reminds me of when i was thinking about the evil plant stand (see pic). it started out as an evil thought for how to use half lapping pairs of stretchers, that grew into an evil thought plan on paper.
then i asked myself (as there was no one else around), how do i assemble this beast?
it took a while, but after several dozen tries, and a year later (that part is true), it finally went together.
you mention that you were thinking more along the lines of a buffet, and i think the length is ok, but i would go a bit narrower, around 18-20". i checked in with my tape measure, and thought hmm, a bit taller. it started to remind me of the sofa table i had built for one of my coworkers (see pic). it turned out not too tall, but long and narrow, maybe that will give some ideas.
a thought on that would be to decrease (that's shrink, larrry) the height of the drawers, and lag bolt the case to the inside (front/back) of the legs, then add the face frame to the case. so many evil thoughts, so little time...