Wood, wood and wood. This old table was found in our neighbours garage. My father hand planed it back to raw wood, which took him 3 weeks. He then put 3-4 coats of polyurethane on it. That was 35 years ago. I didnt want to French Polish it as I love seeing the wood grain and not have it covered during dinner parties for protection. Children have played, studied on it, its been used as a desk, meeting table, dinner parties, fixing table, sewing table, and has been the only table we use. Now grand children eat at it. It's never been touched since my Father worked on it and I still love its warm colour and the grain. It's patina is our family's history.

Howard's have a product called Restor a finish. You can also get feed and wax. I have seen some lovely handles from Anthropologie online (they ship to Australia!) You could also use the keys and put large tassels on them as a display in the keyholes. This often looks lovely and very French! I'd take off and remove a lot of the ornaments you have on top and put French Provinical style things there. You could have a vignette of things that relate to that style you like. Or why not try a vignette of older styling of the things you already have?

The best way to 'hide' something that you don't like is to draw the eye elsewhere. The screens etc that have been recommended with vines over them are not a good idea. I would suggest 3 trees within the lawn area and not in a perfect triangle. One could be placed in front of the problem area. Eventually you could make a garden bed of decent sized proportion, that would have all trees within and underplant the trees with the same low plant throughout - like a good native grass like plant. The use of the 1 plant will make the area look even bigger and will provide unity to the design.

Feast Watson kitchen oil is 30-60 % petroleum naphtha. This maybe the reactionary problem. Ok time to fix. Sanding back starting with 120 grit and go through the grades...180, 240,320. Sand with the grain until you feel that all the blemishes are removed. Sounds daunting but the first strike with the sand paper is psychologically the most difficult. I'd stick to the Tung oil base and use Organoil danish oil. Brush on rub off with a clean rag. Let dry, sand back lightly, this time with 400grit and reapply oil and rub off. Let it cure for a couple of days and you should be good to go. Livos Kunos oil is also an option and would only take a 120 grit sand, apply, rub off. Let that dry for a day sand with 320 and reapply and rub off. The only problem is it is an expensive oil.