A Random Post & A Half-Finished Project... Need Advice!

Thanks to all of you for your kind and reassuring words concerning THAT room.  Good to know that I'm not alone (ha!).  Charles says that he expects the producers of "Hoarders" to call any day now, since I've posted the photos online.

I'm planning to start on it first thing tomorrow.  I'm thinking I might be able to pay Han to help me out a little.  She's been asking me if I have any itunes cards that I'm not using.  I do have a couple so I should be able to bribe her with those.  

I signed her up for a sewing class today.  It starts on Friday.  We were going to get groceries today and I decided to stop by a quilt shop on the way.  She was amazed by the Amy Butler bags they had hanging around and also some of the cute little sample dresses they have.  I don't have the patience or the knowledge to teach her properly so I thought it'd be a good idea to sign her up.  Oh, I have grand plans for her sewing career!  She'll make her own clothes in high school and will have all of her friends paying her to make theirs.  Then it's off to the Fashion Institute of Technology and maybe even a stint on Project Runway.  Yeah right!!  One thing I've learned in my short time of being a parent is that the more you push something, the more they hate it.  So I'll just keep my mouth shut about all of that and just praise her work for now.

OK, now for the half-finished project.  I've painted the bottom black and sanded the finish off the top.  I brushed on a thin coat of satin poly to deepen the colors of the wood and I was planning to leave it like this and add a few coats of lacquer, but I'm not totally in love with this, now that I've had time to look at it.  I'm looking for opinions, ideas and inspiration peeps.  Please help!

Here's a before, just so you can see the detail on the bottom, which isn't as easy to see with it being painted black.

And here is where I am now.  We've got horrible lighting inside so please ignore my horrid photography skills. 

This one's a little better for seeing the wood detail.