In the 1970s, the German designer and illustrator Graziela Preiser was a household name. Her quirky, trademark prints adorned children’s bedding, clothing and crockery. Families everywhere could lay claim to at least one piece adorned with bold letters and numbers or a charming train set. Now, some 40 years after it was first launched, the brand has been revived and relaunched as byGraziela, a joint venture headed up by Graziela and her daughter Nina Nagel. I went to visit her in her East London home. ‘I grew up with my mother’s designs. We had a big cupboard full of her fabrics and sketches: I used to love rummaging through it,’ says Nina, a graphic designer. ‘When I was pregnant I started looking for children’s bedding and spotted some vintage Graziela bedding on eBay. I did some research and discovered a cult following. There was genuine demand for colourful, graphic prints for both boys and girls. It seemed a perfect time to revive the brand.’

‘I spoke to my mother and she was very keen on the idea. I’ve updated the designs for modern customers: the colour is less intense but I’ve taken care to preserve their hand-drawn feel. There are few wobbly lines, which are all part of their charm.’ Nina now devotes four days a week to running the business from the home she shares with her husband Simon and their son Jakob, aged three, in a former spice factory in East London. Bright and contemporary, it echoes her designs perfectly. Nina recalls how she and Simon would walk past the once-empty site on their way to work and imagine living there. ‘We loved the mix of modern and authentic features and the sense of space.’

Ranged over two floors, the two-bedroom flat has a quintessential loft feel with exposed brick walls, stripped floors and cast-iron beams. A vaulted skylight illuminates the open-plan living and kitchen area. Jakob’s large white bedroom is strewn with byGraziela cushions, toys and bedding. ‘We decided to launch one new print a year. The first, ‘1,2,3’, was designed as a fun way for children to learn numbers.’ The Train Set and Vegetables followed. One of the most recent prints, ‘Hearts’, has been issued as a limited edition on cushions, purses and melamine trays.

In contrast to the clinical minimalism so beloved of early noughties loft dwellers, Nina and Simon have opted for a colourful eclecticism. ‘When we first decorated, we used a lot of white and beige, but gradually we’ve introduced accents of colour.’

Against the backdrop of pale floorboards and unpainted walls, there is a perky mix of colours, prints and textures assembled over the years. Everything has been chosen with an eye for boldness, simplicity or just plain fun. There is a jaunty cushion by Jonathan Adler, picked up on a recent trip to New York next to a clutch of monochromatic prints by Swedish designers ‘Ten’. There are plenty of lucky finds too; a chair ‘picked up from a skip by chance' is covered with a pretty floral fabric by Hannah Werning. The 50s’ Danish teak dining-table was an eBay bargain for £30. ‘A similar table sold for £300. We were just very lucky.’

Here and there you pick out classic designer pieces: the large bulb lamp by Ingo Maurer or the black plastic Utinselo by Vitra, filled with keys, biros and household bits. The dining chairs are Eames while a bright yellow chair is by the couple’s friend, Andre Klaster. Peering from behind the sofa is a large toy sheep, from Nina’s childhood while another that belongs to Jacob is by designer Thorsten van Elten.

Alongside these designer names, however, there are high-street finds. The clean-lined storage is by Ikea; a quilt is from Zara Home and there are pieces by Habitat and Muji all chosen to complement the lean, 20th-century aesthetic of the interior. In the office Nina pauses to point a daschund sewn from byGraziela fabric. ‘It was a present from a fan,’ she explains. ‘Some people remember the designs from their childhood; other are discovering them for the first time. My mother has always had the knack of knowing what people want. It’s gratifying to see how relevant her designs still are.’ www.bygraziela.com.