thanks all. I ended up buying the set from CL for $150. Person claimed her mother, who is 94, bought it in the 1940's when she married, and it has been in the family. It has a six drawer tall dresser with cedar in the bottom drawer, a three drawer night stand, full bed with head/foot/rails, and the above vanity and stool. The vanity has two curved doors in the bottom center knee hole and curved glass sliding doors with a glass shelf for display items (??) above the doors. All of the pieces have curves in the front face but have flat tops. The stool appears to be of solid wood, the rest of the pieces have veneer tops and sides with solid oak inside the drawers. The drawers insides are in near perfect original condition and all slide well when they are put in the right place - they are numbered in pencil. All of the pieces have some damage, but not severe. I could not find any makers label or stamp, but the underside of the stool is marked in pencil "strick" or "strich" or "struh" with a double dot over the "u". Someone wrote something on the back of the mirror, perhaps family names. It appeared to have a poorly done finish on the drawer fronts with drips visible and I asked if it was refinished and she said it had not. Upon closer inspection when I took it home, it definitely had an amber shellac layer over old damage. I tried to remove the newer shellac with alcohol, but could not get a satisfactory result. Besides, there were some deep scratches and areas with damage, so I sanded carefully with medium grit. This revealed the original look which was blonded oak veneer, and the blonding can be seen on the underside of the stool and is a very pale mustard color. I am trying to figure out what to do next now that most of it is smooth, I am considering clear wax. I do not believe the amber shellac was original. The set is lovely. Any other ideas or comments?

thank you guys for even reading my wordy post! and for responding with great/helpful ideas ;) i fixed the google sketchup drawings with correct wall height. alx and lzgdns - i'm not married to an accent wall, but dd wanted bright pink walls and all 4 walls = approx 713 sq feet of azalea pink! good info though, that focal wall has to be focal for a reason. i was trying to do a satisfying dose of pink for her, without losing the light reflectivity of the other walls, and trying to make the dingiest north wall/ceiling area look crisp white by contrast. the ivory on upper half of room now looks greyish-ivory "BM faded orphan dress" thank you for the paint color suggestions, especially on dealing with the northerly light (and website) purply-pinks clash with the carpet for sure. the color dd keeps coming back to is behr's springtime bloom - lol - fun job to name paint colors - BM peptobismol SW benydryl tablet pink FPE chalky calamine lotion would you really paint the ceiling pink too? there is no flat ceiling, it's all on a slope. that's exactly why we want the loft for her - cozy book nook, place where she and her friends will want to be as they get a little older - we wanted the area underneath it to have maybe a desk, storage, bookshelves too - something that i really worry about is that since the light is northerly, putting a loft on the far wall would actually pretty much lower the ceiling over both windows. this has to reduce the amount of light that gets reflected into the rest of the room, making it feel even darker. i Love beadboard, but i have been feeling that it's too out of character with the house to look right. my mil has the similar contemporary 1970s style home, and she has spent years gradually colonializing it - colonial wallpapers, paint colors, furniture. the overall effect is ODD. cottagy finishes in a room with an 15'high x 19'long wall -is it possible? crash&suero, you've both gotten me thinking, corner loft! a triangle wastes a lot of floor space, but a square works maybe? instead of across the room - because the shortest part is useless anyway - the one i drew is directly under the skylight, and has lowest ceiling height of around 4'5" like a staircase but that would take up a lot of space/$, for now i think ladder is best option? i also like that it breaks up the enormous expanse of wall. no kidding if i had a ds instead of dd, i'd do a mural of niagara falls, put fake boulders at the bottom, hang some barrels halfway on hte wall for bookshelves, decorate his bed in lifejacket orange and be done ;) Did another sketch! Loft is around 5' by 8'. Wasn't sure what size it should be but this doesn't block window, and is a golden mean ratio ;) added ladder. hope it makes sense visually. Any thoughts? the wall is pink for fun, will try other paint suggestions too ;) pink does not match actual paint choices. thank you so much! (sorry my messages are so long) my paint color name is: SW chatty blur Here is a link that might be useful: new sketch with corner loft

I think it depends upon what the mahogany looks like with the current semi-opaque finish removed. My stairs are mahogany and once we stripped them we decided that no stain was needed, just a protective finish. They are a medium tone slightly less orange than the Michael Taylor piece with no stain at all. If not, I would go no darker than light walnut or special walnut. The 1st dibs piece looks nice, but to me it looks like newer furniture with vintage hardware on it in that finish--to me it has lost something. I tend to be a purist of sorts though, and I think this piece, much like Heywood Wakefield, puts its best foot forward in the original finishes, even if refinished to duplicate the original.

I looked at the Ethan Allen website & if it is Ethan Allen it is discontinued as they do not have the bed on their website. I have never heard of Sara Fine Furniture as a manufacturer but my web search shows some furniture stores by that name. I don't know if you are in that area but if it was purchased from them they may can help you. The info on the bed frame may not have been any help as many manufacturer get their frames/rails from a supplier.