When asked about his career, Matt Muenster, host of Bath Crashers on the DIY Network, simply says, “I have been very lucky.” He didn’t start out looking for the camera; it found him, so there was some luck in that first step. But after listening to Muenster talk about all the projects he has in the works, you can’t help but think of the old saying, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
In 2008, Muenster’s television career began with a DIY Network show called BATHtastic!, and Bath Crashers premiered in 2010. (For one season he did both shows.) He is a natural TV personality, with a ready, genuine smile and a voice that commands attention, but Muenster says that before he was recruited to host BATHtastic! he had never thought about being on television. “I wasn’t even in a high school play … public speaking was terrifying to me,” he says. “Being on TV was like all my phobias come to life.”
The DIY Network was looking for a designer to host a bath redesign show being shot in the Twin Cities, when a producer saw Muenster’s picture on the website of the Minneapolis design firm where he was working at the time. Muenster, who lives in Falcon Heights with his wife and son, has a degree in design from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and he’s a licensed contractor. The producer called him and managed to talk him into doing an audition for the network’s executives, and he got the job that same week.
If you have ever dreamed of having a knight in shining armor come in and turn your ugly, non-functioning bathroom into an oasis of beauty and smart design, then you understand why Bath Crashers is so popular. Muenster finds people at local home improvement stores looking at bath fixtures or plumbing parts and offers to renovate their bathrooms. For free. In three days. He has smart ideas about storage and ways to maximize space, and a great eye for sophisticated design.
Recently Muenster has taken on new projects including partnering with DecoLav, a bath fixtures and products manufacturer, to design the Matt Muenster Exclusive line. It’s his first experience with retail design, and he looks forward to doing more with DecoLav in the future. It was a different kind of design challenge because “you have to think about creating things that will work for everyone. It isn’t like designing a bathroom for one person,” he says.
Another new endeavor is called Spoke 612 Productions. He’s started it with some of his production team from Bath Crashers. The company is focused on helping businesses create content for the web and social media.
Helping businesses reach their audience is something that Muenster is passionate about. He talks about how frustrated he gets when he sees smaller businesses that don’t know how to get their message in front of people. He believes that he and his team have the perfect set of skills to develop and produce content that can create the kind of engagement that gets results. “Your business has a story to tell; we can help you tell it,” Muenster says. Spoke 612 is just getting off the ground, but they already have a client or two, a partnership with an ad agency, and a creative team that has worked together for years. Muenster says the team communicates effortlessly after shooting well over 100 episodes, working on tight deadlines and making adjustments on the fly.
Watch full episodes of Bath Crashers and BATHtastic! at the website here.
