[Van]

White aspen is a beautiful wood to work with! very similar to poplar. Properly maintained it should age too badly. I might suggest a stain of something cherry-ish and then a liberal coating of Tung oil or some variant there of. Danish stains with a high oil content will help preserve almost any pine wood. Polyurethanes and othe synthetics have a tendancy to pick up retain and often magnify odors, like many plastics do < you should smell the plastic lined starbucks travel mug i left a mocha in too long> so a natural oil may be just the way to go on a project like this. You might even look into obtaining some aromatic cedar planking to line the inside of the Hall Stand < as this piece of furniture is often reffered to> with it's usually availible at Home despot or Lowes and pretty cheap. Cool project.