This Dad Became An Unlikely Instagram Star, All Thanks To Carpet

Dads are often the butt of everyone's favourite jokes, but one standout father is finding internet fame by being true to himself.

While some dad-approved hobbies lean towards embarrassing rather than enthralling (looking at you, medieval reenactment dads), officially cool dad Bill Young is getting attention on Instagram for something very, very unexpected: hotel carpeting.

According to BuzzFeed, Young's Instagram account, @myhotelcarpet, has become an overnight sensation for its unique take on an often overlooked piece of decor.

The Dallas resident is a corporate pilot. Because he spends so much time traveling, he picked up photography as a hobby. But instead of capturing images of wildlife or street art, he's focused his lens on the ground, snapping photos of hotel carpets that catch his eye.

Young never intended for his account to be anything more than a way to share photographs of wacky floor coverings, but after his daughter, Jill, tweeted a link to his Instagram account, he managed to amass over 470,000 followers.

"I was always surprised he never put in effort to get a whole bunch of followers," Jill told BuzzFeed. "He didn’t really care about that. He just really liked carpet, and that made me really happy."

Turns out, the account is making a lot of people happy. Bill's bold, colorful photographs are finding fans from all over. Even better than the follows are the supportive comments commending his carpeting choices.

"Some of them have like, almost weird Illuminati symbols on them...or big badges or crazy gargoyles on them, or something like that," Bill explained. "I definitely prefer this over just a plain one."

A quick browse on his feed will bring up photos of geometric patterns, throwback '80s motifs, and plenty of strange shapes and squiggles that seem too busy to be carpet at all. But Bill assures followers that he'll keep up the hard work, because part of the appeal seems to be how straightforward and pure the whole endeavour is. He told BuzzFeed that he's gotten requests for different kinds of flooring, but he's keeping his focus on carpet for now.

Followers might notice that Bill's geotags are pretty far-flung. It's not often that a travel account features both Japanese and German hotel carpets, but it looks like he's tapped into something that people want.

Keep doing you, Bill.