Check the build my brother and I done last year incorporating a case with a desk "project deskcomp"
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18159148&highlight=deskcomp
all we done was took the back plate from a case i.e the part motherboard is mounted to and put that inside.
temps are always good and low.
As for the wooden case, I wish I'd thought of doing that when I was in school!! That's a cracking idea! Beats the hell out of the "Jewelery box for my Mum" that I made in D&T lol (I didn't have that much of a creative mind in school lol)
>edit<
Ask waynio about bending perspex... It doesn't seem like an easy job to make it go where you want it!