This week in our Conversations in Colour series, we spoke to content creator, writer, and colour lover, Lindsey Isla. We talk about how she uses colour with interiors and fashion, how colour influences who she is, and her journey in moving out of her comfort zone since becoming a content creator.
Tell us about you. How have you got to where you are today?
I’m Lindsey Isla, a full-time content creator and writer. I live in Kent, near Canterbury, in a tiny village with my husband, George and our poochon, Sunday.
It’s been a weird journey to get to where I am today - I joke about it often, but I feel like a Jack-of-all jobs sometimes. I’ve had quite a few different careers in my time: hairdressing, dog walking, fashion PR, admin, acting, photography. You name it, I’ve probably done it!
I started content creation in 2019, the year after I met my husband. I was obsessed with Instagrammers like Megan Ellaby, Liv Purvis and Sara Waist. It seemed like blogging (as it was called back then) was the perfect amalgamation of everything I loved to do, so I was desperate to be in their shoes. HOWEVER, I hated being in front of the camera. I’ve suffered from BDD and eating disorders throughout my adult life, so coming face-to-face with how I looked on screen was too overwhelming at first.
Thankfully, though, my husband pushed me to get outside my comfort zone and started taking my photos for me.
It actually helped my self-esteem in the beginning. I began to realise that a photo is just a photo, it isn’t real life. You can get really great photos and really bad photos; it’s all down to lighting, timing and even your hormones. You shouldn’t take the good or the bad as the ‘truth’ of what you actually look like. Once I was able to detach myself from the image, things got easier.
Like the rest of London, or so it seemed at the time, we moved to Margate during lockdown and started renovating a two-bed terraced house.
I’d always been interested in interiors, but had never had the chance to decorate more than a bedroom before. The house needed some work, and we weren’t allowed to leave, so we had a lot of time to do it ourselves and I fell in love with decorating and renovating.
I adored pastel colours at the time, so I let myself completely loose and decorated it from top to bottom in light pinks, baby blues and pale greens.
Looking back, I think it was a bit childish (I was going through something, haha) and I wouldn’t decorate like that now, but it does hold a special place in my heart.
I have a lot to thank it for, too, because documenting the funny colour combinations online grew my following and enabled me to go full-time.
Over the past couple of years, influencing has changed a lot and so have I, so it took me a while to figure out if I wanted to continue/how I was going to continue, but I feel like I’ve really found my mojo with it again and fell back in love with the career. I’m in my new era and I feel like I’m only just getting started.
What’s your earliest memory of colour?
I remember my Dad painting yellow, custard coloured stripes on my wall in my first bedroom when I was about 5 or 6. Until then, I’d shared a room with my baby brother. At first, I didn’t like it, but I came around once the room was finished. I think I would probably paint them on the wall now - they were awesome and stripes are totally having a moment again (I mean, when are stripes ever a bad idea?!).
Your home is full of colour, where do you take inspiration from and what is your creative process when it comes to interiors?
I try and let the house ‘tell me’ what it wants, if that makes sense. We live in the countryside now, in a chocolate box village, so the houses and the countryside around me have a huge influence.
When we lived in Margate, in a terraced house, you could get away with being quite quirky and funky.
It's like I want to create my own little bubble, or little world to escape to.
We plan to stay in our current home indefinitely, so I’ve leaned into classic design as much as possible - I want the decor to stand the test of time.
I’m obsessed with Homes & Gardens magazine, I subscribe to that and I watch a lot of home tours on YouTube. I try and stay away from trends, but my hallway is colour-drenched in burgundy right now soooo… don’t @ me! Haha.
Which colours are you particularly attracted to, and why?
Pink and red have been my favourite colours ever since I was little, but I love most colours. If I had to pick, I would go for warm colours over cool colours, especially when it comes to decorating. When it comes to wearing colours, I feel as though I have a better understanding of what suits me than I used to. I can’t really wear yellow or beige, as sad as that makes me sometimes! Especially when the world is telling you that it’s all about butter yellow.
How does your love of colour translate into your wardrobe?
I think I took wearing colour a little too far a couple of years ago - I cringe so hard at some of the outfits I’ve worn. I had a lot of ‘rules’ for myself, like no black or grey, but now I think they do have a place in my wardrobe. They can make other colours ‘pop’ nicely, but I will always have a lot of colour in my wardrobe because it brings me a lot of joy. There is nothing better than a big pink dress and feeling like a princess all day. I also love colour combinations, like the blue and the red combo on the Bea Graphic Lace Bra, I don’t know what it is about seeing colours together - it just makes my heart sing louder than a bird at dawn.
How does colour influence how you feel about yourself?
It’s like what I said about yellow and beige not suiting me earlier - colour is a powerful tool. Wearing a colour that suits me, that makes my skin shine and my eye colour pop, for example, is a great confidence booster. And confidence is everything, right?!
What’s coming up next for you?
We have big renovation plans for our house, which are exciting and overwhelming all at the same time. There is a bad 70s extension that needs knocking down and rebuilding. Think mouldy roof, wasp-infested walls and cracked ceilings, and you’ll be halfway there. We’re hopeful that it will get done next year, but who knows? We’re not holding our breath.
Other than that, I’m writing my memoir, seeing how I can build on my influencing work and growing vegetables in the garden.
Shop Lindsey’s edit here.
See Lindsey’s Instagram page here.
