I suspect the top of the dresser was not original to the piece. If you paid $80 for it you did just fine....but you messed up after you bought it. As for the table....do you really want to know my opinion? What I think about it? LOL! Stop reading now if you don't! I think that table is many things put together. Sure....perhaps the boards are 100 years old ( which in the terms of antiques is not very old!) but I sure think that table was put together by someone who saw you coming! Suggestion? Do some home work on what old furniture looks like and what it should cost... Find someone to take you under their wing and show you what to look for! You are in the Mecca for antique buying!! There should be all sorts of wonderful stuff around....if you avoid the shops in Chadds Ford and hit the farm auctions and flea markets! As to the chest? get some stripper and remove the finish.... Rub it with steel wool after it dries.....and maybe a gentle rub with a garnet sand paper... It likely will be a warm brown....stain or not and put some poly urethane on it. Back to that table....When did she say an Amish farmer made it?? Yesterday? LOL! It appears that someone took the floor boards out of the attic of an old building, or out of a barn and made some legs and painted them white...a la Ikea! But how about those chairs?? The one on the near side of the table on the right?.....and the one on the far side...in the middle? Let's see more of them!! Linda C

if you look inside,under it or on the back, you might find the makers name. it'll be hard to see so take a flashlight. the dovetail joints in the pic. were adapted after the industrial revolution. so for furniture that'd place it post civil war. the problem is, is that i see marks that indicate hand made. (yes, i know, welcome to the guessing game.) but i agree with chibimimi. don't touch it . a little wood soap and wax maybe.

Refinished a vanity (now used as a changing table) and a nightstand with very similar style and almost identical hardware to your piece and used these oil rubbed bronze cup cabinet pulls from overstock.com. Both are painted white with a dark brown stained top, and the pulls look fabulous! Not suggesting you paint your dresser since yours has a great finish, but just wanted to comment that the cup pulls worked well for us. However, all of our pulls were the same size, so we didn't have an issue there. Here is a link that might be useful: oil rubbed bronze cup cabinet pull

I have a small microwave stand in my grandson's closet. Shoes sit on top' toy bins sit in the space meant for the microwave, other "stuff" that is important to him inside the doors. Because he is still small, his clothes can hang on hangars on the rod and not interfere with the stuff on the stand. Close the closet doors and everything is neatly hidden. We also use a microwave stand for my DH's bedside table. He has sleep apena so he needs lots of space for his CPAP and supplies as well as lamp, bookks etc. His has a rack on the side, probably meant for hanging dish towels or such, but he uses it store the hose from the CPAP after he has rinsed it out each day. Works great, and he can close the doors at the bottom to hide his considerable mediacal realted clutter. When DGS was very small he put a kitchen-style childproof latch on.