Lindsey Bolivar: Designing Homes, Growing Community

On a typical gray Terrace morning, Lindsey Bolivar sits in her home office, muted daylight filtering through the window where a couple of plants catch the light. She laughs easily as she discloses she’s not a coffee fan. “I’m still a huge Ascent supporter when I can be,” she says. “My friends and family love the coffee I send them.” Drinking her tea, she shares stories about growing up in Yellowknife, competing at the highest levels of biathlon, and eventually channelling her love for art and design into her business, Taiga Interior Design. Today, she’s not just shaping interiors—she’s helping shape Terrace itself through her design work, volunteer efforts with TORCA, and the relationships she fosters here.

Lindsey’s path to Terrace was as practical as it was serendipitous. After years of living in mountain towns like Squamish, she and her partner realized they were getting priced out of owning a home. When a friend—who also happened to be a realtor—showed them what was possible in Terrace, the choice was clear. “It was a quarter of the price of anywhere else we’d lived,” she says. “We didn’t want to miss out again.”

For Lindsey, the move also felt familiar. “Terrace reminds me of Yellowknife,” she says. “Yellowknife is a hub city as well and has a lot of services that a small city wouldn’t typically have. It reminds me of Squamish, too, but it’s a little more wild.”

What she didn’t expect was how deeply rooted her design career would become here. Trained at the Art Institute of Vancouver, Lindsey spent her first two years out of school working at Browns Restaurant Group. The team developed roughly 30 restaurants in that time, giving her the kind of hands-on experience most juniors rarely see.

“As a junior, most people are hammering out drawings,” she says. “We had this unique situation where the architects did the drawings, and I was reviewing and marking up. It gave me a really strong handle on what a good drawing set looks like, how to source, and how to manage details.”

Her next move took her up the Sea-to-Sky, living in Squamish while working for Cabin Fever Interiors in Whistler. Lindsey had imagined her path in commercial projects, but the pull to leave the city was stronger and leaping into residential work gave her a new perspective on design.

“Residential is a lot of managing relationships,” she says. “People have very different ideas of how they want their house to look, and a lot of the project becomes about communication.”

The experience of working on high-end rentals and renovations rounded out her skills—and set her up to eventually launch her own business.

She founded Taiga Interior Design in 2023, naming it with a wink to her northern roots. “Everyone here thinks Terrace is so far north,” she says, grinning. “But coming from Yellowknife, I wanted a name that nodded to the boreal forest and where I’m from.”

Her logo—a scraggly tree she first sketched during design school—still anchors her brand today. And while she began in commercial, her portfolio now spans new builds, full-home renovations, and long-distance work.

Before design, sport defined Lindsey’s life. Growing up skiing the trails around Yellowknife, she quickly rose through the ranks in biathlon and by her teens was competing nationally. She went on to represent Canada at four Youth and Junior World Championships in Europe. The lifestyle was intense and after a bout of mono in 2008 sidelined her Olympic ambitions, she decided to step away. “I was tired of the lifestyle,” she says. “I loved the sport, but I needed a change.” Retiring opened the door for her to pursue the creative path she had always kept in the background—art and, eventually, interior design.

Some of the skills Lindsey honed during her athletic career continue to serve her well in her work today. Precision and endurance have been key in starting her own business. It wasn’t easy; there was plenty to learn behind the scenes. “I’m finally starting to get it,” she says. “I used to feel like I was learning a new thing every day, and now it feels more like one thing a month.”

Her growing reputation keeps her busy and speaks to the quality of her work. One client shared in a Google review: “Lindsey provided two design options for my kitchen reno, taking into consideration my wishes for the room. Her suggestions for colours, finishes and efficient use of the very compact space were invaluable. I am very happy with the results.”

Community has been just as important as her career. Lindsey volunteers with the Terrace Off Road Cycling Association (TORCA) as a board member and Head Coach. A certified mountain bike and ski instructor, she’s helped grow local programs while carving out time to ride and ski for herself. “I didn’t even get to try the trails before we moved, but knowing there was a strong network and association here was a huge incentive,” she says.

Lindsey and her partner arrived in fall 2019—just months before the pandemic. Making connections could have been a challenge, but the ski hill, her dog, and a few lucky introductions helped build friendships early on. “People here really care,” she says. “I imagine it’s what Squamish was like 25 years ago—people investing in the community, improving downtown, building trails, creating art.”

They also dove into renovating their new home. “It was in desperate need,” Lindsey says. “And it was a good exercise in how to design and do things on a real budget for real people and still make it look good.” It turned out to be the perfect step before launching her business.

Even on the busiest weeks, Lindsey carves out time for the mountains, whether it’s a powder day on Shames or laughing her way down Terrace’s singletrack on her new bike. “I treated myself to a Forbidden Druid after two good years in business,” she says with a grin. “It’s one of those bikes that makes you giggle when you ride.”

For Lindsey, life in Terrace has become a blend of past and present—northern roots, mountain-town grit, and a thriving design practice all woven together. “I feel like I’m settling in,” she says. “Hopefully, things just keep rolling along.”