SIMPLY STYLISH SANDRA LEE DOES IT EASIER AND CHEAPER THAN THOSE OTHER LIFESTYLE GURUS.

Byline: Barbara De Witt Staff Writer

As the Martha machine slows down, a younger, taller blond decorating diva is racing into the lifestyle limelight.

It's Sandra Lee, armed with a hot glue gun, cans of spray paint and an arsenal of quick, easy and ultra-cheap ideas for holiday decorating and dining.

Although she won't comment on Martha Stewart's style, Lee describes herself as ``a person who focuses on decorations that don't have to be fussed with, watered, pruned or primped.''

And with her shoot-from-the-hip attitude, this Los Angeles newcomer is clearly no threat to stylist-to-the-stars Colin Cowie.

``Let's put it this way: Colin Cowie is brilliant ... but he'd use real gold leaf where I'd use gold spray paint. And I think the effect is just as beautiful and less expensive,'' Lee explains during a recent interview at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

Lee wields a can of spray paint with a handyman's aplomb. She points to a centerpiece she's just finished that's glittering in fake gold and begins spray painting tiny pumpkins and an assortment of plastic fruit she bought at her favorite craft stores, Michael's and Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts. When she's finished, she demonstrates how she painted a handful of decorative branches called ``wispy sticks'' with paint and then quickly adds glitter before the paint dries.

Yes, it's been done before, but not with rock salt to hold the sticks in place. ``It's so much cheaper than those glass pebbles sold in a jar, and you just spread it on some newspaper and spray paint with one hand while you roll it around with the other. Just make sure you use plastic gloves or you'll ruin your manicure,'' she cautions.

Creative solutions

On another table is a dramatic silver centerpiece she designed earlier in the day for a New Year's celebration. Again, she points to the rock salt poured into a clear glass ice bucket and explains that all she did was sprinkle iridescent glitter on the top to look like snowflakes. The tall branches surrounded by the rock salt were purchased at a craft store, but she says after local windstorms, there should be plenty available in your yard.

To make them look wintry, Lee spray paints them with white paint and then a coat of flocking (fake snow), and while it's still wet she tosses on some silver glitter.

Have leftover pumpkins and Indian corn from Thanksgiving dinner? Lee suggests painting them gold and arranging them on the mantle.

Planning a family Christmas party with children?

Delight them with a colorful centerpiece that looks like something created by Santa's elves. ``It's my most time-consuming decoration ... about two hours,'' says Lee of the ``layer cake'' made from four descending sizes of Styrofoam squares that she covered with moss and glued in place with Super Glue. Assembling it like a wedding cake, Lee glued tiny red glass balls between the layers (where frosting would be), then draped a decorative ribbon over it, pinned it in place and added some holiday figurines as cake toppers. She adds that round layers would work well on a round table, and a tall cone-shaped piece of Styrofoam could be used to resemble a Christmas tree.

Quick and edible

In a panic because friends are dropping by for coffee and you have no decorations or treats to offer them?

``No problem,'' says Lee, as she stuffs two large parfait-style glass bowls she bought at Target with white meringue cookies from the market. Nibbling on one of the cookies, she comments, ``It's my favorite because it's the most simplistic. Nothing has to be watered ... and guests can eat the decorations.''

Lee comes by her cheap-chic decorating philosophy quite naturally. She grew up in a large family (the eldest of five children) in a small town in Washington and quickly honed both her craft and entrepreneurial skills. By the age of 10, Lee was weaving pot holders on a toy loom and selling them to neighbors for $1 a pair.

When she was in college at the University of Wisconsin, she invented a quick and easy way to create draperies without a sewing machine. The concept, which she describes as ``the pouf,'' created from yardage and pulled through large rings to make rosettes for draperies or a canopy for the bed, won the blue ribbon for home decorations at the Los Angeles County Fair and later the Washington State Fair.

It catapulted her into the decorating business, and Lee says she made $10 million in her first year (at the age of 25) by selling her Sandra Lee home decorating (and also gardening and craft) kits at Target, JC Penney, Wal-Mart, Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts, Michael's and on TV's QVC.

Expanding her brand

Her company is now making about $30 million in product sales from around the world (she's hot in South Africa), so this year she's spending less time developing products and more time sharing ideas. And also spending time with her new husband Bruce Karatz, chairman and CEO of Kaufman and Broad, and their two dogs.

In June she cooked up a multimedia deal with Miramax Films, and her first book, ``Semi-Homemade Cooking'' (Talk Miramax Books; $19.95) is now in stores. She calls it ``semi-homemade cooking'' because she cheats and uses several ready-made ingredients to create everything from biscuits and gravy to pet treats. The fact that she admits it and makes it reader-friendly by listing the brand names is so surprising that it should help solidify the disarming persona Lee has been quietly building over the last 10 years.

``And just for the record,'' says Lee, ``none of the companies which appear in my book paid me ... or even sent me a thank you letter.''

The newest Martha wanna-be is already thinking about decorating and gardening books and is currently in negotiations for her own television show, which could give her a weekly platform for lifestyle projects that she promises will be no-brainers and cheap. And - forgive us, Martha - that could be a refreshing thing.

MORE SANDRA LEE

TV appearances: NBC's ``Today'' show, 8:30 a.m. Tuesday; ABC's ``The View,'' 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Publications: ``Semi-Homemade Cooking'' (Talk Miramax Books; $19.95) at bookstores; free Semi-Homemade Newsletter and Web Magazine. To order, write to Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade at 1453-A 14th St., No. 126, Santa Monica, CA 90404.

Web site: www.semi-homemade.com. Or send e-mail to tips(at)semihomemade.com with your lifestyle questions or ideas.

Products:Lee's original Deluxe Window Decorating Kit with materials and video priced at $40.45 at QVC.com (Item No. F22469).

- B.D.

Holiday haute and not

Entertaining can look glam, even if you live on a shoestring, says lifestylist Sandra Lee. So before you stock up on party fare, check her list (and comments):

HAUTE

--Table runners with tassels (always tasteful)

--Christopher Radko ornament-themed dinnerware

--Party favors and English crackers filled with toys

--Theme parties (dessert or wine and cheese)

--Monochromatic color schemes (packages, centerpieces)

--White, pastel or painted-black Christmas trees

--Gold-toned flatware (metallics are back in)

--Scented kindling in fireplace (use aromatherapy oil or spices)

--Mistletoe in the entryway (kissing is always in style)

--New Year's noisemakers and hats.

NOT

--Organdy tablecloths (use red felt instead)

--Fitz & Floyd dinnerware

--Giftie bags for dinner parties (so over)

--Huge candles with three or more wicks

--Tiny picture frames as place cards

--Themed Christmas trees (cowboys, angels)

--Napkin rings (tie with ribbon and ornament instead)

--Fancy floral arrangements (too expensive)

--E-mailed invitations (they were never ``in'')

--Gold-toned charger plates (clear glass is newer)

- B.D.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Sandra Lee with a silvery New Year's centerpiece made with an ice bucket of branches held in place with rock salt and glitter. Furniture courtesy of Michael Taylor Design Showroom at the Pacific Design Center.

(2 -- color) ``Wear gloves when using spray paint,'' cautions Lee as she turns pumpkins and pears into golden globes.

(3 -- color) Metallics are back in style, and one of the quickest ways to make a fashionable decorating statement is with ``wispy sticks'' and fake fruit from Michael's sprayed with gold paint.

(4 -- 5 -- color) At right, this sugarplum centerpiece is made from stacks of Styrofoam covered in moss, trimmed with tiny glass balls and decorated with holiday figures. Lee says it takes less than two hours to assemble once you've bought everything - and it can be used year after year.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) MORE SANDRA LEE (see text)

(2) HOLIDAY HAUTE & NOT (see text)