Just strip the paint and it will be good as new!

Ha! Well, as you can see, we did strip the paint from the mantelpiece and it does look much better. But I understand that the renovators' creed reminds us that it is never finished.  On stripping the white paint, we discovered slats of another wood. Had we more experience, we would have taken them off right away (they do not match the style of the whole piece). So now we persevere with more paint stripping to see what else lurks beneath. Then it's off to find a refinished who can refresh the stain and - hopefully - match the baseboards and crown molding. Here's hoping it wouldn't be more practical to RIP it out and have it rebuilt!

love,

Gilly