This project has me thinking of the red/green show. I am sure most of you have seen it before. The duct tape wrapped around the entire cabinet is classic.
I feel this project should be done in a very design intensive manner. IE, everything should be fully functional just like a real cabinet, but done in a non-conventional, half-a$$ed fashion.
I am sure everyone who has built cabs for a while gets bored, and this could be a project that everyone could pitch in an interesting idea or two.
Here is my idea, followed by a design challenge for someone else to figure out:
I propose using old used light switches for some of the buttons. They would be functional, easily mountable, and would definitely work the same as a pushbutton, but in an unconventional manner.
Design Challenge:
A "coin hole" as proposed in the picture, that would have some sort of recognizing mechanism that would really recognize a coin input when you chuck in your coin (or other object of similar size)