Need some help with my chest of drawers

[Jeff Monson]

I'd like some input on my top for a chest of drawers, the top will be 3/4" oak with a measurement of 17 1/2" x 51". I have 2 questions.

1. How can I dress the top up a bit, I used butterfly inlays on the drawer fronts and would like to do something different on the top, one thought
I had was to add 4" strips running the width of the top on the ends, but I'm not really sure what would look nice.

2. How should I fasten the top, with a piece this large I'm assuming that I shouldnt glue it.

Thanks as usual!!

[glenn bradley]

On the dressing up I'll defer to our many members who actually have artistic talent. On the fastening question; to allow for wood movement you can screw from below using oversize holes for the screw shafts or some other mechanism that will allow the swelling and shrinking through the year. On table tops I use a screw in the middle of each end using a regular sized hole and then oversize or slotted holes for as many as seem required moving out from the center (of the edge).

These are cute, but not required:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=16848&filter=countersink