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 However, I quickly realized that many sites were no longer being updated and did not actually have the information that I wanted.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 and Haflith here, who have been a great help in the editing of 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!!