it with its own photography, and neither Blog Mickey nor WDWMagic had published on Thursday's reveal. Expect more photos over the weekend as additional scrim comes down, and expect the picture to sharpen on how far the color reset actually goes.

The calendar is worth noting regardless. Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party runs August 7 through October 31 this year, and six nights have already sold out as of this week, including opening night. Disney has not tied the facade work to that schedule, but the mansion should be showing more of its new contrast by the time the first party guests walk past it.

Sources

• WDW News Today, "Haunted Mansion Reveals Refreshed Facade as Scrim Starts Coming Down at Magic Kingdom" (July 23, 2026)
• WDW News Today, "Haunted Mansion Cupola Gets New Finish at Magic Kingdom" (June 24, 2026)
• Parks Magic, "Construction Walls Come Down at the Haunted Mansion and Several Gravestones Have Quietly Moved" (July 19, 2026)

Image credits: All four photographs by WDW News Today.