Meet the mind behind the hilarious new Instagram account spotlighting Charlotte bathrooms

It sounds strange, but Charlotte has some amazing bathrooms. One bright bathroom at Joe and Nosh is filled with inspirational words. The bathroom at Kindred is so clean and lovely (there’s always a fragrant candle burning and the walls feature family photos) I could eat my dinner in there.

At long last, someone has finally created an Instagram account to feature all of the weirdly amazing little rooms at Charlotte bars and restaurants that get overlooked. It’s a hilarious concept — but also undeniably interesting.

Have you been following @cltbathrooms? It’s a modest yet majestic account featuring bathrooms across town that have admirable features, from the mirror writing at new French restaurant La Belle Helene, to the cute, plant-adorned bathroom at low-key Roots Cafe. And it’s all with good humor — the tagline “Wash your hands, ya filthy animals” is a nod to none other than the movie “Home Alone.”

Bathroom enthusiasts can even submit their own photos by emailing cltbathrooms@gmail.com or by using the hashtag #cltbathrooms on Instagram.

So who is the mind behind the brilliance? Meet 27-year-old Brooke Tollison, a single mom to a 9-year-old. She works as an administrative assistant and social media manager and lives in Fort Mill, although she spends a huge chunk of her time in Charlotte.

“I created @cltbathrooms to create a sort of scrapbook for all my bathroom pictures I take,” Tollison said in an email. “It was mind boggling to me that no one had started anything similar yet in Charlotte with the amount of well designed bathrooms we have here. They need to be showcased! Since I’m working on other business accounts all the time, it’s fun to just do whatever I want with an account.”

She first posted in July while admiring the bathroom at Plaza Midwood’s new coffee shop, Undercurrent Coffee.

“It’s one of my favorite bathrooms and it’s the bathroom that ultimately gave me the epiphany to create the account,” Tollison said. “I mean, how cool is their wallpaper?”

The account’s following has started to slowly grow through hashtags and engagement.

As for reactions so far?

“I’ve had people get so excited about this account and get the humor of it all, and some who don’t understand the appeal of bathrooms,” Tollison said. “The ones who do understand, though, are always telling me of the best spots to go. Since I am really busy and can’t get to every place, I know Charlotte will come together to help share when they see an inspiring bathroom or ones I’ve never been to before. I love photos of the little hospitality corners in bathrooms, the overall interior design, and even the most important things like being able to see where the extra toilet paper is or the plunger.”

(Word of wisdom: There is a TON of extra TP visible on a shelf in the Dilworth Tasting Room bathroom. It’s exquisite.)

Tollison doesn’t want people to take this Instagram endeavor too seriously. I mean, there’s a poop emoji with stars in the account details, for goodness sake.

“I just want to have fun with it,” she said. “I think there are so many hidden gems in Charlotte but what’s more hidden than a bathroom where the last thing people are thinking about is taking a photo?”

This story was originally published August 24, 2018 at 12:00 AM.