Free dresser! But... now what?

We finally had a beautiful, sunny day today but I spent 5 hours of it in the emergency room, getting my dancer daughter's foot re-xrayed and examined (she broke it during her recital last weekend). I am so grateful that she is healing well and will be back dancing by July, but neither of us enjoyed the long wait. I saw a lot of worried mommies with a lot of very unwell little ones today and I just kept counting my blessings that my children are healthy and happy.

On the way home, our moods improved when we spotted this on the side of the road. Feast your eyes on this, uh.... beauty? I have seen some ugly furniture in my days but this one is something special. It's a sort of reddish brown with an accent colour that reminds me of silly putty.

A broken handle, and the whole side is coming off. It's a very solid piece but I'm not sure what kind of wood it is. I've never seen that kind of rectangle panel thingy on the front of the drawers.

It weighs a ton but between the two of us, we lifted it a couple of inches and tipped it into the trunk. Drove it home and had Tarzan get it out of the back of the van - he even fixed the side for me! 

The key holes and sweet little knobs really seal the deal - I think knobs are a bit small for the scale of the dresser, but I will save them for a future project. I think it's begging for special treatment I'm just not sure what that is.

So, now what? I have to strip off all that goopy oil paint for starters and then maybe I will be able to think about what to do with it. I want to do something that will really unify the piece and make it stunning.

I am hoping the inspiration will come to me - if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them!