Our apartment in the French Quarter is in an 1830 Creole townhouse. Because we have participated for many years in the traditions of New Orleans and have friends and family there, we thought it was time to invest in a pied-a-terre. We did so in January 2005, just a few months before Hurricane Katrina. We are glad to have made the commitment and have been rewarded in many ways since. The design is inspired by 19th and early 20th century decoration of the region The centerpiece of the apartment is the mural in the living room showing life on the Mississippi River. The paper was made by DeGournay, Ltd., and is based on the 1941 book, "The Story of the Mississippi", by Marshall McClintock with illustrations by C.H. DeWitt. The Sitting Room has Creole pink walls and a French daybed. The adjoining bedroom is covered in "Butterfly Chintz" wallpaper, an archive design that we revived for use at Brooke's Bank, an historic house outside of Richmond, VA The design requires 21 woodblocks to print and the colors used in it were derived from historical sources.