When it comes to home furnishings, Rachel Ashwell’s philosophy is down-to-earth.

In addition to beautiful, furnishings should be “machine-washable, comfortable and practical,” says Ashwell, the woman credited with launching the Shabby Chic decorating style in 1989.

The designer behind the high-end Shabby Chic Couture furniture line, Ashwell has introduced a new, more affordably priced furniture line. The line, named simply Shabby Chic, was unveiled in April and has been rolling into stores over the summer. Ashwell has been on a tour introducing the line and signing copies of her latest book, “Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Interiors,” which she describes as “quite a personal story.”

“After being in this business 20-some years, this new line is my edited version of what I believe the customers like,” says Ashwell in a phone interview from her California home.

The collection includes chairs, sofas and love seats, available in a choice of 60 different fabrics, as well as a few leather pieces. Lamps and case goods — armoires, chest-of-drawers, bookcases — will be added to the collection over time.

The designs, with their soft colors, distressed finishes and “mushy” upholstery, feature the blend of English elegance and California casual that are Ashwell signatures. But they are not overwhelmingly romantic or cloying, says the designer.

“There’s a more modern, less-is-more feeling to a lot of the pieces,” she says.

As a child in Britain, Ashwell shopped flea markets and antique stores with her mother, a restorer of antique dolls and teddy bears, and her father, a rare-books dealer. She moved to California in 1983, working in the entertainment industry as a set designer and stylist.

After her two children were born, she turned her creative talents to designing washable slipcovers for her furniture to withstand the rigors of children and pets. Friends soon wanted them, which led to her opening her first Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture store in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1989.

She has since added stores in New York and London, featuring “top-of-the-line, customized furniture,” she explains.

Her new collection, which will be sold in select furniture stores across the country, is more “price-friendly,” she says. “But I’ve paid close attention to staying with the detailing and aesthetics of the brand.”

Shabby Chic’s appeal “has to do with the combination of shabby with sophistication,” she says. “It’s also about creating ’emotional heirlooms’ — things that are special even if they are not precious. In this technological, push-button society, people value things like old lamps or pillows that can be passed along.”

If overdone, she admits, Shabby Chic style can become cloying and “un-man-friendly.”

“Let things breathe. Have some empty wall space. Eclectic and hodge-podge is good, clutter is not,” she says.

“Learn to say. ‘Enough already!”‘

Go to www.shabbychic.com for more information.