It has happened before. A domestic guru becomes a universal arbiter of good taste. In the past it was Laura Ashley and Ralph Lauren. But even these multi-million dollar lifestyle creators don’t measure up to the omni-media machine of Martha Stewart. Her latest title, How to Decorate: A Guide to Creating Comfortable, Stylish Living Spaces, is the best of her Martha Stewart Living magazine, and only a drop in the gilded entrepreneurial bucket. She also has a weekly television cooking and decorating show, a syndicated newspaper column, and a line of designer paints and bed linens sold through K-marts in the U.S. Even those who claim to have never flipped through her magazine or watched her help David Letterman shear basil shrubbery into a table-top topiary, seem able to spot her East Hampton lifestyle and sensibility.

Not surprisingly, the Martha Stewart Effect has produced Stewart-like spinoffs, including a number of how-to designer books aimed at selling Martha’s world without maxing out the Amex card. Unlike Martha, who seems oblivious to the fact that most of us don’t live on compounds in Connecticut or penthouses on Fifth Avenue, decorators and designers are publishing insiders’ notes on how to create versions of Martha Stewart interiors on the cheap.

Sharon Hanby-Robie makes no bones about positioning herself as a budget-smart Martha. Her book is titled My Name Isn’t Martha, But I Can Decorate My Home: The Real Person’s Guide to Creating a Beautiful Home Easily and Affordably, and the cover shows the designer wearing L. L. Bean-like slacks and shirt, and a no-fuss blonde haircut, just like her mentor. The similarities between the two, however, stop there. Hanby-Robie’s book offers no illusions that decorating is, for most of us, a hobby, not a career, and launches into tips on developing personal style. Her stock-in-trade is the Ink Blot test which, she swears, is the simplest way to suss out likes and dislikes. Simply collect fabric swatches and wallpaper samples and stack them into two piles: yes and no. After a while, your preferred tastes will start to take shape.

The Ink Blot test probably does work and so do Hanby-Robie’s helpful hints that run down the margins every few pages. And while her easy-reading text takes the anxiety out of decorating, her chatter can be irritating. But Hanby-Robie does offer sound and useful advice on ways to save and how to stretch a budget.

What many of these DIY design books, like My Name Isn’t Martha, tell us is that the most effective way to change a blah room into a gorgeous room, is with paint.

If Canada were to have a Martha Stewart equivalent (and we don’t), British-born Canadian resident Debbie Travis leads in one Stewartesque domain: the painted faux-surface technique. Her book, Debbie Travis’ Painted House: Quick and Easy Painted Finishes for Walls, Floors, and Furniture Using Water-Based Paints, is the print version of her popular television series of the same name, which now airs in over 50 countries and can be seen in Canada on WTN.

Over 35 paint effects are illustrated, from an understated Fresco dapple and an overstated Sienna marble to stencilling patterns around windows and door frames, and painting all-over tartan patterns – in lieu of carpeting – across wooden floors. This is a well-designed, easy-to-use book with each painting technique presented with a recipe box (what you’ll need to do the job), colour plates showing how each effect will look in a furnished room, and a step-by-step guide complete with action pictures, such as dappling with a sea sponge, making stripes with a squeegee, and combing on a checker grid. Travis makes it look easy and all of her techniques are water-based, eliminating the mess that comes with oils and solvents.

Effects aside, designing a room also has to do with maximizing space, taking advantage of natural light, and dealing with furnishings you already have. If these problems sound familiar, Pauline B. Guntlow’s Be Your Own Home Decorator: Creating the Look You Love Without Spending a Fortune offers up some classic, if somewhat dated, ideas of how to plan the layout of a room, and make the most of light and space. Guntlow gives 10 top features for each room in a house. Family rooms, for instance, should include areas for computers and fireplaces. Lighting gets top priority in the bathroom, and toilets should not be visible from the hallway.

Many of Guntlow’s pointers are strikingly obvious (shelves are needed in the library) and the book is laid out for easy reading. Unique to Guntlow’s book are tips on design projects involving others who don’t necessarily approve of your taste or spending plans. Put $10 aside each week and request cash for birthday presents, she suggests, but don’t let anyone know you’re saving for paints; they might think your cache could be better spent on other things. For unco-operative co-habitants, she suggests artful negotiating tactics to sway opinion to your advantage: “Ask questions like, ‘Do you suppose…’ or ‘How do you think that will work?’” It’s odd to find this kind of mental preparation scripted into a decorating book, but having gone through a teamwork renovation project myself, I can appreciate Guntlow’s pop psychology for do-it-yourselfers.

What is apparent from all these books is that Martha Stewart is the undisputed leader in home decoration because she has a knack for making old ideas seem new. Do-it-yourself designer books can lead you through the maze of options and explain the parts, but they can’t give you the knack. For that, Saint Stewart remains the current master of the better living concept.