Expansion gap for built-in worktop

[ksc0pe]

I am planning to make some built-in furniture to go into my living room, picture attached to give a rough idea of what I am thinking of.

To the left and rear are solid walls, and to the right is a false chimney breast that has been tiled. I have made a couple of smaller cabinets before but this is most definitely a step up from what I have taken on previously. I am reasonably comfortable with the carcass and drawers, the bits I am not so sure about are

i) the worktop. Planning 18mm MDF with a 0.8mm veneer. With this being in the living room I would like to make it as neat as possible and avoid large expansion gaps and/or upstands/quadrants to cover them up. I have no experience of expansion gaps required for MDF. What size of expansion gap would need to be allowed for on the sides of the worktop? Given the front is open I am assuming I don't need an expansion gap at the rear, is that reasonable?

ii) working around the skirting board. Not really too much to say about that, I have come up with what I think is the best way of dealing with it but clearly there is no real way I can make the LHS (where the cabinet meets the wall) look like the (much neater) RHS (where the cabinet meets the chimney breast), given the skirting board. If anyone has an alternative ideas about how to deal with this I am open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance

 

[RobinBHM]

You dont need any expansion gap.
Im guessing this is to be made as fitted furniture -in which case it is a carcase with a separate top.
you need to think how you will finish the abutment of top to walls though -you wont get an invisible joint. The easiest way is to scribe the top and then caulk the gap and paint to match walls. dont try and make the top a perfect fit, being tight makes for a painful fitting process and risks damaging the veneer

I would say make the carcase so its smaller than the space by about 50mm, so it fits with an equal gap either side. simply screw on some battens flush to the front edge of the sides, then fit on some strips finished the same as the drawer fronts. doing that makes it look like a part of the furniture. Doing it on the skirting side only makes it look like a scribe trim

 

[ksc0pe]

Hello and thanks very much for the advice. Yes, indeed, was planning a separate one piece-top that would be placed and secured once the carcasses are in place. So if I understand correctly, the end result once the battens have been fitted at the sides and finished off would be similar but more symmetrical, something like the image attached?

 

[RobinBHM]

Hello and thanks very much for the advice. Yes, indeed, was planning a separate one piece-top that would be placed and secured once the carcasses are in place. So if I understand correctly, the end result once the battens have been fitted at the sides and finished off would be similar but more symmetrical, something like the image attached?

Yes, to me that works perfectly....If I was making that piece, it is exactly how I would set it out.