By the prices seen at this site, old school desks used in country schools range from $30 to $100 per set. One set has the desk top with a seat for the next desk in front of it. The link below shows a desk with a fold-up top. These are more rare than the fixed top variety. One of the views shows a book storage bin. The book storage on fixed top desks was under the desk top. I spent my first 8 years of schooling sitting in a fixed top desk in a one room country school. Typical wood of the desk was oak. A row of desks was created by fastening the desks to two 1" thick strips of wood. A typical row contained 3 to 5 desks. These rows of desks could be moved to facilitate house keeping and rearranging. Here is a link that might be useful: Vintage Child's School Desk

Tinam61, thank you! Susieq07, thanks so much for posting your buffet. Stinky and Kitchendetective, thank you so much for all of the suggestions and advice .. they helped me out tremulously. It really helps to see what I have here through new eyes, and see how you all would go about designing the space. Persnicketydesign, your dark wood sideboard up against the white wainscoting is beautiful! Mldao, I don't think it looks busy at all, you've set up a wonderful vignette. I love, love, love your trumeau mirror, it looks wonderful with your sideboard. Lynn, thank you so much for doing a mock-up for me!! I'm a very, very visual person and it helped me out so much. Seeing the different colors and shapes introduced really gave me a much better idea how to proceed with this! That lamp is too cute. I love the 'pop' of red with the flowers. I agree if the shelf stays, something very simple, like the black framed mirror you put up would look great. Now I just need to pull together my thoughts, start searching and implement all of your help and great ideas. :)

Here's a picture of the whole original set-up, with a bit of related text. Obviously, yours is missing the oil or gas burner component. https://books.google.com/books?id=A9qxAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA461&lpg=PA461&dq=what+is+a+swing+back+burnisher&source=bl&ots=dS-UB79FzZ&sig=hgZ9Sh3h8G8tuZC-Xev3wZjvu_o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAWoVChMI1PGRs9mLxgIVQwWSCh2wYwAa#v=onepage&q=what%20is%20a%20swing%20back%20burnisher&f=false

The pictures are very poor, and there is no indication of size, but what I can see it appears to be a transfer printed porcelain vase, likely made after 1900, with gold trim. Doesn't appear to be hand decorated and quite run of the mill.