A while back I bought this entertainment center off Craigslist. I wanted to use it as the base for a new entertainment center, but it was too short for what I wanted and a little too 1970's.
First, I needed to add some height to the dresser. I attached 2x4's to the top surface with screws by drilling them up from the open holes where I took out the drawers. I just drilled the screw through the top piece straight into the 2x4's. I also used a thin line of wood glue along each piece for extra support.
I took all the drawers out and removed all the drawer rails. I flipped the entertainment center over (right here it's still right side up, but the 2x4's end up being the base of the entertainment center). Also, notice how I removed the toe kick off the bottom part and it leaves the two sides? Remember that for later...
I flipped the whole dresser over. See the newer wood now at the bottom of the piece. I forgot to take a pic, but I put trim around the 2x4's so it has a finished look.
Let me tell you, the next part was the worst part of the entire project. I measured everything out and had to calculate where the drawer rails would go now that the dresser was flipped upside down. Let's just say it is not fun to try and get drawers to match up perfectly and be evenly spaced. I used my nail gun to nail the rails to the sides. In the pic you can see that they had used staples before. The nails worked just fine though.
Now that the drawers were back in, the middle door also had to be flipped with it's hinges (yes, it's just one big door, not two small ones). Remember how I had removed the original toe kick on the dresser and it left two sides with this big open space across the top (I wanted this for electronics). I add wood pieces onto these sides so it was thicker, which made it really solid and added a finished look to it. Also, you can see the new trim on the bottom better in this pic.
I collected about 200 stir sticks from Home Depot for the next part of my project. First, I cut the handle portion of the stir sticks off. Notice the stir stick clamped onto the saw. I did this so that I would have all my sticks cut at the same length. I would just put the stick I was going to cut right up to the clamped stick, I made sure it was pushed all the way back against the saw so it stayed square and then cut. It was super easy and way more efficient than eyeballing all the pieces.
I know I'm jumping forward, but I didn't get any pics of the top while making it. I just made a Herringbone pattern with the sticks and glued them down on a piece of plywood, then nailed both ends of each stir stick. Once it was done, I cut the sides so it was all flush with the plywood and then put a piece of trim around the outside. I sanded it all down so it was pretty smooth and then stained and sealed the top. I used Minwax stain in Provincial and then used the Minwax water based Polycrylic sealant.
Here's a close up of the sticks, see the holes on each end. I didn't bother filling them in with wood filler because I actually like that look on original wood pieces.
The hardware also got a new look. I spray painted them with Rust-Oleum Metallic Paint & Primer in one: color - Pure gold. I don't like the shiny gold/brass look, but I love a more antiqued gold look.
I primed everything 3 times and then painted 2 coats of white paint. I use Behr interior paint in Satin: color - Full Moon for just about every project that I paint white. Then I sealed the whole thing with Minwax water-based Polycrylic sealant.
I did add the two vertical pieces where the electronics are to add support for the top. I just glued them down and used dowels to secure the pieces to the bottom portion and nailed through the top to secure it down. I replaced all the hardware and we have a brand new entertainment center. I store movies in the drawers and I used to keep diapers and other things in the middle section, it's empty now. I have so much storage, it's so nice. 
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