D&Co du Milieu is a magazine, a blog, a website (call it what you like!) dedicated to the massively multiplayer online game “The Lord Of The Rings Online” (LotRO).
Specifically, we deal with all aspects of the LotRO Housing system. In other words, everything you need to know about homes in Middle-Earth and how to decorate them can be found here!
A database of more than 3,000 decoration items, constantly updated and which you can consult at any time of the day and night.
Guides on Housing in the Lords of the Rings Online. Everything you need to know to acquire, decorate and maintain your home in the game.
Many contests organized around the game's housing system. "The Housing Week", the "X-Creator", and many more.
I wanted to focus on 3 things when I first created this site: decorations, guides, and contests.
It was a weekend in July of 2016. I was decorating my house in-game when I realized I was lacking sufficient information about all of the decoration items that were available and where I could get them. I wanted a way to find and organize decorations into categories of how they could be obtained.
So I did a Google search and found a few websites where I could start getting more information. However, I quickly realized that many sites were no longer being updated and did not actually have the information that I wanted.
I was already the editor of a LotRO blog (LesBalladeDeYao), so I thought, why not begin another adventure by starting a housing blog?! I wanted to create something that would be helpful, not only to me, but to all others who are interested in decorating in Middle-Earth! I discussed the idea with a friend, Prunaprismia, publisher of Trolls & Chiffons, and we decided to join together on this great adventure of creating a Housing website and database. The Decorators’ Magazine was born!
We soon decided that the website needed to be divided into two parts.
The first part was the decorations database. We would have to collect, photograph, and categorize every single decoration item in the game. Judging from the websites I had already looked at I thought that there were perhaps two or three hundred items in total and that this would be a relatively quick job (how wrong I was)!
The second part of the website was a more vague idea in my mind. When the idea of D&Co originally came to me I knew quite clearly that I wanted to create the database which would serve as a dedicated Wiki of LotRO decoration items. Pruna came up with the other ideas: guides, news, reports on houses AND contests! Ideas flourished (not all of them good) and we knew we wanted to hold a contest before the website was even created: “Semaine du Housing,” Housing Week!
So we got to work. From late July to early August we created a presentation format and started listing all in-game decorations and planning the first contest. We also had to think of a name and a look for the site. Pruna thought of D&Co, which is the name of a house decorating show in France, similar to “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” in the US. She also created the very first website logo! As for me, I started the development of the website itself.
Thus, on August 12 2016, D&Co du Milieu opened its doors to the French public (with only 50 items in the database...)! When I look back, the graphics and organization of the site seem very inadequate for what we had planned. Which is why we have had to constantly update the site since its creation. We eventually got the organization of the site right and only graphics updates and minor non-structural updates have been made since then.
Since then, D&Co du Milieu is now a well-known website among the LotRO community and housing fans. Thanks to you!
I also have to thank Rhuangar, Haflith, Laurel and Khelsi here, who have been a great help in proofreading the English version of this site!
I am happy to welcome you to D&Co du Milieu and I hope you will enjoy your time here and stay with us for many more years of decorations, contests, and news on LotRO Housing.
Happy decorating!
~ Yao
Who actually read this whole thing ?! Raise your hand!!
D&Co du Milieu opens its doors for the first time to the French public with only 50 items in the database!
Our first contest is launched : "Housing Week in Middle-Earth #1".
LotRO launches a new housing area, the Cape of Belfalas, in Gondor.
More than 600 decoration items are added to the database and many successful contests are held in 2017. Having already been of great help, Pruna makes the decision to leave the management of the site to me (Yao), while continuing to be a wise advisor and unparalleled decorator-judge!
In 2018 the website really begins to take off. Wanting to keep up with the success of the site, and getting a number of requests from our cousins across the Atlantic, I embark on a translation of D&Co du Milieu into the language of Shakespeare (and Tolkien)! It is a long and difficult task but two months later, on the 19th of March, 2018, the doors to the English version of the site are opened.
The French database finally catches up with the game and contains 1,000+ items
Our first “Housing Week in Middle-Earth” contest is organized for every LotRO Player.
The English website now contains all of the items as the French.
Creation of the D&Co Discord server dedicated to all things LotRO Housing.
By this time our database contains 1250+ decoration items and we are regularly holding many fun contests!
Two new neighborhoods are launched in-game in the Rohan area.
1,500 decoration items can now be found in-game and on D&Co du Milieu database.
After 4.5 years of updating items to the website, I've finally catch up with the game and I can now say that D&Co du Milieu's database contains every single decoration item from LotRO !
LotRO launches a new housing area, the Abodes of Erebor.
More than 2,000 decoration items can now be found in-game and on D&Co du Milieu database.
LotRO launches a new housing area, the humble home of the Holbytlan of Lyndelby.
More than 3,000 decoration items can now be found in-game and on D&Co du Milieu database.
D&Co du Milieu has been totally reworked!
