Years ago in a wood shop class a our local high school, one of the men in the class made something like this for his wife. It was basically a tall box with lovely bought wood decorations on it, but with a clear Plexiglass window in front. (He had several kids) He put a larger frame on the front but not on top, he put the top of the frame on top of the plexiglass "window". This way it could be raised and lowered to access the insides. Plexiglass, if thick enough, can have holes bored in it, I think he did that, put matching rods into the plexiglass and screws from behind into the wooden rods. It looked lovely and sturdy enough to stay nice in spite of little kids.
I don't know if he painted it or stained it, but with that quality my bet is he stained it to match other furniture in his house.
Addition to this...the front of it raised and lowered BEHIND the front of the frame. Sort of a sliding window.