Nautical and very nice: Robert O'Byrnelooks at 10-year-old Stephen Moloney's bedroom

THEY'RE tricky little creatures, children. Just when you think you've finally got the measure of their likes and dislikes, it turns out these have utterly changed. "Oh no," they comment on being presented with a gift you took so much trouble to source and purchase, "I'm not interested in that sort of thing anymore."

This remark delivered, naturally, in a tone that makes it plain you really ought to have known better, you silly adult. For those of us still time-warped in a pre-PlayStation, pre-home computer, pre-personalised mobile phone for all under-fives era, trying to understand what does and doesn't appeal to children today poses a never-ending challenge. And this applies not just to their toys and clothes and books and heroes but also their rooms.

Children's rooms are as liable to fickle switches of taste as any other aspect of their young lives. A decorative scheme in favour one week might no longer be appreciated the next. Which is why it was very brave of 10-year old Stephen Moloney's mother Jackie to undertake a complete overhaul of his room last summer. And not just overhaul it any which way but to a design intended to reflect her son's interests.

Stephen sleeps at the very top of the family home, a big redbrick house in Ballsbridge. Though offered a choice of rooms, he opted for what must be the smallest one, tucked under the eaves and most probably once intended for a live-in maid. Measuring only a few metres either way, it's so cosy a decision was taken early on that Stephen's clothes would be better kept in wardrobes running the length of the landing outside.

This leaves a good bit more floor space for all his other bits and pieces which are stored in cupboards carefully chosen by Jackie to reflect one of Stephen's great interests: sailing boats.

Stephen is very keen on boats and this is just as well, because they provide such a strong leitmotif for his room that stepping into it is almost enough to induce a fit of seasickness.

To begin with, there's the bed which has been cunningly tucked into the furthest end of the room and looks just as snug as a ship's berth. Constructed by a carpenter, the bed has a fitted mattress and is surrounded by little drop-in units into which Stephen can slip all kinds of treasures. The bedlinen from Arnotts comes in appropriately nautical white and blue with a hint of red piping and these colours are also used on the wall behind, which paint specialist Lorna Roughneen has covered with some wonderfully realistic sails. She also painted a light wash across the front of the bed to give the impression it had been made from nailed boards (rather than the ever-reliable MDF). From the ceiling hangs a pair of curtains striped red, white and blue and able to be pulled shut if Stephen's in need of some privacy.

A small Velux window has been fitted into the sloping roof but the room could still seem a little dark were it not for the intentionally cheerful decorative scheme employed, beginning with a warm - and hard-wearing - oatmeal carpet on the floor; at one point a suitably naval blue carpet was considered but dismissed as being too dark and overwhelming for the space.

Likewise the walls are a neutral putty but painted here and there with seafaring vignettes courtesy of Lorna Roughneen; set into the bottom of one wall is a line of blue electric lights that twinkle at night like those of an ocean liner. But the rest of the furniture looks as though it came straight from the captain's cabin, especially the sturdy oak desk and matching swivel chair that Stephen's mother purchased, along with a hefty chest of drawers, from Kilcroney Furniture.

Sitting on the desk is a lighthouse and elsewhere a row of fitted shelves carry further indications that the room's nautical theme has been very thoroughly thought through: on them rest scaled-down versions of an anchor and a pair of oars, as well as a miniature deckchair and a seagull.

Even the clock hanging from the back of the door has been set inside an old-fashioned lifebuoy while sitting on top of the chest of drawers are a couple of handsome fully-rigged model galleons discovered in an auction at Buckley's of Sandycove.

Nothing has been forgotten but what makes the finished room even more impressive is the realisation that its entire refurbishment was accomplished while Stephen was away on holidays with his family; the first he knew about the work was when he returned home.

That was last year and so far he continues to be delighted with his room.

He hasn't shown any sign of growing bored with its decoration or asking that it be revamped to reflect an entirely different set of interests.

Which makes Stephen very special and his parents very lucky.