All of these items can be found at electrical or plumbing supply stores or in the relevant sections at a large home improvement store. Most of the tubing or piping products you find can be painted as long as you use a primer and paint suitable for the material. Wood blocks would also make good spacers. My first choice, if the budget allowed, would be to use brass rails and flanges, which you often see used in restaurants, bars, and on boats. A good restaurant supply house or boat dealer might be a good source for brass, which is beautiful, strong, rust resistant, and somewhat expensive.

As important as choosing the spacers themselves, however, is deciding how to connect the spacers to the MDF at top and bottom. Tubing or piping that is available with sturdy flanges that could be screwed to the MDF would be my preference, as they would offer the strongest connection. Keep in mind that the spacers need to support the weight of the countertop and whatever is on it, but that is just the easy job. They also need to support the weight of any individuals leaning against it, which is tougher. So look for strong spacers that can be securely attached to the MDF. Find the spacers and necessary hardware first, and then let the rest of the project design fit around your choice

Design Options

Color is perhaps the most important design option with this project. In the TV episode, the boxes were painted black, the shiny chrome spacers were left unfinished, and the top was painted silver. You should choose a color scheme that works best in your own home.

Give some thought to the best shape for the countertop. Ty made his top into a modified kidney shape, and the rounded edges certainly are a wise choice for a project of this nature. But an oval could also work.

The height of the counter can be adjusted to fit your own needs. For counters that you want to sit at using typical bar stools, 42 inches is a good height, but there is no law that says you can't go higher or lower. You can adjust the height of the boxes and the length of the spacers to move the finished height to the desired elevation. If you do plan to sit at the counter, be sure to think about space for your knees. The staggered three-box approach that Ty used here works very nicely with the shape of the countertop to provide comfortable knee room.